<\/p>\n
Bart\u00f3k\u2019s first and last works for violin.<\/p>\n
Bart\u00f3k\u2019s music for the violin occupies an important position in his creative output. The instrument attracted him at intervals throughout his career, from the Andante of 1902 to the magnificently disciplined Sonata for Violin Solo, written in 1944. Norwegian Elise B\u00e5tnes, newly appointed concertmaster of the Oslo Philharmonics, makes her international debut release as a soloist with a selection of these phenomenal works, revealing a mature interpreter and an outstanding violinist.<\/p>\n
The earliest surviving work by Bart\u00f3k for violin and piano is the Andante in A major composed in 1902. The Sonata in E minor was written only one year later, but it reveals the more ambitious composer \u2013 audibly inspired by both the virtuosity of Liszt, Hungarian folk music, the chromatic harmony of Richard Strauss and the violin sonatas of Brahms. Bart\u00f3k\u2019s Sonata for unaccompanied violin was one of his last compositions \u2013 the last, indeed, that he was able to complete in every detail. It was written early in 1944 for Yehudi Menuhin, who had begun to emerge as a notable interpreter of Bart\u00f3k\u2019s violin music.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The earliest surviving work by Bart\u00f3k for violin and piano is the Andante in A major composed in 1902 while he was a student at the Budapest Academy of Music. It seems to have been written for a fellow-student destined for fame as a violinist, namely Adila d\u2019Aranyi, niece of Joseph Joachim. The work was written as a kind of friendly message, Bart\u00f3k wrote the manuscript on a series of six postcards. This dreamily romantic effusion is melodically so tender that it is almost salon music, but its range of modulation is too bold and unexpected for that designation.<\/p>\n
The Sonata in E minor was written only one year later, but it reveals the more ambitious composer \u2013 audibly inspired by both the virtuosity of Liszt, Hungarian folk music, the chromatic harmony of Richard Strauss and the violin sonatas of Brahms. But most importantly, the piece contains plenty of indications of Bart\u00f3k\u2019s individuality and is an enjoyable and impressive piece in its own right<\/p>\n
Bart\u00f3k and Kod\u00e1ly, as professional ethnomusicologists, uncovered the old, authentic Hungarian folk music by going into the countryside with a phonograph and recording the actual melodies people sang and danced to. They published their first joint collection of folksongs in 1906, and Bart\u00f3k published the pedagogical work For Children in 1909. In 1931 Bart\u00f3k transcribed several numbers under the title Hungarian Folk Songs for violin and piano. He gave this small collection a two-movement form, the first movement comprising four songs and the second five. In contrast to the piano pieces\u2019 original teaching purposes, the transcription requires real virtuosity from the violinist and makes a highly effective short concert item.<\/p>\n
Bart\u00f3k\u2019s Sonata for unaccompanied violin was one of his last compositions \u2013 the last, indeed, that he was able to complete in every detail. It was written early in 1944 for Yehudi Menuhin, who had begun to emerge as a notable interpreter of Bart\u00f3k\u2019s violin music; Bart\u00f3k worked on the piece in close collaboration with Menuhin, who gave the world premiere in New York on 26 November 1944 and subsequently edited the score for publication.<\/p>\n
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\u2013 This collection was full of surprises and is a disc that I shall certainly return to again and again. This recording fulfills what I believe to be any recording\u2019s biggest mission; to leave the listener satisfied and wanting to explore more of a composer\u2019s music. Sound quality is up to Simax\u2019s customary high standards. [Kevin Sutton\/MusicWeb]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":27574,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":[],"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[180],"product_tag":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-382","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-simax-classics","7":"product_shipping_class-cddvd-shipping","8":"uni_artist_tag-bela-bartok","9":"uni_artist_tag-elise-batnes","10":"uni_artist_tag-havard-gimse","11":"uni_artist_tag-vegard-landaas","12":"uni_main_artist_tag-elise-batnes","13":"uni_artist_genre-chamber","14":"uni_artist_genre-classical","15":"uni_artist_genre-sacd","16":"uni_artist_genre-strings","18":"first","19":"instock","20":"taxable","21":"shipping-taxable","22":"purchasable","23":"product-type-simple"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grappa.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grappa.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grappa.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grappa.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grappa.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grappa.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grappa.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_brand?post=382"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grappa.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=382"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grappa.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}