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Dance Suite (Hungarian: Táncszvit; German: Tanz-Suite), Sz. 77, BB 86a, is a well-known 1923 orchestral work by the Hungarian composer Béla Bartók. The composer produced a reduction for piano (Sz. 77, BB 86b) in 1925, though this is less commonly performed.

Composition

Béla Bartók composed the Dance Suite in 1923 in order to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the union of the cities Buda and Pest, to form the Hungarian capital Budapest. Then, after its great success, the director of Universal Edition, Emil Hertzka, commissioned from him an arrangement for piano, which was published in 1925. However, he never publicly performed this arrangement, and it was premiered in March 1945, a few months before his death, by his friend György Sándor.

Structure

This suite has six movements, even though some recordings conceive it as one single full-length movement. A typical performance of the whole work would last approximately fifteen minutes.

1. Moderato
2. Allegro molto
3. Allegro vivace
4. Molto tranquillo
5. Comodo
6. Finale. Allegro

This work consists of five dances with Arabic, Wallachian and Hungarian melodies, and a finale that brings together all the previous thematic sketches. There was one more movement, omitted by the composer according to his mathematical principles, which would be placed between the second and the third movement. This movement is called Slovakian Dance, and was finally dismissed and remained unorchestrated.

Recordings

Notable recordings of the orchestral version include:

Notable recordings of the piano reduction include:

References

1. ^ Whitehouse, Richard (2005). 8.554718 - BARTOK, B.: Piano Music, Vol. 2 (Jando) - Dance Suite / Romanian Folk Dances. Hong Kong: HNH International Ltd. p. 3. Archived from the original on October 14, 2012. Retrieved July 27, 2011.
2. ^ Discographical data from The CHARM Discography, Centre for the History and Analysis of Recorded Music, <http://www.charm.kcl.ac.uk/about/about_structure>, accessed 5 September 2011.
3. Review of LP reissue on Speaker's Corner. Classic Record Collector, Summer 2007, 49:67
4. "Track list from the CD C10417 from the Naxos catalogue". Hong Kong: Naxos Digital Services Ltd. 1994. Retrieved July 27, 2011.
5. "Track list from the CD 8.557433 from the Naxos catalogue". Hong Kong: Naxos Digital Services Ltd. 2005. Retrieved July 27, 2011.
6. "Recordings and videos list from Paavo Järvi official website". 2020. Retrieved Sep 23, 2023.
7. "track list from the CD CKD 714 of the Linn catalogue". 2020. Retrieved Jan 9, 2024.
8. "Information about the CD 9714 from Denon Records". Santa Clara: Rovi Corporation. 1980. Retrieved July 27, 2011.
9. "Track list from the CD 8.554718 from the Naxos catalogue". Hong Kong: Naxos Digital Services Ltd. 2005. Retrieved March 20, 2012.

External links

• Dance Suite, Sz. 77, BB 86: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project

• Suites by Béla Bartók
• 1923 compositions
• 1925 compositions
• Orchestral compositions by Béla Bartók
• Orchestral suites
• Solo piano compositions by Béla Bartók