Cossack Dance from Mazeppa (1883)

Mazeppa, the central figure of Tchaikovsky’s opera of the same name, is also dangerous, but politically rather than sexually. As chief of the Cossacks, he has ambitions to wrest control of the Ukraine from the Tsar of Russia and will do anything to get what he wants – going so far as to execute his young’s wife father, Kochubey, who has unsuccessfully attempted to denounce him to the Tsar. The Cossak Dance comes from the first act of the opera and a happier period in the story. Mazeppa has come to visit Kochubey at his home on the River Dnieper and a vigorous folk dance, a hopak, is performed to entertain him. Beginning modestly on strings, it assumes ever more brilliant woodwind and brass colours as it goes on.