Ungarische Tänze

The Hungarian Dances, which in their original version for piano four-hands served as refined social, utilitarian and domestic music that made Johannes Brahms known as a composer (as he was scarcely known to the prosperous bourgeoisie before their publication), found their way through their orchestral versions into the repertoire of representative concert orchestras and acquired unprecedented popularity especially in the era of technical reproducibility of music. On this CD, BR-KLASSIK presents the 21 Hungarian Dances by Brahms in their orchestral arrangements in a studio production with the Munich Radio Orchestra under the direction of former chief conductor Roberto Abbado. Johannes Brahms had learned about Hungarian melodies and scales through the Hungarian violinist Eduard Reményi, with whom he had made his first concert tour in 1853. His Hungarian Dances for piano four-hands were written from around 1858 onwards; the first ten dances were published in 1869, the remainder in 1880. In 1872 Brahms presented a version of the first ten dances for piano two-hands. And in 1873 he orchestrated dances nos. 1, 3 and 10, which premiered in Leipzig on 5 February 1874. In his Hungarian Dances Brahms skillfully combined various Hungarian folk melodies with his own melodies. The fact that the original numbers were and are unknown to most listeners is probably what makes his compositions so special. From the beginning, his Hungarian Dances were enormously popular; they are among the best-known works of Brahms. None other than Antonín Dvořák is responsible for the orchestrations of other dances, and Albert Parlow, Andreas Hallén, Martin Schmeling, Paul Juon and Hans Gál have also presented popular orchestral arrangements.