Bartók experienced a creative block towards the end of his studies, which was broken by the 1902 Budapest performance of Richard Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Béla Bartók believed that to work, one must have a keen interest in the living universe and be filled with enthusiasm.
Composer Biography
During his student years, Bartók became disillusioned with political nationalism and sought a musical language to express complex emotions, leading him to peasant music.
Compositional Technique
Bartók's mature Piano Sonata, composed in 1926, relentlessly exploits the instrument's percussive qualities and is dedicated to his second wife, Ditta Pásztory-Bartók.
Composition History
Bartók was exempt from service in the Austro-Hungarian Army during World War I after failing several medicals, spending the time collecting and arranging folk songs.
Composition History
The Allegro barbaro may have been titled in response to a newspaper article that called Bartók and other composers 'young barbarians' after a 1910 concert in Paris.
You might also enjoy...
the words we never said
Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Debussy & Others: Piano Works
2025 Cliburn Competition: Piotr Alexewicz – Preliminary Round (Live)
Scriabin: 150th Anniversary – Piano Works
Scriabin: Piano Works (Live)
Roots and Rings
Bowen & Reizenstein: Works for Piano (1958, 1960)
Holt, Danny: Fast Jump
Scriabine/Moussorgsky/Clementi: Piano Music
Mysteries
Bortkiewicz: Piano Works, Vol. 2
Isaac Albéniz: Iberia (for Solo piano & Orchestrated Version) & Other Piano Works
