Album available // Bartók: Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta by Evgeny Mravinsky
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Béla Bartók (1881-1945) Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, Sz. 106
00:00 I. Andante tranquillo
07:14 II. Allegro
14:49 III. Adagio
21:43 IV. Allegro molto

Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor: Evgeny Mravinsky
Recorded in 1965, at Moscow
New mastering in 2024 by AB for CMRR
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On June 23, 1936, when Paul Sacher wrote to Bartók to commission a work for his Basel Chamber Orchestra, he gave him a number of details as to what he was to deliver: "Each of the pieces should last about 15 minutes. The size of the piece is justified by the size of our orchestra, which consists of an ensemble of around 30 strings. We have to hire the winds from the municipal orchestra, which often runs up against technical difficulties, not to mention the financial consequences. There is the possibility of adding a piano or harpsichord (as a sort of continuo) or any percussion instrument."

Bartók responded almost instantly, posting his agreement in principle on June 27. "I'm thinking of a piece for strings and percussion instruments (i.e., apart from strings: piano, celesta, harp, xylophone and percussion); I assume there will be no difficulty in using them. It does, however, make it more difficult to fulfill your wish that the work not be too arduous. As far as technical difficulties are concerned, in all probability they can be overcome; but rhythmic difficulties are more complicated to avoid. When you write something new, the very fact of its unusual character is a source of difficulty for the performers. In any case, I'll try to write as simply as possible. I never write deliberately in order to accumulate as many performance difficulties as possible."

The premiere concert in Basel on January 21, 1937 was a huge success. The very next day, the Journal National de Bâle devoted an article to it: "This memorable evening was to take on an exceptional dimension thanks to the first performance of the last work by Béla Bartók, to whom contemporary music perhaps owes its most innovative ideas, along with Schoenberg and Stravinsky; it was clear that the composer was at the zenith of his career (...) After the last movement, an allegro with irresistible momentum and surprising harmonic and diatonic brilliance, there was a burst of applause that usually only comes from performers in the public eye; it was striking to hear it directed at a composer, and a living one at that, who is regarded as a questionable innovator. It seems hard to believe that the small, lanky, silver-haired man who, bowing almost shyly, thanked the audience, orchestra and conductor for their shared enthusiasm, could be so devil-may-care. And so something rarely seen in our conventional musical life happened: the audience finally got the last movement repeated."

Evgeny Mravinsky makes one of the greatest recordings of orchestral music of the 20ᵉ century. The extreme tension and blistering rhythm of his conducting have never yet been equaled.

Béla Bartók PLAYLIST (reference recordings):    • Béla Bartók (1881-1945)