Just as famous as Ravel for his Pavane is Alexander Borodin (1833 - 1887) for his Polovtsian Dances. These dances were originally part of the opera Prince Igor - in the second act they were part of the dance performance that the Polovtsian Khan offers to his captive, the Russian Prince Igor, for entertainment - but they were already created in orchestral form even before the opera came out. These virtuoso dances, which sometimes sound rough and sometimes sensual, illustrate the fas...