SKU: BT.EMBZ15083
English-German-Hungarian.
Bartók probably first played pieces by Domenico Scarlatti in public in 1911. During the next two decades he featured them in his piano recitals more than 60 times. His dedication to Italian and French Baroque music is also illustrated by the fact that, in 1920, he signed a contract with the Budapest publisher Rozsnyai to edit seven volumes of Baroque keyboard music. His plan was to select compositions by Couperin and Rameau in addition to pieces by Scarlatti, but during the 1920s it ended up being only two volumes of Couperin and another two comprising ten compositions by Scarlatti. In editing these masterpieces, Bartók's aim was primarily to counterbalance or evenovershadow the works by the Mendelssohn-Schumann epigones used in primary and secondary music education. The present, single-volume collection comprises Bartók's two Scarlatti volumes, complete with an editorial preface, his detailed performing instructions, and his commentary. The editor recommends these compositions for pianists with at least five years' experience, and gives practical recommendations for the grouping of individual items to form charming sonatina-like sets of pieces. Bartók spielte wahrscheinlich 1911 erstmals Werke von Domenico Scarlatti öffentlich und in den folgenden zwei Jahrzehnten ließ er sie an seinen Klavierabenden mehr als sechzig Mal erklingen. Seine Verbundenheit mit der italienischen und französischen Barockmusik beweist sich auch darin, dass er 1920 einen Vertrag mit dem Budapester Verlag Rozsnyai über die Herausgabe von sieben Heften mit Werken der Klaviermusik schloss. Geplant war, dass er das Material der Bände sowohl mit Werken Scarlattis als auch mit Kompositionen Couperins und Rameaus zusammenstellte. Im Laufe der 1920er-Jahre kam es schließlich zur Herausgabe einer Couperin-Auswahl in zwei Heften sowie - ebenso in zwei Heften - von zehn Scarlatti-Kompositionen. Mit der Veröffentlichung dieser Meisterwerke beabsichtigte Bartók in erster Linie, den Mendelssohn-Schumann-Epigonen bereits in der Musikausbildung in der Grund- und Mittelstufe entgegenwirken und ihre Werke in den Hintergrund treten zu lassen.
Die vorliegende Publikation versammelt in einem Band das Material der beiden mit Bartóks Vorwort, detaillierten Vortragsanweisungen und Anmerkungen erschienenen Scarlatti-Hefte. Der Herausgeber empfiehlt PianistInnen diese Kompositionen seit mindestens fünf Jahren zum Klavier spielen und gibt auch praktische Vorschläge dafür, wie man die einzelnen Stücke zu einem attraktiven Sonatina-artigen Ganzen gruppieren kann.
SKU: BT.EMBZ6338
Béla Bartók composed his Piano Quintet while at grammar school in Pozsony (Pressburg, now Bratislava), and it still shows the influence of Brahms in its melody and harmony. The work was always resoundingly successful at his youthful concerts. When on 7 January 1921 the Waldbauer Quartet wanted to repeat the programme of a concert given ten years previously, Bartók was displeased that this early work of his should be performed once again. Finally he consented to the performance, and played the piano part himself. The quintet was greeted with tumults of applause, unlike the other pieces on the programme, which were written later. According to a communication by Márta Ziegler,Bartók threw away the score in anger, and for many years it was believed to have been destroyed. In 1963, the editor Denijs Dille received a package inside which were the score and parts, which had been thought lost. Denijs Dille wrote: 'In preparing the text of this edition for practical purposes, I used the autograph score, and Bartók's own handwritten parts for the first and second violins, viola, and cello. [...] Bartók made so many deletions and significant changes in the score that the resulting version was somewhat different from the original. In this edition we give the last version, supplemented with the minor changes and signs that can be found in the string parts.'.
SKU: BT.EMBZ20039
English-Hungarian.
Bartók composed his first pedagogical collection For Children between 1908 and 1911. The first edition was issued between 1909 and 1911 in four volumes, comprising two of Hungarian and two of Slovak folk song arrangements. After moving to America, Bartók considered it important to produce new editions of his earlier works. Thus in autumn 1943, together with his new publisher Boosey & Hawkes, he planned a new edition of For Children, and to this end completely revised the collection. Although Bartók had already completed his revision by the end of 1943, the revised edition was only issued in 1946. The pieces were published without titles in the first edition, but the folksong lyrics were included. These lyrics, deemed unnecessary for the non-Hungarian audiences, were not taken over to the American revised edition however, a significant number of pieces were provided with a title conveying their mood and their background in folk music and folk life. The American edition omitted the folk songs lyrics that seemed unnecessary to the audience there, but the titles of the first edition were replaced with English titles (some with the same meaning and some with modified interpretations) conveying each song's mood and background in folk music and folk life.The present edition - which contains the same scores as those in Volume 37 of the Béla Bartók Complete Critical Edition (Z. 15037) - is based on the revised version that the composer made in 1943 for the new edition, to which he also referred to as ''corrected''. We have added Hungarian translations to the English titles but we have also restored the original collection of folk song texts with parallel English translations. The pieces discarded from the revised version, as well as early versions that are significantly different from the revised version, are included in the Appendix. This publication contains a preface and editorial comments in both Hungarian and English.
