ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra

The six-movement Dance Suite is among the most popular orchestral compositions of Béla Bartók (1881–1945), a contemporary of Janáček. He wrote it in 1923 for the 50th anniversary of the unification of the cities of Buda, Óbuda, and Pest, which together formed the Hungarian capital, Budapest. Its brilliant, energetic music, rich in colourful orchestration and infused with Hungarian, Romanian, and even Arabic folk motifs, was greeted with enthusiasm at its premiere and quickly entered the repertoire of leading orchestras worldwide.

Gustav Mahler (1860–1911) was inspired to compose his Songs of a Wayfarer by his unhappy love for soprano Johanna Richter. Written around 1884–1885, the texts were set by the composer himself in the spirit of German folk poetry, which he knew from Des Knaben Wunderhorn. This cycle of four songs for baritone and orchestra became Mahler’s first true masterpiece, in which tragic pain speaks through his characteristically late-Romantic musical idiom, interwoven with moments of biting irony, echoes of nature, naïve children’s lullabies, and the raw sounds of rustic dances.

Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) composed two series of Hungarian Dances, twenty-one pieces in total, which became one of the stepping stones to his international fame. His inspiration came not only from Hungarian folk music but also from the repertoire of gypsy bands. The first ten dances, for piano four hands, were published in 1869, with a further eleven appearing eleven years later. Their universal success led Brahms in 1873 to orchestrate three of the dances himself, while the remaining works were later orchestrated by his followers, including Antonín Dvořák.