Divertimento

Bartók’s last commission for Paul Sacher, written in the Swiss Alps on the verge of war, is less intense or complex than the preceding works. Its outer movements bustle with a sunny optimism, not shared by the twists and turns of his brooding middle movement. Divertimento programmes well with, or stands in for, other Hungarian works for string orchestra by Weiner (for instance, his 1938 Divertimento, op.24) or Dohnányi, or, for a lighter touch, with Bartók’s own Romanian Folk Dances.

Note by Malcolm Gillies