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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Bartók: The Miraculous Mandarin, Dance Suite... (Live)
Philharmonia Orchestra, Esa-Pekka Salonen
Classical - Released by Signum Records on 2 Sep 2016
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bartok: Bartok at the Piano
Classical - Released by Hungaroton on 1 Jan 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bartók: Violin Concerto No. 2, Concerto for Orchestra
Concertos - Released by Onyx Classics on 29 Apr 2016
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bartok: Bartok Recordings From Private Collections, Vol. 1-2
Classical - Released by Hungaroton on 21 Nov 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Twentieth Century Classics, Vol. 5 (2023 Remaster)
Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO)
Classical - Released by Editions Audiovisuel Beulah on 3 Feb 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Bartók, Mendelssohn: Violin Concertos
Concertos - Released by Avie Records on 3 Jul 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bartók - Great Recordings
Classical - Released by UME - Global Clearing House on 1 Aug 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
NSO Principals Series: Cantabile Violin & Guitar
李宜錦, 蘇孟風, Niccolò Paganini, Manuel de Falla, Béla Bartók, Manuel Ponce
Classical - Released by Jingo on 12 Oct 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
SOLI: Works for Solo Violin by Bartók, Penderecki, Benjamin, Carter and Kurtág
Chamber Music - Released by Signum Records on 6 Apr 2015
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Wild Dreams: Bartók • Hindemith • Rachmaninoff • Schumann
Classical - Released by AVIE Records on 11 Mar 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Béla Bartók au piano par lui-même (Enregistrements historiques 1920 à 1945)
Classical - Released by Pêcheurs de perles on 10 Apr 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bartók, Corelli & Others: Violin Works
Joseph Szigeti, Benny Goodman, Andor Foldes, Béla Bartók
Classical - Released by Biddulph Recordings on 1 Jan 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rhapsodie: 20th-Century Clarinet Classics
Chamber Music - Released by Avie Records on 11 Nov 2016
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bartók the Pianist
Classical - Released by Hungaroton on 5 Aug 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Béla Bartók: 44 Duos for Two Violins, Sz. 98
Chamber Music - Released by MSR Classics on 10 Jan 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bartók - Essentials
Classical - Released by UME - Global Clearing House on 17 Apr 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Infinite Bartók
Classical - Released by UME - Global Clearing House on 11 Jul 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Béla Bartók: Bluebeard's Castle
Béla Bartók, Eliahu Inbal, Radio-Sinfonie-Orchester Frankfurt, Falk Struckmann, Katalin Szendrenyi
Classical - Released by Denon on 1 Jan 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bartok: Cantata Profana / Kodaly: Psalmus Hungaricus
Classical - Released by Hungaroton on 15 Jul 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Stick Dance
Béla Bartók, Nordic Chamber Jazz Trio, Aurélien Trigo
Jazz - Released by Moonstone Music on 25 Mar 2020
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo