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
-
Bartók: Piano Concerto No. 3 in E Major, Sz. 119 & Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Major, Op. 26
Ernest Ansermet, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Ernest Ansermet, Julius Katchen
Concertmuziek - Released by Radio Tower Records on 10 okt. 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Veress: Piano Concerto / Dutilleux: Mystère de l'instant / Bartók: Divertimento for Strings
Klassiek - Released by Claves Records on 7 nov. 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bartók Plays Bartók
Béla Bartók, Benny Goodman, Joseph Szigeti
Klassiek - Released by Urania on 11 aug. 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Infinite Bartók
Klassiek - Released by UME - Global Clearing House on 11 jul. 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The World of Bartók
Klassiek - Released by UME - Global Clearing House on 26 sep. 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bartók - Time
Klassiek - Released by UME - Global Clearing House on 4 jul. 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bela Bartok: Works For Violin and Piano, Vol. 1
Klassiek - Released by Blue Griffin Recording on 14 jul. 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bartók: Divertimento, Sz. 113 – Ringger: Love Is in the Air – Rautavaara: Adagio Celeste – Schubert: Symphony No. 5 in B-Flat Major, D. 485
Klassiek - Released by VDE-GALLO on 19 aug. 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bartok and Kodaly
Klassiek - Released by Albany Records on 1 jun. 1990
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Violin Sonata, Sz. 117 / 44 Violin Duos, Sz. 98
Symfonische muziek - Released by Naxos on 31 dec. 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Hommage à Béla Bartók (Mono Version)
Béla Bartók, Joseph Szigeti, Benny Goodman
Divers - Released by BNF Collection on 1 jan. 1961
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Béla Bartók: String Quartet No. 1, Op.7, Sz. 40, BB. 52 / String Quartet No. 2, Op.17, Sz. 67, BB. 75 / String Quartet No. 3, Sz. 85, BB. 93
Klassiek - Released by Zeroh on 16 jun. 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Dohnanyi, Bartok, Fischer, Kentner, Cziffra plays Liszt
Ernő Dohnányi, Béla Bartók, Annie Fischer, Louis Kentner, Gyorgy Cziffra
Klassiek - Released by Hungaroton on 11 apr. 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Piano Performances 1928-1945
Klassiek - Released by Essential World Masters on 1 jul. 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
As It Was, Is, and WIll Be: Works by Bartók, Schuller and Fairouz
Klassiek - Released by GM Recordings on 1 jan. 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bartók: Duke Bluebeard's Castle (Recorded 1981) (Live)
New York Philharmonic, Rafael Kubelik
Klassiek - Released by New York Philharmonic on 8 dec. 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
-
Béla Bartók: Piano Music
Klassiek - Released by MSR Classics on 10 mrt. 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Béla Bartók: The Complete Violin Duos
János Négyesy, Päivikki Nykter
Kamermuziek - Released by Neuma Records on 1 mei 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Work & Relax with Bartók
Klassiek - Released by UME - Global Clearing House on 23 jan. 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra
Klassiek - Released by Everest Records on 10 jul. 1961
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo