Bela Bartok Archive
Vilde Frang plays BARTOK: Violin Concerto; ENESCU: Octet for Strings – Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France – Warner Classics
The impassioned music of two contemporaries has stunning realization by Vilde Frang and her select group of musical collaborators.
The Music Treasury for 6 May 2018 – The Hungarian String Quartet
The Hungarian String Quartet For a significant portion of the 20th century, the Hungarian Quartet was a defining voice for string quartet literature. In addition to the quartets of the classical and romantic periods, they were involved with the new music of the time, presenting the premier performance of Béla Bartók’s String Quartet No. 5. The show, hosted by Dr Gary Lemco, can be heard in the Bay Area on radio station KZSU, as well throughout the Internet, at kzsu.stanford.edu, Sunday 6 April 2018 from 19:00 to 21:00, PDT. The show will feature works by Glazunov, Beethoven, Kodaly, and concludes with Schubert’s Death and the Maiden quartet. History of the Hungarian String Quartet The Hungarian String Quartet (founded 1935; disbanded 1972) was originally brought together with Sándor Végh (a pupil of Jenő Hubay and Zoltán Kodály at Budapest Academy) as the first violin, but achieved a balanced footing in 1937 when the virtuoso violinist Zoltán Székely (graduate of the same Academy, along with the Quartet’s violist, Dénes Koromzay (1913–2001) was recruited. At that point Sándor Végh moved to the second violin desk, and in 1940 he left to found the Végh Quartet. He was replaced by the Russian, Alexandre Moszkowsky. […]
BARTOK: Bluebeard’s Castle, Cantata Profana – New Symph. Orch. of London / Walter Susskind (cond.) – Praga Digitals
BARTOK: Bluebeard’s Castle, Cantata Profana – New Symphony Orchestra of London/Walter Susskind (conductor) /Judith Hellwigh and Endreh Koreh soloists – Praga Digitals CD PRD 250 349 300P (7/14/17) TT: 81:55 ***1/2 A fine performance of this dark but interesting work Praga Digitals has given us a new recording of Bartók’s only opera, although some call it a ‘mystery play’. The program has only 2 singers, a husband and wife, with the story centering around the wife wanting to know more about her new husband. Composed in 1911, the libretto for Bluebeard’s Castle was written by Béla Balázs, a poet and friend of the composer, and is written in Hungarian, based on the French literary tale “La Barbe bleue” by Charles Perrault. (The storyline—admittedly dark—is of the newly-wed couple, the husband’s enjoinment to “not look behind that one door”, and the results when his wife does exactly that.) On this disc it is performed in Hungarian, which is the way this work is usually presented. The performances and recorded sound are first rate, but the disc notes don’t contain the lyrics in English making this opera a tough slog if you don’t know what is being sung. If you aren’t up […]
BARTÓK: Violin Concerto No. 2; Concerto for Orchestra – Augustin Dumay, violin/Orch. symphonique de Montreal/ Kent Nagano – Onyx Classics (2 CDs bound as book)
BÉLA BARTÓK: Violin Concerto No. 2; Concerto for Orchestra – Augustin Dumay, violin/Orch. symphonique de Montreal/ Kent Nagano – Onyx Classics ONYX4138 (2 CDs), 81:35 [Distr. by Harmonia mundi] (5/13/16) ****: Excellent performances that rank with the best. The music of Béla Bartók is, of course, by now standard orchestral fare and he is largely considered one the twentieth century’s most innovative and ingenious composers. There have been literally hundreds of recordings of these two present works – arguably his two most familiar – the second Violin Concerto and the Concerto for Orchestra. So how do these performances compare with some of the many others? I think very favorably indeed. For the second Violin Concerto, I admit I have always greatly enjoyed the old Yehudi Menuhin rendition under Antal Dorati and for a much more recent and very genuinely “Hungarian” take I strongly recommend the somewhat obscure recording by Barnabás Keleman with the Hungarian National Philharmonic. This version with Augustin Dumay is excellent; a bit more ‘refined’ than some versions that seem more “raw” especially in the finale. Dumay is a violinist and conductor of international renown who has played with a number of major orchestras worldwide. He is also […]
BARTOK: Violin Concerto No. 2; PETER EÖTVÖS: Seven; GYÖRGY LIGETI: Violin Concerto – Patricia Kopatchinskaja, violin/Frankfurt Radio Sym. Orch. /Ensemble Modern/Peter Eötvös – Naïve (2 CDs)
This strange combination will transport you emotionally to new territory.
Bela Fleck and The Flecktones – Rocket Science – E1Bela Fleck & The Marcus Roberts Trio feat. Rodney Jordan & Jason Marsalis – Across the Imaginary Divide – Rounder Records
The amazing virtuoso banjo-plucker has at it on two CDs.
BELA BARTOK: Kossuth; Concerto for Orchestra; Romanian Folk Dances – ORF Radio Sym. Orch. Vienna/ Cornelius Meister – RSO/CPO
Not the top SACD version the Concerto for Orchestra, but an interesting release anyway.
BEETHOVEN: Violin Sonata No. 9 “Kreutzer”; BARTOK: Rhapsody No. 1; Violin Sonata No. 2; DEBUSSY: Violin Sonata in G Minor – Joseph Szigeti, violin/ Bela Bartok, p. – Pristine Audio
A brilliant moment of musical history from 1940 returns to us in sonic glory, with Szigeti and Bartok at the height of their respective powers.
Stereotypes Audio
Cembal d’amour
Pure Pleasure / Speakers Corner
Cedille
