Béla Bartók
Through his far-reaching endeavors as composer, performer, educator, and ethnomusicolgist, Béla Bartók emerged as one of the most forceful and influential musical personalities of the 20th century.
Born in Nagyszentmiklós, Hungary (now Romania), on March 25, 1881, Bartók began his musical training with piano studies at the age of five, foreshadowing his lifelong affinity for the instrument. Following his graduation from the Royal Academy of Music in 1901 and the composition of his first mature works -- most notably, the symphonic poem Kossuth (1903) -- Bartók embarked on one of the classic field studies in the history of ethnomusicology. With fellow countryman and composer Zoltán Kodály, he traveled throughout Hungary and neighboring countries, collecting thousands of authentic folk songs. Bartók's immersion in this music lasted for decades, and the intricacies he discovered therein, from plangent modality to fiercely aggressive rhythms, exerted a potent influence on his own musical language.
In addition to his compositional activities and folk music research, Bartók's career unfolded amid a bustling schedule of teaching and performing. The great success he enjoyed as a concert artist in the 1920s was offset somewhat by difficulties that arose from the tenuous political atmosphere in Hungary, a situation exacerbated by the composer's frank manner. As the specter of fascism in Europe in the 1930s grew ever more sinister, he refused to play in Germany and banned radio broadcasts of his music there and in Italy. A concert in Budapest on October 8, 1940, was the composer's farewell to the country which had provided him so much inspiration and yet caused him so much grief. Days later, Bartók and his wife set sail for America.
In his final years Bartók was beleaguered by poor health. Though his prospects seemed sunnier in the final year of his life, his last great hope -- to return to Hungary -- was dashed in the aftermath of World War II. He died of leukemia in New York on September 26, 1945. The composer's legacy included a number of ambitious but unrealized projects, including a Seventh String Quartet; two major works, the Viola Concerto and the Piano Concerto No. 3, were completed from Bartók's in-progress scores and sketches by his pupil, Tibor Serly.
From its roots in the music he performed as a pianist -- Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Brahms -- Bartók's own style evolved through several stages into one of the most distinctive and influential musical idioms of the first half of the 20th century. The complete assimilation of elements from varied sources -- the Classical masters, contemporaries like Debussy, folk songs -- is one of the signal traits of Bartók's music. The polychromatic orchestral textures of Richard Strauss had an immediate and long-lasting effect upon Bartók's own instrumental sense, evidenced in masterpieces such as Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta (1936) and the Concerto for Orchestra (1945). Bartók demonstrated an especial concern with form in his exploitation and refinement of devices like palindromes, arches, and proportions based on the "golden section." Perhaps above all other elements, though, it is the ingenious application of rhythm that gives Bartók's music its keen edge. Inspired by the folk music he loved, Bartók infused his works with asymmetrical, sometimes driving, often savage, rhythms, which supply violent propulsion to works such as Allegro barbaro (1911) and the Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion (1937). If a single example from Bartók's catalogue can be regarded as representative, it is certainly the piano collection Mikrokosmos (1926-1939), originally intended as a progressive keyboard primer for the composer's son, Peter. These six volumes, comprising 153 pieces, remain valuable not only as a pedagogical tool but as an exhaustive glossary of the techniques -- melodic, harmonic, rhythmic, formal -- that provided a vessel for Bartók's extraordinary musical personality.
© Michael Rodman /TiVo
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A kékszakállú herceg vára
Levente Molnár, Viktória Mester, Jean Klára, Szűts Apor, Béla Bartók
Classique - Paru chez Tom-Tom Records le 31 mars 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Endre Wolf in Sweden, Vol. 4
Classique - Paru chez Danacord Records le 15 févr. 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bartók: Violin Concerto No.2
Classique - Paru chez Past Classics le 17 avr. 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Piano Recital
Classique - Paru chez Past Classics le 20 mars 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Herbert von Karajan 50 Classics
Classique - Paru chez OMP Classics le 1 avr. 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bela Bartok - Florilège de la Musique Classique Moderne et Contemporaine - Highlights of Modern and Contemporary Classical Music - Vol. 9
Classique - Paru chez Isis le 25 mars 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Master Composers, Vol. 1
Classique - Paru chez Arabesque Recordings le 23 août 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bartók: Piano Music
Classique - Paru chez Ode Records le 23 avr. 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Baby Classics
The Children's Classical Orchestra
Classique - Paru chez FM Records le 2 janv. 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bartok, B.: Sonata for 2 Pianos and Percussion / for Children (Excerpts) (Bartok, Pasztory-Bartok) (1940, 1945)
Béla Bartók, Ditta Bartok-Pasztory, Harry J. Baker, Edward J. Rubsan
Musique de chambre - Paru chez Naxos Classical Archives le 1 janv. 2000
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The Best of Bartók (Remastered)
Divers - Paru chez Classic Records Ltd. le 27 avr. 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Béla Bartók Anthology
Classique - Paru chez Sinetone PCA le 24 mars 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo