Bela Bart\u00f3k (1881-1945)

Among the list of elements that feed into the formation of an outstanding musician might be good teaching, a quality instrument, focus, determination, consistency, encouragement.

But there is also the brute fact of physiology.

B退la Bart　k may have been of slight build and somewhat sickly, but he had unusually large hands. So while he didn't show any exceptional compositional talent as a young man, he was expected to have a brilliant career as a pianist.

For Children

Andreas Bach, piano

Piano Concerto No. 3

Budapest Festival Orchestra

Ivan Fisher, conductor

Andras Schiff, piano

Contrasts

Ensemble Intercontemporain

Matthias Pintscher, conductor

Hungarian Sketches

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Pierre Boulez, conductor

Kossuth

Donald Macleod explores the early musical life of Bela Bart\u00f3k.

Bart　k's birthplace, Nagyszentmikl　s, was on a geographical border. It's now S nnicolau Mare in Romania, close to the borders with Serbia and Hungary and then on the edge of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In a sense, he lived on a border as well. Bart　k played an important role in synthesising the old and the new: he had an ear for the deep-rooted music of the Hungarian people - supposedly timeless and authentic - the music of the past - which he put to use in creating music that was international, challenging and new - music for the present and the future.

14 Bagatelles, #4 & #5

Ferenc Bognar, piano

Piros Alma / Red Apple

Andrea Melath, mezzo soprano

Emese Virag, piano

44 Duos for Two Violins

#44: Transylvanian Song

Andras Keller, violin

Janos Pilz, violin

Allegro Barbaro

Zoltan Kocsis, piano

Romanian Folk Dances for Orchestra

Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra

Dennis Russell Davies, conductor

Transylvanian Dance

Lucian Ban, piano

John Surman, soprano saxophone

Mat Maneri, viola

String Quartet No.2

i. Moderato

ii. Allegro molto capriccioso

Takacs Quartet

Orchestral Suite No. 2

ii Allegro scherzando

Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra

Zoltan Kocsis, conductor

Donald Macleod follows Bela Bart\u00f3k's developing interest in national music.

In the early weeks of 1918, a virulent strain of influenza was detected among military personnel. It spread and it's estimated that some 500 million people, a quarter of the population of the world, contracted what was called Spanish ‘Flu. One of them was Bart　k. He was confined to bed for almost a month and at times was unable to speak. When he recovered, Hungary was in turmoil in the first of a series of upheavals which would see the borders of the nation redrawn and Bart　k's own uncomfortable position in the spotlight of political life.

Three Hungarian Folk Tunes

Zoltan Kocsis, piano

The Miraculous Mandarin Suite

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Georg Solti, conductor

Village Scenes

i Wedding

ii Lullaby

New York Philharmonic

Ensemble Intercontemporain

Pierre Boulez, conductor

Dance Suite

Philharmonia Orchestra

Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor

Donald Macleod explores Bela Bart\u00f3k's life and work in the years after World War I.

After being granted a sabbatical from his teaching at the Budapest Academy Bart　k was able to realise an ambition he had cherished ever since he had graduated, of undertaking a coast-to-coast concert tour of the USA.

This was against the backdrop of rising nationalism in Europe. Bartok's inclinations had him swimming against that tide. Romania, where he had been born, was anxious to claim him for its own. He objected to being called a `Romanian composer` and wrote to the author of a radio talk about him who described him in that way: `My creative work just because it arises from three sources - Hungarian, Romanian Slovakian - might be regarded as the embodiment of the very concept of integration so much emphasised in Hungary today - my own idea however - of which I have become fully conscious since I found myself as a composer - is the brotherhood of peoples, brotherhood in spite of all wars and conflicts. I try to the best of my ability to serve this idea in music - `

Two Portraits

ii. One grotesque - Presto

London Symphony Orchestra

Claudio Abbado, conductor

Out of Doors

iii Musettes

iv The Night's Music

v The Chase

Denes Varjon, piano

Piano Concerto

i. Allegro moderato

ii Andante

Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin

Ferenc Fricsay, conductor

Geza Anda, piano

Cantata Profana

Chicago Symphony Orchestra & Chorus

Pierre Boulez, conductor

John Aler, tenor

John Tomlinson, bass

Donald Macleod looks back on Bela Bart\u00f3k's heyday as a performer in the late 1920s.

B退la Bart　k had already been distressed by what he viewed as Hungary's capitulation to the wishes of Germany, or as he put it `this regime of thieves and murderers.` He also strongly objected to the fact that his publishers, Universal Edition, and the Austrian Performing Rights Society had been `Nazified.` They sent him a form to fill out in which he was asked whether he was `of German blood, of kindred race, or non-Aryan.` Bart　k decided that that question would remain unanswered. Meanwhile he became embroiled in a tortuous struggle to wrest his works form Universal and move them to the British firm of Boosey & Hawkes. He wrote to his friend, the violinist Zoltကn Sz退kely: `Neither while I am alive nor after my death do I want any German publisher to have any of my work, even if it means that no work of mine will ever be published again. This is for now what is fixed and final.`

Mikrokosmos

Bulgarian Rhythm No. 1 (Vol 4, no.113)

Study in Chords (Vol 3, no 69)

Perpetuum Mobile (Vol 5, no 135)

Chick Corea, piano

Nicolas Economou, piano

Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion

Cheng Zhang, piano

Tomoki Kitamura, piano

Juris Azers, percussion

Weiqi Bai, percussion

Sixth String Quartet

iii Mesto - Burletta - moderato

iv Mesto

Emerson String Quartet

Sonata for Solo Violin

i. Tempo di ciaccona

Yehudi Menuhin, violin

Concerto for Orchestra

v. Finale

Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra

Zoltan Kocsis, conductor

Donald Macleod explores Bela Bart\u00f3k's decision to leave Europe.