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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Contrasts - Bartok: Violin Works
Klassik - Erschienen bei Endeavour Classics am 09.05.2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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
Instrumentalmusik - Erschienen bei Radio Tower Records am 10.10.2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Veress: Piano Concerto / Dutilleux: Mystère de l'instant / Bartók: Divertimento for Strings
Klassik - Erschienen bei Claves Records am 07.11.2011
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Bartók Plays Bartók
Béla Bartók, Benny Goodman, Joseph Szigeti
Klassik - Erschienen bei Urania am 11.08.2009
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The World of Bartók
Klassik - Erschienen bei UME - Global Clearing House am 26.09.2020
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Bartók - Time
Klassik - Erschienen bei UME - Global Clearing House am 04.07.2020
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Bela Bartok: Works For Violin and Piano, Vol. 1
Klassik - Erschienen bei Blue Griffin Recording am 14.07.2015
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Bartók: Divertimento, Sz. 113 – Ringger: Love Is in the Air – Rautavaara: Adagio Celeste – Schubert: Symphony No. 5 in B-Flat Major, D. 485
Klassik - Erschienen bei VDE-GALLO am 19.08.2012
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Bartok and Kodaly
Klassik - Erschienen bei Albany Records am 01.06.1990
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Violin Sonata, Sz. 117 / 44 Violin Duos, Sz. 98
Symphonieorchester - Erschienen bei Naxos am 31.12.1994
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Hommage à Béla Bartók (Mono Version)
Béla Bartók, Joseph Szigeti, Benny Goodman
Verschiedenes - Erschienen bei BNF Collection am 01.01.1961
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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
Klassik - Erschienen bei Zeroh am 16.06.2017
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
Klassik - Erschienen bei Hungaroton am 11.04.2011
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Piano Performances 1928-1945
Klassik - Erschienen bei Essential World Masters am 01.07.2010
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As It Was, Is, and WIll Be: Works by Bartók, Schuller and Fairouz
Klassik - Erschienen bei GM Recordings am 01.01.2010
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Bartók: Duke Bluebeard's Castle (Recorded 1981) (Live)
New York Philharmonic, Rafael Kubelik
Klassik - Erschienen bei New York Philharmonic am 08.12.2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bright Moods
Klassik - Erschienen bei MSR Classics am 08.05.2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Béla Bartók: Piano Music
Klassik - Erschienen bei MSR Classics am 10.03.2015
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Béla Bartók: The Complete Violin Duos
János Négyesy, Päivikki Nykter
Kammermusik - Erschienen bei Neuma Records am 01.05.1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Work & Relax with Bartók
Klassik - Erschienen bei UME - Global Clearing House am 23.01.2021
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Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra
Klassik - Erschienen bei Everest Records am 10.07.1961
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo