Béla Bartók
Dance Suite
Herausgeber: Peter Bartók
Instrumentation details:
piano
Bartók - Tanz-Suite for piano
Audio preview
Work introduction
Three works were commissioned for the 50th anniversary of the formation of Hungary’s capital Budapest from the three cities Buda, Pest and Óbuda: Kodály’s Psalmus hungaricus, Dohnányi’s Festal Overture and Béla Bartók’s Dance Suite, which became one of his most frequently-played compositions. Although the themes are Bartók’s, they sound like peasant music: Hungarian, Romanian, Slovakian and Arabian, commingling in some of the movements. As Bartók himself pointed out, “The melody of the first theme in the first movement is reminiscent of primitive Arabian folk music, whereas its rhythm sounds East European.” Thus he remained faithful to his guiding idea of confraternisation among peoples.