oh my gosh, this recording is magnificent. I like the slightly under-tempo rendering of the first movement; it gives you a chance to absorb and appreciate the brilliant contrapuntal passages. And that Chicago brass...
I absolutely agree. The first time I heard the strings at the beginning of the adagio I had an indescribable sensation, of something new to me: nocturnal and mysterious, but without romanticism, and also ancestral, or from another era. Later, when I had occasion to examine and understand the score, the means seemed relatively simple, although original: a modal melody with chords of fifths moving in parallel, and played by the strings with mute and without vibrato... But the magical effect of this music is still indescribable for me.
I agree too. Compare it to the 'night music" of the "outdoors" piano suite. You will find the roots of the most awesome pages of the "Music for strings...." and the 5th String Quartet
the adagio is quite simply the most touching and affecting piece of music I've ever heard. Felt like I was in outer space when I first heard it 28 years ago, on a cold February night. Still transported each and every time I hear it. Of course, other composers have exploited stacked 5ths (Hindemith and Ives have employed devices similar to this 2nd mvt's string passages, both harmonically and texturally) but there is something about Bartok's writing here...there's a real sense of line, a melodic guiding principle that directs these gorgeous and dense vertical structures to the right place.
A extraordinária psrformance do pianista Claudio Abbado no belisdimo converto n 2 de Bartok. Bella BRtok é surreal e de ima modernidade atempiral. Impressionantes
The music of Faso is an inexhaustible source of sweetness. It allows us to plunge deep inside ourselves and at the same time resonate with our fellow man, Yé Lassina Coulibaly
Bela Bartok has been my favorite composer since my high school days, with Gustav Mahler and Charles Ives being a close second. In 1967, I attended a drama performance by an improvisational group called, THE COMMITTEE, in San Francisco. As part of the dialogue, one of the actors exclaimed to another, "I don't think you've heard of Bartok." That was my inspiration. During my first month as a college freshman at Berkeley, I bought Bartok's Dumbarton Oaks Concerto on vinyl, and soon I bought recordings on vinyl of every available Bartok composition (replaced in the years 1990-2020 by compact disc recordings of every Bartok composition). I noticed that Yuja Wang has recorded Bartok's piano concertos, and her live performances of these are available on RU-vid. I like to imagine that Yuja Wang has inherited the "Bartok Torch" from Maurizio Pollini.
Conozco esta pieza de memoria. Me ha acompañado toda mi vida. La primera versión que oí (¡en cassette!) fue la de Vladímir Ashkenazi con Solti, que aún hoy me parece una de las tres o cuatro mejores. Luego conseguí la de Kovacevich con Colin Davis, mi favorita. Esta música me llena de felicidad. Es un milagro de inteligencia, buen gusto e imaginación. Por ejemplo el segundo movimiento: ¿Cómo se le puede ocurrir algo así a nadie? Y la orquestación, colorida y valiente, ¡osada! Bartok es de los contados artistas que han creado sensaciones nuevas. Con razón Solti menciona, entre ellas, la "angustia Bartok". Yo agregaría la alegría Bártok, la incertidumbre Bartok, el temor Bartok... En cuanto a esta versión de Pollini, él está mejor en el concierto Nº 1 (tanto con Abbado como con Boulez); pero quizás es culpa de la grabación y no de la interpretación. Por si no lo sabían, Bartok era capaz de tocar sus propios conciertos para piano, reputados de rompe-manos.
I bet his keyboard was terribly covered in blood after the recording. HEAR HOW POWERFUL AND PERCUSSIVE. Pollini was not only good at speed, but also at steadiness and rythm. He is incredible.
A piece that has been one of my favorites since 1972. Few pieces get to me like this. It is both cerebral and dramatic (kind of like me). I love this performance (have it on CD). I love how the composer of the original music of the Outer Limits borrowed from the "night music" of the second movement of this.
A friend of mine--who knew nothing about nor cared for classical music--saw this album cover in my room and said they looked like a couple of graduate students
@loge10 occasionally I see it programmed recently, it's such a fun piece but very awkward even for the virtuosos. I know Ashkenazy, Barenboim, Schiff, Richter all played it in years passed. I noticed Yuja is playing it this season too. Great piece!
