Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor (1869-1887)

Although he worked on it, spasmodically, for the last 18 years of his life, Borodin’s opera Prince Igor remained unfinished at his death. It was first brought to the stage three years later in a version completed by the late composer’s colleagues Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov, who cut just about as much from Borodin’s surviving material as they added to it. One episode that remained unscathed, however, was the Polovtsian Dances which, though orchestrated by Rimsky-Korsakov, represent Borodin’s inspiration at its best. They belong to the end of the second act of the opera where the Russian Prince Igor and his son Vladimir have been captured by the invading Polovtsi tribesmen. Treating them as guests rather than prisoners, Khan Konchak entertains Igor and Vladimir with songs and dances performed by his musically gifted slaves. The main theme, an appealingly exotic and aching nostalgic melody (which was to be recycled as “A Stranger in Paradise” in the musical Kismet), alternatates with more vigorous but no less exotic and no less appealing Polovtsi material.