'Bartók wrote 'Two Rumanian Dances' for piano, op.8a in 1909-1910 and arranged the first of the pair for orchestra in time for a concert on 12 February 1911. The highly positive reviews of the premiere describe the dance as brilliantly orchestrated, bizarre in its harmonies, and orgiastic in its conclusion. The A sections of its ABA form insistently repeat a four-bar theme that is itself composed of internal repetitions. Bartók maintains interest in the material by varying the orchestration, and, in the final section, with sudden breaks and changes in tempo. The slow middle section has a more vocal and impassioned emotional quality than the mechanistic dance that surrounds it. Bartók wrote in 1931 that although the work was inspired by Rumanian folk music, the themes were entirely his own.'
(HCD 32506 Bartók New Series Vol. 6, David E. Schneider)