Bartók’s Dance Suite was written for the 50th anniversary of the Unity of Óbuda, Buda and Pest. It looks upon the capital as the centre of the entire Carpathian Basin, collecting the music and culture of all ethnic groups living there. The Hungarian motif seems to be the ″glue″ between the dances of the various groups, while the dances themselves stand for the celebration and the temperament of each nationality. A highly productive composer of German Romanticism, Max Bruch, was of the opinion that only a single work of his would survive posterity, namely his Violin Concerto No. 1. Although several of his compositions would deserve to be more popular, this dark, personal, extremely passionate and romantic violin concerto is indeed the only one that thrills and enthuses both violinists and the audience. Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 3 is also abundant in feeling and aspirations, and with its occasional dance rhythms, it is a deserving match for Bartók's Dance Suite. Still, it took decades until the audience acknowledged the virtues and merits of the work.