SKU: BT.EMBZ1971
'The significance of the Rhapsody composed in 1904 in Gerlicepuszta and Pozsony is well shown by the fact that Bartók subsequently reserved the designation 'Opus 1' of his last, mature opus numbering for this piece. By choosing this genre Bartók was clearly following in Liszt's footsteps. But he did not merely follow the Hungarian Rhapsodies with their parading of folkloristic art songs in a virtuoso instrumental fantasy. The formal coherence of Bartók's work allows us to infer the influence of the large-scale Liszt compositions he then knew, such as the B minor Sonata. Unlike Liszt, Bartók builds his Rhapsody not on familiar melodies but on themes of his own invention, yet hisstyle is still that of nineteenth-century folkiness, and draws on the art-music tradition based on the verbunkos and the csárdás.' (HCD 32524 Bartók New Series Vol. 24, István G. Németh).
SKU: HL.50511390
ISBN 9790080019719. UPC: 073999576511. 9.0x12.0x0.095 inches.
'The significance of the Rhapsody composed in 1904 in Gerlicepuszta and Pozsony is well shown by the fact that Bartok subsequently reserved the designation 'Opus 1' of his last, mature opus numbering for this piece. By choosing this genre Bartok was clearly following in Liszt's footsteps. But he did not merely follow the Hungarian Rhapsodies with their parading of folkloristic art songs in a virtuoso instrumental fantasy. The formal coherence of Bartok's work allows us to infer the influence of the large-scale Liszt compositions he then knew, such as the B minor Sonata. Unlike Liszt, Bartok builds his Rhapsody not on familiar melodies but on themes of his own invention, yet hisstyle is still that of nineteenth-century folkiness, and draws on the art-music tradition based on the verbunkos and the csardas.' (HCD 32524 Bartok New Series Vol. 24, Istvan G. Nemeth).
SKU: BT.EMBZ130
Hungarian-English-German-French.
'The Mikrokosmos is a cycle of 153 pieces for piano, written with a didactic purpose (Vol. 1: Z. 125, Vol. 2: Z. 126, Vol. 3: Z. 127, Vol. 4: Z. 128, Vol. 5: Z. 129, Vol. 6: Z. 130). That is, to give piano pieces which can be used from the very beginning, and then going on, it is graded according to difficulties. And the word Mikrokosmos may be interpreted as a series of pieces in many different styles, representing a small world. Or it may be interpreted as world of the little ones, the children.' (Interview broadcast by WNYC, in early 1945, on a programme entitled Ask the Composer.)Der Mikrokosmos ist ein Zyklus von 153 Stücken für Klavier, zu didaktischen Zwecken geschrieben (Band 1: Z. 125, Band 2: Z. 126, Band 3: Z. 127, Band 4: Z. 128, Band 5: Z. 129, Band 6: Z. 130). Das bedeutet, dass von Anfang an kleine Klavierstücke g eübt werden können, um dann darauf weiter aufzubauen, da die Stücke entsprechend ihrem Schwierigkeitsgrad angeordnet sind. Das Wort Mikrokosmos kann als eine Serie von Stücken in verschiedenen Stilen verstanden werden, die zusammen eine kleine Welt b ilden. Oder man kann es als ‚die Welt der Kleinen, der Kinder' verstehen. (Aus einem Interview des WNYC, New York, Anfang 1945, im Rahmen einer Sendung mit dem Titel Fragen Sieden Komponisten.).
SKU: BT.EMBZ129
SKU: AP.44881S
UPC: 038081515984. English.
One of the numerous short piano pieces for children that Béla Bartók completed in a four-volume piano collection in 1909. This arrangement for early band students remains faithful to Bartók's intent while comfortably accommodating the skills for first year players. Light and whimsical, you can hear the playful nature of The Fox in this solid scoring for your beginners. (1:45).
SKU: AP.44881
UPC: 038081515977. English.