While the headnote lists "1933" as the year of composition for this work, it can be misleading. Bartók, as most of his admirers are aware, was not only an inveterate arranger of folk songs and folk tunes, but was a committed recycler of those efforts, often producing second and third versions. The Hungarian Peasant Songs here are actually orchestral versions of nine of the Fifteen Hungarian Peasant Songs (1914 - 1918), for piano, Sz. 71. Bartók eliminated Nos. 1-5 and adapted Nos. 6-12, 14, and 15. But his effort was not solely one of pruning, since he included some music not heard in the keyboard version, such variants associated with Nos. 12 and 13 in the original.

In the end, one must look upon this effort as quite different from its keyboard counterpart. The opening Ballad, the longest of the eight sections in the orchestral Hungarian Peasant Songs, begins in a somber mood with a lovely, melancholy theme in the lower strings. Bartók goes on to present the melody in different guises, moving from the charmingly forlorn to the austere. The remaining, mostly short movements all use variants of this same theme. The ensuing one (Allegro) is vigorous and festive, while the third section (Allegretto) is playful and tinged with a wistful air. The Allegro that follows is boisterous and colorfully exotic in combining Nos. 9 and 10 from the original.

The fifth section (Largamente) unites the funereal with the grandiose, in the end giving glitter to its melancholy. The exotic coolness of the ensuing Moderato is almost Tchaikovskian in its fantasy-like atmosphere. The penultimate Allegro molto is a half-minute of energetic color, and the finale (Allegro) is lively and bouncy, perhaps the most exotic and ecstatic section of all. The work lasts about ten minutes and must be counted among Bartók's finer orchestral folk-music efforts.

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