Bartók's Second Quartet shows the influence of his research into Arab folk music, particularly in the drum-like ostinato rhythms and oscillating melody of its scherzo movement.
Historical Context
Bartók began sketching his Sixth Quartet, his last work before leaving Europe, in Switzerland after the Anschluss of 1938, facing Hungary's potential capitulation to fascism.
Composer Biography
Béla Bartók's string quartets were central to his career, with his earliest student compositions at age fifteen being quartets.
Compositional Technique
Bartók's 'night music' appears in the slow central movement of the Fourth Quartet, featuring sounds like bird chirping, insect whirring, and frog croaking.
Composition History
Bartók's First Quartet was written after an unhappy love affair with violinist Stefi Geyer, and can be seen as his way of overcoming a personal crisis.
Performer Biography
The Heath Quartet, formed in 2002, has presented complete cycles of quartets by Sir Michael Tippett and Béla Bartók at Wigmore Hall and internationally.
Compositional Technique
The Fourth Quartet is designed in a symmetrical arch-like form, where the first and last movements are related, as are the second and fourth, with the central slow movement as the kernel.
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Bartok: Complete String Quartets
Schnittke: String Quartets Nos. 1-4
Bartók String Quartets 1-6
Shostakovich: String Quartet No.8 op.110
Ravel: String Quartet in F Major, M. 35: III. Très lent
