CCXXXIV. BARTÓK, Béla: Dance Suite

CCXXXIV. BARTÓK, Béla (1881-1945)

Dance Suite (1923)
1. Moderato
2. Allegro molto
3. Allegro vivace
4. Molto tranquillo
5. Comodo
6. Finale. Allegro
Frankfurt Radio Symphony
Juraj Valĉuha, cond.
(19:08)

Written to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the union of Buda and Pest, forming the Hungarian capital of Budapest.

Buda in the Middle Ages

**

Frequently programmed by orchestras today, the premiere was not too successful:

"My Dance Suite was so badly performed that it could not achieve any significant success. In spite of its simplicity (!) there are a few difficult places, and our Philharmonic musicians were not sufficiently adult for them. Rehearsal time was, as usual, much too short, so the performance sounded like a sight-reading, and a poor one at that." -- Bartók

The movements are usually played without pause.

1. Moderato

Although redolent of folksong material, the composition is pure Bartók. This movement is rather Arabic in character:

2. Allegro molto

A vigorous dance featuring pounding minor thirds and a sliding trombone part (red arrow):

3. Allegro vivace

With almost a bagpipe feel, the dance melody opens with a bassoon, a clarinet, and then full strings:

4. Molto tranquillo

Tightly-spaced whole tones give way to an eerie melody which Bartók gradually thickens, beginning first with English Horn and bass clarinet:

adding the oboe:

and finally the A clarinet. Bartók then reverses the whole thing.

5. Comodo

Under a pedal-tone E, this -- the shortest section -- features a quick descending chromatic motif which becomes thicker and leads to the final movement:

6. Finale. Allegro

A ferocious dance (same as Movement 3) begins with a piling up of Perfect Fourths in the strings:

the dance figure in the clarinet:

then with thicker orchestration:

and ending with a bang:

**

One can plainly observe the seeds of his Concerto for Orchestra (1945) [Post CV] in this earlier work.