As an adult beginner/intermediate student of the piano, I struggled for a long time till I discovered Bartok's "Mikrokosmos Volume 1". I think it's a fantastic book. It has really opened the door for me because of Bartok's metronome markings. I'm looking forward to "Volume 2". Then someday maybe I can get into "For Children" which could just as easily be called "For Piano Students Of All Ages!" These are wonderful pieces for adults too.
They are ! You are doing the right thing here Joe. One cannot overestimate the importance or Bartok's educational material. Whereas much teaching material holds little or no musical interest, Bartok aims to make you a complete musician right from the start. And even for an accomplished pianist, these pieces remain interesting and rewarding to play - not something you can say about a lot of teaching material !
@@ChrisBreemer Thanks for the encouraging reply, Chris. Yes "making you a complete musician right from the start" is a very good description. The progressive difficulty is extremely interesting and challenging. There is just so much in these little piano gems, and I've watched a couple of Andras Schiff videos about them in which he elaborates further. This has really increased my interest in Bela Bartok, who was a truly gifted genius in the history of music.
@@joepalooka2145 Thanks for the tip, I did not know these videos. I don't always quite agree with everything Schiff does, finding him a little prissy at times, but his insights in this music are unparalleled (especially since the passing of Zoltan Kocsis). By comparison, my recordings seem terribly straight and boring. I guess it is time to learn to sing, after first having learned Hungarian 🙄
Basically my childhood. I used to play the piano and I had a lot of songs to learn from these (sometimes the lyrics as well). Great memories. Thank you. Greetings from Transylvania
Wonderful musicianship. I found your channel when I looking for some easier piano works to study, stayed for the excellent renditions. As for Bartok, what a prolific composer. Although, as I see, not loved too much in western circles due to his out of the box harmony. I have to admit I did not know him until I started playing piano, and even when I met his music, I didn't really like it (well, it was mikrocosmos). But as I listened, I started to like the music more and more.
Thank you ! If these recordings have didactical as well as musical value, I consider it a mission accomplished - though I guess much more could be made of these yet. Indeed, Bartok's tonal language can be hard to get into sometimes. It's an acquired taste. But he mellowed so much in later years... just listen to his Concerto for Orchestra and his third piano concerto. IMO it's quite impossible not to fall in love with these at first hearing. Absolute top music 😍 Parts of Mikrokosmos are quite forbidding as well. But perseverance pays off !
Ugyanaz a tervem, mint az elottem szólónak! En is most kezdtem újra a zongizást - kb 50 év kihagyás után. A tanult készségek megmaradtak, ezeknek a daraboknak a lejátszása, begyakorlása vállalható és még örömet és sikerélményt is hoz!
It is a good job I can read Hungarian so well 😁 Great that you are starting out with these pieces again after such a long time. I think no matter your level, or how long you've been away from the piano, these pieces will always delight and educate.
If you are the one playing, you probably should have chosen a different cover, as the one on the cover of this record is the exact same as the cover of the incomparable, late Zoltán Kocsis’ recording about 30-40 years ago. That is why I was confused.
Oh I did not know that. These are actually my own books which I photographed to create the cover image. It seemed the most natural choice. I guess nobody listening in for a minute or so would confuse my recording with that of Kocsis. He was in a class of his own in Bartók.
Reminding me of my childhood. Growing up in Hungary, on my beloved countryside, where my grandparents sang these songs to me through my childhood. Later on we also learned them in the school. The tune from 1:42 is awaking a special kind of melancholy in my heart. Beautiful Hungarian Folksongs. Thank you very much for the upload. It was a magnificent experience. Greetings goes out from a Hungarian to everyone who's in love with Bartók, and with culture.
Thanks so much for your feedback ! I am glad these are being appreciated by someone who grew up with them. These pieces are very special to me also, the first book more so than the second.
The first album is based on Hungarian folk tunes AND children's songs or games, essentially the Hungarian equivalents of London Bridges & Ring around the Rosie. Most of the tunes would be very familiar to children & fun to play. I recognize many that my mother sang to me as a child.
Bartok was a great 20th century classical music composer! He brought originality to his composing, which is difficult to do. Thanks for posting these piano pieces for children!! They are great to listen to!!
I am so sad I knew nothing of these when I began piano 60 years ago. They are exactly what kids should have for propulsion behind scales, trills and arpeggiations.
