Concert Band - Level 4 - Digital Download SKU: A0.1343777 Composed by Alexander Borodin. Arranged by John Ivor Holland. 19th Century,Broadway,Classical,Contest,Festival,Multicultural,Musical/Show,World. 264 pages. John Ivor Holland #929284. Published by John Ivor Holland (A0.1343777). The Polovtsian Dances form an exotic scene at the end of act 2 of Alexander Borodin's opera 'Prince Igor'. The work remained unfinished when the composer died in 1887, although he had worked on it for more than a decade. A performing version was prepared by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Glazunov in 1890. Several other versions, or completions, of the opera have been made. The dances are sometimes performed with chorus and last around 11 minutes. Themes from the Polovtsian Dances have been used widely in popular culture, notably the 1953 musical 'Kismet'; the most prominent example is the popular standard Stranger in Paradise, adapted from the Gliding Dance of the Maidens, which opens this piece. This great piece, a staple of the orchestral repertoire, would form a substantial showpiece in any concert and important solos have been cross-cued for smaller ensembles.
