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II. Poco adagio
4 mm. before reh. 27 - reh. 28 |
Skills & Techniques: Accuracy, High Register, Rhythms, Slurred Flexibility
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Horn 1-2 (F)
Horn 3-4 (F)
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Hungarian State Orchestra (2000)
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Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra (2009)
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Composer & Composition Information
Béla Bartók (1881-1945)
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Béla Bartók was born in the Hungarian town of Nagyszentmiklós (now Sînnicolau Mare in Romania) on 25 March 1881, and received his first instruction in music from his mother, a very capable pianist; his father, the headmaster of a local school, was also musical. After his family moved to Pressburg (now Bratislava in Slovakia) in 1894, he took lessons from László Erkel, son of Ferenc Erkel, Hungary’s first important operatic composer, and in 1899 he became a student at the Royal Academy of Music in Budapest, graduating in 1903. His teachers there were János Koessler, a friend of Brahms, for composition and István Thoman for piano. Bartók, who had given his first public concert at the age of eleven, now began to establish a reputation as a fine pianist that spread well beyond Hungary’s borders, and he was soon drawn into teaching: in 1907 he replaced Thoman as professor of piano in the Academy.
The text & image are reprinted from Boosey & Hawkes where more information about the composer can be found. |
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Suite No. 1, Op.3 Sz. 31
So familiar and unmistakeable today is Bartók’s mature style that hearing the original version of his Suite No. 1, composed in 1905, can come as quite a surprise. That’s especially true beside the Concerto for Orchestra, which was written in the US for Koussevitzky 38 years later. The similarities and differences are striking: what a distance this composer travelled, yet the roots were there from the very start.
Like the Concerto, the Suite is a five-movement orchestral showpiece with a characteristically Hungarian flavour, yet it seems to spring from a different world altogether. Here the 24-year-old composer drew folk music influences into a soundworld that at times could almost be mistaken for Richard Strauss, whose tone poems he adored. Sometimes the orchestration is straight out of Brahms – for instance, pizzicato low strings beneath eloquent clarinets and horns. The second movement foreshadows the sonic imagination of the Concerto and even Bluebeard’s Castle, with an underlay of gusty whirls of woodwind. The finale is a spirited dance in seven.
The text is written by & reprinted from Jessica Duchen (BBC Music) where more information about the composition can be found.
Like the Concerto, the Suite is a five-movement orchestral showpiece with a characteristically Hungarian flavour, yet it seems to spring from a different world altogether. Here the 24-year-old composer drew folk music influences into a soundworld that at times could almost be mistaken for Richard Strauss, whose tone poems he adored. Sometimes the orchestration is straight out of Brahms – for instance, pizzicato low strings beneath eloquent clarinets and horns. The second movement foreshadows the sonic imagination of the Concerto and even Bluebeard’s Castle, with an underlay of gusty whirls of woodwind. The finale is a spirited dance in seven.
The text is written by & reprinted from Jessica Duchen (BBC Music) where more information about the composition can be found.
Notable Performances/Recordings:
Orquesta Sinfónica RTVE (2025)
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (2019)
Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra (2014)
Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra (2009)
Hungarian State Orchestra (2000)
Orquesta Sinfónica RTVE (2025)
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (2019)
Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra (2014)
Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra (2009)
Hungarian State Orchestra (2000)