Scoring
2(II=picc).2(II=corA).2(II=bcl).2(II=dbn)-4.2.3.0-timp.perc(2):cyms/
tam-t/tgl/BD/SD-harp-cel-strings
Territory
This work is available from Boosey & Hawkes
for the world.
World Premiere
23/03/1939
Concertgebouw, Amsterdam
Zoltán Szekely, violin / Concertgebouw Orchestra / Willem Mengelberg
Repertoire Note
This is the only violin concerto that Bartók himself officially recognized. It is, perhaps, the most polished of all his concertos, and – as with the Sonata for Solo Violin a few years later — shows his consummate understanding of writing for strings. By good fortune its 1939 première, prepared with Zoltán Székely as soloist, was recorded, and remains a priceless document of performance practice. This concerto’s natural siblings include the inter-war violin concertos of Berg, Weill and Szymanowski.
Note by Malcolm Gillies
