Bartok for Cello

The Romanian Folk Dances undoubtedly rank amongst Bartok's most popular compositions. The earliest version is scored for Piano (1915) and was published by Universal Edition is 1918. The composer himself orchestrated this version in 1917. Several other chamber music arrangements (for example Zoltan Szekely's version for Violin and Piano) were not by Bartok although he authorised them. The musical material derives from Bartok's collections of folk music which date right back to 1904 when he wrote down a melody sung by a Hungarian peasant girl. In the course of extensive travels throughout Eastern Europe Bartokcompiled an enormous collection of folk tunes (by 1918 his collection comprised no fewer than 2700 Hungarian 3500 Romanian and 3000 Slovak dances and songs) which would in all probability have been lost had Bartok not written them down. As it was some of them found their way into his compositions. In 1908 Bartok jotted down tunes in Transylvania. They are the source of Romanian Folk Dances.

Par BARTOK BELA. Bartok's 'String Quartet No. 5' was commissioned by the formidable Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, leading patron of chamber music in the U.S. in the first half of the 20th century. Bartok is alleged to have composed the work in a one-month span of isolation in 1934, and it received its premiere in Washington, D.C. by the Kolisch Quartet in 1935. The String Quartet No. 5 was published shortly thereafter by Universal Edition, who now incorporates the score into their UE Study Score Series in a handsome new publication./ Répertoire / Quatuor à Cordes

Par BARTOK BELA. Béla Bartók?s six string quartets, composed between 1908 and 1940, are 20th-century milestones of the genre. His First String Quartet is closely linked to his unhappy love for the violinist Stefi Geyer, to whom he sent the initial measures of its first movement in early 1908 with the remark: ?My song of death?. When he completed all three movements of the work a year later, he had, according to his friend and colleague Zoltán Kodály, written himself ?back into life?. In this First Quartet, Bartók combines late-Romantic sounds with elements of the folk music that had since 1905 been a source of increasing interest to him. This definitive edition, supervised by Bartók scholar László Somfai, is the first-ever Urtext edition of this work. It takes into account both manuscript and printed sources, as well as letters and notes by the composer in which he recorded matters such as modifications to tempo markings. The Henle edition thus offers a musical text edited to the highest scholarly standards, with fascinating information on the work?s compositional history and performance practice. Sensible page turns and cue notes help to make this edition a real ?must have?. / Date parution : 2023-05-06/ Répertoire / Quatuor à Cordes

Par BARTOK BELA. Bartók?s Second String Quartet was composed ? with several long interruptions ? between 1915 and 1918, after he had spent several years almost solely devoted to collecting folk music. The melody and rhythms of the riotous middle movement ?Allegro, molto capriccioso? provide impressive testimony of how his research trips had taken him as far as North Africa. The first edition of this quartet, published in Vienna in 1920, contains a conspicuous number of errors that were only partially corrected in a later revision undertaken by Bartók. As late as the 1940s he noted changes in his personal copy of the score that have never previously appeared in print. These late changes by Bartók are taken into account in this definitive edition of the string quartets supervised by Bartók scholar László Somfai, with problematic passages in the sources carefully documented. It is the first-ever Urtext edition of this work. Sensible page turns and cue notes in the parts mean that this edition is ideal for exploring Bartók?s sound world in performance. / Date parution : 2023-05-06/ Répertoire / Quatuor à Cordes

Par BARTOK BELA. To make myself clear: This is not 'programme music', it does not require an explanation attached to it; it speaks for itself. What it wishes to say it does by means of pure music. But it does say something, more in fact than the simple music-making we have become accustomed to since the decline of chamber music.' (Zoltán Kodály)/ Répertoire / Quatuor à Cordes