Same here ! I started the piano 64 years ago but only got to know these some 50 years ago, when these two books were offered for next to nothing on a jumble sale (I got a great deal on two boxes of sheet music and pocket scores). When I had lessons, music like this was not mentioned alas.
@@ChrisBreemer Good to know I wasn’t deprived alone, Chris! I’m not seriously complaining, because my dear old Mom and Dad tried to do right, but were both very working class, and had no idea how to raise a kid who loved Brahms, Goya and Remarque.
@@prototroposame here! My parents had no clue, bless 'em. I discovered this music on a recording by Zoltán Kocsis a year ago and bought the music straight away. These pieces are beautiful little gems.
@@soozb15 Well, sounds like a whole generation of budding culture vultures grew up unmentored, with no shoulder to stand upon nor wing to study under! Nice to have each-other to commiserate, though!
Thank you very much!! I am re-learning piano after many years out and these pieces are incredibly useful to develop many techniques. The good think is that they are much more entertaining that exercises (which I know are necessary too). Magnificent :)
Thanks and great to hear Marc ! I have always considered these pieces excellent for developing musicality but I suppose they are very good for developing technique as well. Bartok was a great pedagogue.
Dear Mr. Breemer. I grew up listening much of your recordings (from piano society), which became dearest companies in my adolescence years in a small town in Borneo back then. This video brings back memory of a quiet afternoon I spent alone in my room, gazing through an empty window with only my reveries and this music in the background. I just want to say thank you. Regards from Japan.
Hello Joseph, thanks for your feedback ! Hard to imagine someone in Borneo listening to a Dutchman's recordings of Hungarian music. I'm glad to hear you enjoy my work.
You're welcome Pratama. I will be recording more here on RU-vid. No longer on Piano Society, that site is dead. I should be getting on with completing the Bartok Mikrokosmos. I was almost there in 2010 but ran out of steam half way in Book 6. There's five more items I need to study and record. These are quite complicated....
Thank you ! I can certainly and wholeheartedly recommend this fascinating collection to pianists of all levels and capabilities. Go for it ! I am amused by your channel thumbnail. For a second there, I thought you had stolen mine and turned it upside down 😊 Both show a stretch not everybody can reach. The outer notes are not a problem but it gets very hard when all fingers have to play. My image shows the closing chord of Fauré's seventh Nocturne, which only with great care and considerable pain I can manage without resorting to arpeggiato.
@@ChrisBreemer Oh, I didn't notice that thumbnail similarity. Well it's not very original thumbnail for pianists I guess :D! Very interesting, yes my own intention was to show my reach without any mention to specific chords, just kind of "see how much I can stretch" :D. I will work on this set, I love when composers write for children. In the past months I've been learning and recording all Satie sets for children, you can listen to it on my channel! For our big hands these are sometime challenging as we are more comfortable with big stretches than playing on small ranges :D . I really appreciate all the work you are showing on your channel, lot to know from it!
To show a specific chord is much more meaningful! When I got the thumbnail I didn't have yet enough experience to relate to a chord. Now I can. For example I could show the right hand chord number 8, from Chopin's prelude n. 20, Op. 28, I can play it comfortably. Or the big chord at the end of the prelude n.7, which I cannot play comfortably. I will try the one you mention, but I don't know Fauré's nocturnes (yet :).
Nagyon szépen köszönöm, kedves Chris. Több gyermekdal visszacseng a lelkembe sok évtized távlatából. Azt hiszem, a pentaton sokunkat nagyon mélyen szólít meg. --- Thank you very much, dear Chris. Many of these children's songs are echoing in my soul from many decades perspective. The pentatonic scale - I guess - speaks very deeply to many of us.
@@ChrisBreemer That’s really an honor for us, Hungarians. But the only advantage we have over the other nations is that we can sing many of these songs with lyrics. We learned them in Kindergarden. 🙃
@@ChrisBreemer Dear Chris! As for Hungary and Bartók, I would like to recommend to you the Bartók arrangements of a Hungarian jazz piano trio, which in 2020 received the Fonogram Award (the Hungarian Grammy) as "Jazz Album of the Year". ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-bd3cIAWC39o.html
You're welcome ! These two volumes (especially the first) are an endless source of joy. To do them right is really not easy despite the mostly modest technical demands, and I'm not sure I always succeeded. They sounded well enough while recording, but listening back there's nearly always something to nag about :-|
I feel like it's always that way when listening to your own recordings. I've listened it all now, and it's very inspirational how well you play. Bravo. I practiced and played two of the pieces for my teacher (1 and 3 from first book), but after I was done I don't think I've ever seen her so disappointed. "Bartók is holy to me, and if you can not play it, you shouldn't play it." She's okay with me messing up Mikrokosmos, but not this book.
