Beschrijving

The first part of “Hungarian Dances for Composed Pianoforte for four Hands by Johannes Brahms” was published in 1869. A second volume followed in 1880 and completed the series of 21 dances. It is not clear in all cases where the tunes really came from. On the one hand many of these popular pieces of Hungarian coloration could be heard everywhere then, on the other hand many of the themes came from Brahms himself. With the advent of success, publishers demanded orchestrated versions of the dances too. While Brahms himself orchestrated Dances No. 1, 3 and 10, other composers of renown, for example Antonín Dvorák, hastened to orchestrate the remaining ones. It is only rarely known that the Prussian military bandmaster Albert Parlow was instrumental as a fine arranger too, and in this context he provided orchestrations of the Dances No. 5, 6, 11, 12-16, 18. When transcribing Hungarian Dance No. 5, which undoubtedly is one of the most beautiful of all Hungarian Dances, Siegfried Rundel took yet another approach which you usually would associate with the tasks of a military director: he adapted it for symphonic band and thus added another jewel to the repertory of finest popular wind music.