Borodin: Polovtsian Dances, from Prince Igor

The South Birmingham Sinfonia will perform this piece in their Summer 2019 concert on 13th July 2019.

The Polovtsian Dances are the dances of the Polovtsian people (The Kipchaks and Cumans) that form part of Borodin's unfinished opera Prince Igor. A performing version of the opera was prepared by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Glazunov, and other performing versions have been written too, though the dances themselves are essentially as orchestrated by Borodin. The Polovtsian Dances are by far the best known scene in the opera and are frequently performed as an orchestral work in their own right, as will be done here. Many of the tunes are very familiar, having been "borrowed" elsewhere, for example in popular song and in the musical "Kismet".

©RWK for SBS, February/March 2019

See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polovtsian_Dances