Post by erik on Jul 22, 2023 18:20:57 GMT -5
Brahms is once more in the Classical Works Spotlight. This time around it is with a suite of the final five of his Hungarian Daces, which were orchestrated by Antonin Dvorak.
Brahms: HUNGARIAN DANCES NOS. 17-21 (ORCHESTRATED BY ANTONIN DVORAK)
While it can be argued that they are not as “serious” as the composer’s symphonies, concertos, or choral works, the twenty-one Hungarian Dances that Johannes Brahms composed, originally for the piano, are significant in their own way. It showed that Brahms was willing to take ethnic musical idions from his surroundings and, wherever possible, integrate them into an original whole. One of the composers he championed throughout the second half of his life was the Bohemian composer Antonin Dvorak, who would meld the musical styles of his native Bohemian (later Czechoslovakia) with the long-standing forms of the Austro-German classical form that had been in place since the era of Haydn and Mozart. This is evident in the way Dvorak orchestrated the final five Hungarian Dances of Brahms. Largely eschewing some of the brash orchestrations other composers put onto the earlier dances (especially the ultra popular 1st, 5th, and 6th), Dvorak’s approach was to give the dances in question (No. 17 In F Sharp Minor; No. 18 In D Major; No. 19 In B Minor; No. 20 In E Minor; No. 21 In E Minor) much more modest orchestration while still maintaining the Hungarian flavoring of the original piano versions. Although these orchestrations are not as well known as the earlier ones, perhaps because they are more lightly scored, the Dvorak-orchestrated dances are still part of an immensely popular set and not what Sir Thomas Beecham would have called mere “bon-bons”.
San Diego Symphony Orchestra/YOAV TALMI (Intersound)
Included:
FOUR SERIOUS SONGS (Baritone: KEVIN MCMILLAN)
STRING SEXTET NO. 1 IN B FLAT MAJOR (ARRANGED FOR STRING ORCHESTRA BY ERICH LEINSDORF)
Brahms: HUNGARIAN DANCES NOS. 17-21 (ORCHESTRATED BY ANTONIN DVORAK)
While it can be argued that they are not as “serious” as the composer’s symphonies, concertos, or choral works, the twenty-one Hungarian Dances that Johannes Brahms composed, originally for the piano, are significant in their own way. It showed that Brahms was willing to take ethnic musical idions from his surroundings and, wherever possible, integrate them into an original whole. One of the composers he championed throughout the second half of his life was the Bohemian composer Antonin Dvorak, who would meld the musical styles of his native Bohemian (later Czechoslovakia) with the long-standing forms of the Austro-German classical form that had been in place since the era of Haydn and Mozart. This is evident in the way Dvorak orchestrated the final five Hungarian Dances of Brahms. Largely eschewing some of the brash orchestrations other composers put onto the earlier dances (especially the ultra popular 1st, 5th, and 6th), Dvorak’s approach was to give the dances in question (No. 17 In F Sharp Minor; No. 18 In D Major; No. 19 In B Minor; No. 20 In E Minor; No. 21 In E Minor) much more modest orchestration while still maintaining the Hungarian flavoring of the original piano versions. Although these orchestrations are not as well known as the earlier ones, perhaps because they are more lightly scored, the Dvorak-orchestrated dances are still part of an immensely popular set and not what Sir Thomas Beecham would have called mere “bon-bons”.
San Diego Symphony Orchestra/YOAV TALMI (Intersound)
Included:
FOUR SERIOUS SONGS (Baritone: KEVIN MCMILLAN)
STRING SEXTET NO. 1 IN B FLAT MAJOR (ARRANGED FOR STRING ORCHESTRA BY ERICH LEINSDORF)