The Dance Suite for orchestra was composed in 1923 for the 50th anniversary celebrations of the unification of Buda and Pest. In 1925 it began to achieve worldwide popularity, and Bartók was asked by his publisher to produce an arrangement of it for piano. The result is this transcription, a challenging work for pianists that has never rivaled the orchestral version in popularity. Yet, it is a worthwhile composition, not as colorful as the original, but charming and brilliant in its own way.

The music in Dance Suite is consciously folk-like, not least because, by this time, Bartók, the inveterate collector and arranger of folk music, could hardly eschew its influence in almost any of his larger works. Yet all the themes here are original creations that divulge characteristics of certain ethnic styles. The work consists of six movements (the last two are combined into one) and lasts, in either version, about 16 or 17 minutes.

The first movement is marked Moderato and begins in the bass regions with a rhythmic menace. The melody is said to have Arabic character, and while that trait is noticeable, it is Bartók's own percussive manner and sense for exoticism that dominates here. The piano version here may lack color, but its sense for intimacy in the slower passage leading to the close is quite atmospheric.

The second movement (Allegro Molto) is vigorous and more aggressively percussive in the first half, auguring the music in the First (1926) and Second (1930-1931) piano concertos. The latter half is serene and mysterious in its Hungarian character. Hungarian and Rumanian flavors abound in the lively, exotic themes of the ensuing movement. The opening melody is one of Bartók's most popular, and comes off reasonably well in this piano transcription. Marked Allegro vivace, this movement is one of the most colorful in the work, but needs the greater instrumental variety of the orchestra to fully achieve its expressive potential. The Molto Tranquillo fourth movement is exotically Bartókian, mixing his folk and "night music" styles to yield a charmingly atmospheric piece that augurs the mood, if not the sounds, of the Piano Concerto No. 2's middle movement.

A short bridge passage makes up the next section, which leads to the brilliant and colorful finale mainly of thematic references to the first three movements. It is difficult in execution, and features deftly imagined rhythmic writing and numerous coloristic effects.

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