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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Bela Bartók - Divertimento For String Orchestra and Music For Strings, Percussion & Celesta
The Cologne Philharmonic Orchestra
Klassiek - Released by Soundmark on 9 feb. 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Béla Bartók: Violin Concerto No. 2, ZS. 112, BB 117 - Sonata For Solo Violin, ZS. 117, BB 1124
Symfonische muziek - Released by RHI on 2 jul. 2015
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. 10
Klassiek - Released by ISIS on 25 mrt. 2016
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. 8
Klassiek - Released by ISIS on 25 mrt. 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tarantelle. Piano Works by Chopin, Rachmaninoff & Bartók
Irene Cantos, Béla Bartók, Serge Rachmaninoff, Frédéric Chopin, Dimitri Chostakovitch
Klassiek - Released by Novus Promusica on 9 apr. 2024
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rumänische Weihnachtslieder - Melodii de colinde (instrumental)
Kerstmuziek - Released by Classicato on 28 nov. 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Echos. Piano Works by Beethoven & Rachmaninoff
Irene Cantos, Ludwig van Beethoven, Serge Rachmaninoff, Béla Bartók
Klassiek - Released by Novus Promusica on 12 mrt. 2024
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Szerelem, Szerelem - Love, Love
Folk - Released by Vintage Jukebox on 25 aug. 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven, Debussy & Bartok
Klassiek - Released by Altair on 17 apr. 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The First Recordings as Conductor (1949 - 1958), Volume 2
Klassiek - Released by Classical Moments on 4 mrt. 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Béla Bartók: Concertos No. 2 & No. 3
Klassiek - Released by Tuxedo Music on 20 mrt. 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bartók & Mussorgsky: Piano Works
Klassiek - Released by Centaur Records, Inc. on 5 apr. 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
J.S. Bach, Bartók & Brahms: Violin Works
Joseph Szigeti, Béla Bartók, Egon Petri
Klassiek - Released by Biddulph Recordings on 16 aug. 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bartok - The Six String Quartets
Klassiek - Released by Denon on 1 jan. 1991
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Béla Bartók: 51 Duos For Violins
Klassiek - Released by Legend Classics on 1 mrt. 1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Béla Bartók: Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion
Klassiek - Released by Soundmark on 1 jan. 1950
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tuileries. Piano Works by Bach, Bartok & Mussorsgky
Irene Cantos, Johann Sebastian Bach, Béla Bartók, Modeste Moussorgski, Henry Purcell
Klassiek - Released by Novus Promusica on 19 mrt. 2024
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bartók: The Six String Quartets
Erwin Ramor, Andreas Sándor, Zoltan Thirring
Klassiek - Released by Tuxedo Music on 22 mei 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bela Bartok - Bluebeard's Castle - Opera in One Act (Live Recording Version)
Opera - Released by Horus Music Distribution on 19 jul. 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Great Composers Playing their own works at The Piano
Isaac Albéniz, Béla Bartók, Leonard Bernstein, Johannes Brahms, Ferruccio Busoni
Klassiek - Released by G.O.P. on 31 okt. 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bartók: Concerto No. 1 For Violin and Orchestra, Concerto For Orchestra
Klassiek - Released by Pipeline Music on 30 nov. 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo