Bartók, Vol. 5: Complete Works for Piano Solo – Bartók-Reschofsky Piano Method & Mikrokosmos
6/3/2022, 209 Tracks, 3:08:38
Featuring
Andreas Bach
Aliya Iskhakova
Sándor Reschofsky
Béla Bartók
Did you know?
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Recording & Production
This recording is the first comprehensive account of Bartók's solo piano oeuvre on CD in over 25 years and will include all published early works in a later volume.
Historical Context
The Mikrokosmos was originally intended for publication by Universal Edition in Vienna, but due to Nazi German rule, it was eventually published by Boosey & Hawkes.
Composition History
Bartók's Mikrokosmos, a collection of 153 piano pieces, was composed between 1932 and 1939 and is both a piano method and a collection of original performance pieces.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Bartók saw himself as a tonal composer, in contrast to contemporaries like Schoenberg and Webern, and aimed to find consonance within dissonance.
Composition History
The Mikrokosmos was partly inspired by Bartók teaching his son Peter piano lessons, during which some pieces were composed on the spot.
Performer Biography
Pianist Andreas Bach has a strong connection to Bartók's music, regularly performing with Muzsikás, Hungary's best-known traditional music group.
Compositional Technique
The Mikrokosmos introduces contrapuntal techniques like contrary motion, imitation, and inversion (often called 'reflection') early on, even in the simplest pieces.
