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• Bartok Piano Concertos

Bartok's life before theViola ConcertoFrom a very early age Bartok showed a musical talent, encouraged by his parents. He was born on 25th March 1881 and at 11, in 1892, he made his first public appearance as a pianist and after some attempts at the composition of some chamber music works, at 18 he entered the Budapest academy of music to study piano and composition. Soon he attracted attention as a pianist. Later he led the life of a travelling performer and began to develop an interest in peasant music and, after hearing a Transylvanian maid singing, he decided to collect the best Hungarian tunes and write piano accompaniment to make them 'art-songs'. In 1905 Bartok met Zoltan Kodaly who shared his interest in folk music. They developed a lasting relationship and planned to collect a complete collection of folk songs, seeing the danger that traditional music would otherwise soon be lost. He did several trips to the Eastern parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, recording and transcribing peasant songs.

Other composers in the past had an interest in folk music, transcribed it and used it in their own music.What I find particularly interesting about Bartok's activity in this is that he actually recorded village people singing and playing their own traditional music in their villages, during parties or other occasions. I heard some of these original old recordings of violin music and I recognised some of those tunes used by Bartok in his orchestral folk dances.In folk music Bartok also saw a view to renew his own composition style. In 1909 he started teaching piano at the Budapest Academy, where he remained until 1934. In his compositions Bartok started to integrate more and more folk materials. Folk music was always his love, and he collected and prepared for publication Hungarian, Romanian and also Berber songs from Algeria where he travelled to. He also studied Arabic, Ukrainian and Persian music. This was his main activity for about six years during which Bartok retired from public musical life.

This happened from 1912 to the end of the first world war. As Bartok was unfit for military service he and Kodaly were asked to collected folk songs from the soldiers: the songs were later performed in a patriotic concert in 1918 in Vienna. After the war, Bartok re-started his career as a concert pianist and with violinists, promoting also his own works. Later Bartok visited Italy several times and deepened his knowledge of Italian Baroque composers, transcribing and performing their keyboard works.In 1928 he did his first American concert tour that lasted two months. At that time he also travelled and performed in the Soviet Union and many European countries.In 1934 Bartok was able to leave the teaching position to work as an ethnomusicologist. At the Academy of Sciences he could complete what he had planned many years before with Kodaly: a full collection of Hungarian folk music. When the collection was finished it included about 14,000 pieces.When Austria was annexed to Germany by Hitler this affected Bartok, so he changed publisher and started thinking of sending his valuable manuscript to a safe place, worried that also Hungary might be occupied by the Nazis.

So he eventually sent them to the USA and later he himself and his family emigrated there in 1940. Bartok spent his final years there, in difficult financial and health conditions, giving some performances, still working on more folk music, teaching and composing. His last works were concertos: one for orchestra, one for violin and our viola concerto.Origin of Bartok Viola ConcertoAs already said, it is thanks to William Primrose if Bartok's viola concerto exists. Indeed, he commissioned Bartok to write it and paid for it.At that time, in 1945, when Primrose asked Bartok to compose a concerto for him, Bartok was an 'obscure composer', as Primrose defines him, at least in the USA and to the big audience, so it was brave of Primrose to ask him to compose a concerto for viola. Most people thought that he had made a mistake in commissioning him a viola concerto. Bartok was having a difficult time in the United States of America, where he had moved during the second world war. Primrose says that Bartok initially wasn't sure about writing a viola concerto, as he didn't know the viola possibilities as a solo instrument well enough.

Primrose invited Bartok to listen to a forthcoming performance of him playing Walton's viola concerto. Bartok listened to a radio broadcast of it and then accepted to compose the concerto.

Later they were going to meet to discuss a few things about the concerto, but couldn't meet. Sadly, Bartok died soon after then and the viola concerto was left unfinished. Bartok's friend and composer Tibor Serly undertook the demanding task of putting the pieces together, as the concerto was like a puzzle, written on pages with no numeration, with annotations on many other sheets with other music and a few indications for the orchestration. Primrose also made a few suggestions.Eventually, Bartok viola concerto was completed and Primrose gave its first performance in 1949 conducted by Antal Dorati.This version by was the only one existing, until recently, when new versions of the concerto have been published: one by and Bartok's son, Peter (including the facsimile of the manuscript) and another one by the Hungarian viola player (2004).Description of Bartok viola concertoI've been lucky enough to receive from the very kind and great viola player a book that he wrote about Bartok viola concerto (and Shostakovich viola sonata). I can't find a better way to describe Bartok's concerto than to refer to his book.

I found it wonderful, an eye-opener. Kugel explains very well how Bartok's viola concerto, his last work, contains Bartok's feelings about the situation at that time, his deep and very sad emotions about the world war that had just ended, about his destroyed country. At the same time, Bartok's viola concerto has some happy moments, with Hungarian folk tunes, memories of a happy past.I recommend to anyone who'd like to know more about Bartok's viola concerto and appreciate it better to read Michael Kugel's book. It is very detailed and has many musical examples but even someone who cannot read music can follow the description of the concerto while listening to it. You can find the book on. Here I'll give you a few hints on the concerto structure, shame I couldn't find a recording by Kugel.

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Bartok Piano Concertos

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This edition is not bad, but it's nothing special. To me, this edition wasn't helpful by having very little fingerings. But it does have bar numbers for rehearsals. I did like the short descriptions of each of the dances, which helps to visualize the character of each dance.

But I'm not sure if this is standard with other editions or not.37 of 91 people found this review helpful.Was this review useful?.5P.Chiu Location: Auckland, New ZealandDifficulty Level: Intermediate/advanced. March 17, 2007 Good violin music from a good publisher. This score consists of 6 danses which will provide plaisure to you while learning them (which is the most important i think) and to your public. In order not to make the public flee with those danses, you absolutely need to adopt a gipsy musicality, which is not obvious actually.: you need to be jolly, nostalgic, drastic and languishing all at the same time!!

The technique requested is not too great. That's why I stongly avdise you to listen to any gipsy recording to get this particular musicality. To conclude, if you like these dances I can coucil you the Hungarian dances by Brahms or the Czardas by Monti, but this latter is a bit more difficult since it is quite rapid. (I'm 16 and and I started music at 6. I played the romanian dances 4 years ago)42 of 83 people found this review helpful.Was this review useful?.Previous Page of2.