Béla Bartók's Quintet in C major, performed by the WDR Symphony Orchestra Chamber Players on 30.01.2022 at the WDR Funkhaus.
Béla Bartók - Quintet in C major
for two violins, viola, violoncello and piano
00:00:00 I. Andante - Allegro molto
00:12:40 II. Vivace (Scherzando)
00:22:07 III. adagio
00:33:28 IV. Poco a poco più vivace
Cristian-Paul Suvaiala, violin
Carola Nasdala, violin
Mischa Pfeiffer, viola
Simon Deffner, violoncello
Ana Maria Ciornei, piano (Guest)
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○ Introduction to the work
The big surprise on the programme is probably the Piano Quintet by Béla Bartók. What this important composer of the 20th century lets us hear here is 19th century through and through: Bartók revels in late-romantic, glowing timbres that, at least at first glance, do not yet hint at his later tonal language. The then 22-year-old began working on his quintet in Berlin, where he stayed for an extended period in 1903. In the summer of the following year, he completed the composition on a country estate at home. He had just completed his studies in Budapest at this time, with the German composer Hans Koessler, who conveyed the style of Johannes Brahms as an ideal. There was also a decisive influence: in 1902, Richard Strauss conducted his tone poem "Also sprach Zarathustra" for the first time in Budapest, which Bartók was overwhelmed by.
On closer listening, however, one can already sense the later Bartók alongside the models Brahms and Strauss: There is an unmistakable Hungarian idiom, even if it has not yet been worked out in detail; but the affinity with the music of the homeland is exceedingly clear. The expressive will is also entirely Bartók - in tonal sound, but already with the intensity so typical of him.
The first performance of the Piano Quintet took place in Vienna in November 1904, with Bartók himself at the piano. It was first performed in Hungary in 1910, and a good ten years later it was performed again - to rapturous applause. The publisher of the score reports: "When after the concert some listeners carelessly congratulated him by saying that they liked this music better than what he had written later, Bartók flew into a wild rage and threw the score into a corner". Friends believed he had torn it up or burned it. It was not until 1963 that the scores resurfaced and were published in print in 1970.
Text: Otto Hagedorn
29 июл 2024
