# Invitation to the Dance



## itywltmt

This montage from four years ago is a reminder of what June meant for my family - _dance recitals_!

Our montage gets its name from my first selection: a vintage recording by Artur Schnabel of *Weber*'s "Invitation to the Dance". The piece of music depicts the ritual of a man asking a partner to dance with him, then they partake in a dizzying waltz, and finally the suitor accompanies his partner back and thanks her for the opportunity.

As an excerpt from a dance suite, I chose one of *Edvard Grieg*'s Symphonic Dances - following the same formula that *Rachmaninov *and *Stravinsky *have also used.

I first heard *Debussy*'s _Dances for Chromatic Harp_ on a vintage vinyl recording by Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra. The version I chose, a more recent rendition by Pierre Boulez and the Cleveland Orchestra, has just the right balance of restraint and energy.

On the folk dance side of things, I chose examples by *Claude Champagne,* *Johannes Brahms* and *Antonin Dvořák*. The Dvorak and Brahms dances were both originally conceived for piano four-hands, and later orchestrated - in the case of Brahms' set, some were even orchestrated by Dvořák!

There's a bit of mutual admiration between Brahms and Dvorak, and it's clear that the Slavonic dances are a bit of a tip of the hat to the Hungarian dances.... And, according to some, these dances influenced *Scott Joplin* and his ragtime contemporaries - case in point: the _Rag Time Dance_.

Dance sequences from major stage works complete the montage, with examples from *de Falla*, *Borodin *, *Gluick *, *Gliere * and *Richard Strauss*.

Happy listening!

*ITYWLTMT Podcast Montage # 9 - Invitation to the Dance
(Originally issued on Friday, June 10, 2011)​*
*Carl Maria von WEBER (1786 - 1826)*
_Aufforderung zum Tanz_ (Invitation to the Dance): Rondo brillant in D flat major, J. 260
Artur Schnabel, piano

*Claude CHAMPAGNE (1891 -1965)*
_Danse villageoise_ (1929)	
Angèle Dubeau, violin
Louise-Andrée Baril, piano

*Edvard GRIEG (1843 -1907)*
Symphonic Dance in A major, op. 64, no. 2	
Philharmonia Orchestra
Raymond Leppard, conducting

*Johannes BRAHMS (1833 -1897)*
_Ungarische Tänze_ (Hungarian dance) in G minor, WoO 1, no. 1 "Isteni Czardas" 
Junge Philharmonie Köln
Volker Hartung, conducting

*Claude DEBUSSY (1862 -1918)*
Danses pour harpe chromatique avec accompagnement d'orchestre d'instruments à cordes L 103	
Cleveland Orchestra
Pierre Boulez, conducting

*Antonín DVOŘÁK (1841 -1904)*
_Slovanské Tance_ (Slavonic Dance) in B major, op. 72, no. 1 "Odzemek"	
Wiener Philharmoniker
Fritz Reiner, conducting

*Manuel de FALLA (1876 - 1946)*
"Farruca" (Miller's Dance) from _El sombrero de tres picos _(The Three-Cornered Hat), G 53	
Narciso Yepes, guitar

*Reinhold GLIÈRE (1875 - 1956)*
"Sailor's dance" from _Krasny mak _(The Red Poppy), Op. 70	
Saint-Louis Symphony Orchestra
Leonard Slatkin, conducting

*Alexander BORODIN (1833 -1887)
Nikolai RIMSKY-KORSAKOV (1844-1908)
Alexander GLAZUNOV (1865 -1936)*
"Polovetskie plyaski" (Polovtsian Dance) with Chorus from Act II of _Knyaz' Igor' _(Prince Igor) (op. posth.)	
London Symphony Chorus
John Alldis, chorus master
London Symphony Orchestra
Sir Georg Solti, conducting

*Christoph Willibald GLUCK (1714 -1787)*
"Dance of the Blessed Spirits" from Act II of _Orfeo ed Euridice_, Wq 41	
Hubert Laws, flute
Philharmonia Virtuosi of New-York
Richard Kapp, conducting

*Richard STRAUSS (1864 -1949)*
"Tanz der sieben Schleier" (Dance of the Seven Veils) from _Salome_, Op. 54	
Staatskapelle Dresde (Dresden State Orchestra)
Rudolf Kempe, conducting

*Scott JOPLIN (1868-1917)*
The Ragtime Dance (1902)	
Studio orchestra
Marvin Hamlisch, conducting from the piano


Original Commentary: http://itywltmt.blogspot.ca/2011/06/montage-9-invitation-to-dance.html

Detailed Playlist: http://www.docstoc.com/docs/81011911/pcast009-Playlist

Podcast Link (Internet Archive): http://archive.org/details/InvitationToTheDance

Poscast Link (Pod-O-Matic): http://itywltmt.podomatic.com/entry/2015-06-02T00_00_00-07_00 (Link valid until June 30, 2015)


*June 5 2014, "I Think You Will Love This Music Too" will feature a new podcast "Sonatas for solo instrument" at its Pod-O-Matic Channel . Read more on our blogs in English  and in French.*


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