Yes, it's probably always like that. I think even the greats are hardly ever satisfied with their recordings, however perfect WE may think they've played it. You must have a good teacher, if Bartok is holy to her, but she should not discourage you from playing these wonderful pieces. I believe there's no such thing as "can not play". If there's ever an opportunity to learn musicality, it is here. Go for it ! Glad to be an inspiration :)
I remember quite some time ago looking at the music for this, I believe it was the Schirmer Edition, it came with lyrics where applicable. Under the title of one of the songs, I don't remember which one, it gave no lyrics but explained: lyrics not fit to print. I'm pretty sure this was the piece, it was a long time ago.
@@man0sticks I don't remember. The only thing I remember that it was published by Schirmer and it had the lyrics of the songs in the back of the book. Some of the lyrics we're not printed or replaced by the phrase "not fit to print." I haven't seen the recent edition of it, so maybe they feel it it was an antiquated policy.
What do we know about the lyrics to these songs? Has anyone gathered their translation? Boosey and Hawkes published some of them but labeled others "unprintable." Which only intrigues me more. One song has lyrics like, "Stephan went out to drown the crafty Jew." The latter was saved from many attempts by Stephan to do away with him by a woman, and the closing chorus is something like, "How tenderhearted are the women!"
It's an interesting subject. I have both the B&H edition and the Dover edition revised by Benjamin Suchoff, and For Children is substantially different in both, regarding the titles, subtitles, and order/number of pieces. I have been led to believe the B&H represents the composer's latest thoughts on it so I'm happy to have recorded that. As for the lyrics, the one you mention is pretty rich indeed.... I'd not be surprised if anti-semitism has been rife in folk music throughout the centuries. As it was in many aspects of life. We just gotta accept that, and at the same time thank God we know better now.
It would be a great contribution to Bartok scholarship to have a scholarly translation of these lyrics done. But even if you only have the Hungarian publishing that in itself would be amazing!
Most of them are Hungarian origin but some is unknown and surely not hungarian, most of them folk based, some of the lyrics is playful and simple however a few even have hidden erotic meaning.
Yes, these days people (especially kids) want to be entertained rather than challenged, and the musical education has dumbed down accordingly. Play any song in five minutes, ha. Most will indeed consider this music old and boring, which does not mean that it is. These are lot lolubbies (lulabies?) but fresh and timeless little masterpieces that are ideal for developing musicality.
Oh my, dear Sylvian! If I was a child today - or 60 years ago (no difference). I can tell you I would have loved to get these to play. Lovely short "exercises", and yet, music. Interesting what you say: in my youth in my country, a great writer wrote some great stories for children, and they made it a point not to publish those stories with certain type of illustration, but rather some abstract colours only, which didn't influence the child, and allowed all the space for their own feeling. It worked well too! That sensitivity was almost 60 years ago. ... and in a country as Portugal (not the most advanced pedagogically speaking in anyway). Did we go backwards? (I think children of today would also appreciate them, if they would get the material in the right way. No harm in illustration for children though.... )
I agree, kids nowadays prefer more simple/upbeat songs than classical music. My 6 year old cousin likes upbeat songs and she is filled with excitement, her favourite piece is Für Elise. I really hope she opens up to more classical music.
Thank you Nigel ! Good point on the key signatures. I should certainly have looked better there. I know Bartok sometimes likes using different signatures. but in most cases they are very different and you see it straight away. This one here is so sneaky that I just never registered it... That, again, should teach me not to record even the smallest piece without first listening to a professional recording. That would have avoided this misreading.
