In May 1863, Johannes Brahms settled permanently in Vienna from his hometown of Hamburg. The city enchanted him and he made it his second home, where he lived until his death. By this time he had become a renowned musician, and his tours of Europe multiplied. At the end of 1868, in the company of Clara Schumann, whom he loved so intensely and unconfessed, he began a series of performances that began in November in the same city, later taking the couple to England and Holland. The tour ended in April 1869, with satisfactory results for both. For Clara, for the income received. For Brahms, for having had the opportunity to travel with his unconfessed love and to have made music at her side for six months.
Hungarian Dances
Finished that same year in 1869, they constitute a set of 21 dances based primarily on Hungarian themes. Short in length, they are among Brahms's most popular works, and perhaps among those that earned him the most money, although only dances Nos. 11, 14, and 16 are entirely original. In fact, dance No. 5, the most popular of them all, is based on a named author's czardas that Brahms mistakenly thought were part of traditional folklore.
Arrangements
Brahms originally wrote the 21 dances as pieces for piano four hands, although shortly afterward he arranged the first ten for solo piano. All of them have been set for a wide variety of instruments or orchestral groups, the latter being the format in which they are mostly known. Brahms himself made orchestral arrangements for pieces No. 1, No. 3, and No. 10. And a good number of composers have also participated in it, notably Antonin Dvorak, for the arrangements of the last pieces, which, incidentally, must have served as inspiration for his own Slavonic Dances.
Following, the original version for piano four hands, with the brilliant and talented pianists Khatia Buniatishvili and Yuja Wang.
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