Description
he six dances form the final culmination of Bartók's "Mikrokosmos" (HN 1408-1410), a monumental work comprising over 150 pieces. The composer dedicated this grouping, collected under its own title, to the renowned English pianist Harriet Cohen. Inspired by the dances, this specialist in contemporary music found in them "a whole world of music" and championed the pieces. Bartók himself added the dances to his concert repertoire early on, though initially in a reduced form that omitted the fifth dance, which he composed at the end of 1939 as one of the last works in the collection. This Urtext edition of the six dances also features an early version of the concluding piece and provides interesting background details about Bartók's own recital practice. The musical text is based on the Bartók Complete Edition.