@@man0sticks It's a curious little melody and since it only extends from F to D it' is not one that makes a non-expert like myself say 'Ah, yes that's clearly the dorian mode, for example'. I don't know where the term 'melodic major' came from. It seems to have caught on recently and I understand that it refers to a major scale with flattened 6th and 7th degrees. We have the harmonic minor which is self explanatory and I've always understood the term 'melodic', in 'melodic minor', to refer to the avoidance of the augmented second in order to make for smoother voice-leading when writing parts and accompaniments in the minor key. This is not necessary in the major scale because there is no augmented second. However I don't know of any other name for this scale. In this case though it is surely a modal melody and the mode will be one of the many used in Eastern European music. I think of it as a kind of Phrygian with its third note a major third from the tonic. So: G, F, Ab, B, C, D ...In the second part of the melody the third degree is Bb. In many folk traditions the two forms of the third are often interchangeable. In traditional Spanish music too. I call this scale 'Freygish' because I learnt the name from Klezmer music but it's also called Dominant Phrygian, Ahava Rabbah and Mixolydian b9,b13. If it were in C major I think it would pretty much correspond with the one you said. The last two bars really indicate the true mode in which it's based though. III is at a distance of a major third from the tonic, the seventh is natural (or flat) and this Nat.VII to I cadence is quite typical of the folk music form Eastern Europe.
Arghhhhhh.... I never even noticed the different key signature ! I know Bartok does that sometimes but here it is very sneaky indeed and just too easy to overlook. I always thought this piece sounded a bit limp and "un-Bartokian" but never stopped to wonder why. I should really never record a single note before having listened to at least one professional recording. With the A-flat it becomes a different piece altogether, and much more interesting. What a pity I can't replace the video without losing all the comments. Maybe I should post this piece separately. Thanks for letting me know, I appreciate it !
Google Translate is my friend :) For developing a child's musicality I believe this is some of the best material (together with Bartok's other educational music, Mikrokosmos and First Term at the Piano). Bartok was a great pedagogue. But I think the child in question must have innate musicality already, and must be intelligent and determined, and perhaps talented above average. Not everybody will be able to make these pieces sing. I recommend combining this material with the easy pieces of Bach (Notenbuchlein, Little Preludes, Ttwo-part inventions in a later stage).
When it´s done give the adress i look foward greatly to hearing the new version !!! Thank you and give us the best version of this "Pesante highway robber" !!!
Hi Philippe, I was not planning on re-recording the entire set, just this one item which I had so badly misread. Although maybe I should. The problem with recording so much things, as I do, is to give each piece the 'friendly attention' it needs. And especially when pieces are technically easy, as most of these are, one is tempted to skip over them quickly. I know it's not good, these pieces deserve better than that. But there is so much to do, and so little time ! I would not want to be a Michelangeli who apparently played only a couple of pieces. Haha, voleur d'autoroute... You've been to Google Translate too ! They do make a mess of it sometimes. I'm afraid I would not know what it is in French. Maybe it's 'bandit'. Or maybe there isn't a word for it... I think highway robbers hardly exist anymore.
I just started with piano and in my book is a piece from Bartok's children collection with the titel Allegramente (in D major), the first four barrs are only played with the left hand, eigths/pause with d,fis,g ... Which one could it be?? Could somebody help me please?
This is very crisp! Now that I've heard your interpretation, I finally came to understand several tunes and they are beautiful. This is what pianists are for.
Hello I'm here again since you are becoming my reference for this :). I'm on Book 2 0:40:02 / 3 Allegretto and I'm a bit disappointed by the tempo indicated by Bartok => 126. I guess you did your best (very quick indeed and still musical), yet not within the Bartok's 26 seconds. Anyway I think 100 is totally acceptable.
I think I am very close to the 126 mark - I made a point of following these closely throughout the cycle. But as Georgy Sandor wrote, Bartok's metronomes were unreliable, and the durations at the end usually inconsistent with the metronome mark. So I've never bothered to check these durations. Anyway, don't fret too much over tempi, unless when making an educational recording like this one. Just play them the way you feel them !
I don't know ! It's annoying, and very strange I did not notice this while postprocessing. As usual I blame the piano with its heavy and uneven touch. Thanks for listening so carefully.
Thank you to answer ! I hope and wait a new correct version with à lot of friendly attention !!! Ï' m guitarist and i knew this piece from a transcription in E more adapted to guitar so i tried to listen it in original tonality ant not recognized it so wondered why ! For this piece my problem is to respect rythm and silence !!!!! In the second voice to ear the first better ! How can we translate in french The highway robber ? Le voleur d'autoroute !!!! I'm not sure !
