Frank Peter Zimmermann plays Bartók & Szymanowski

Featuring

Frank Peter Zimmermann
Dmytro Choni
Béla Bartók
Karol Szymanowski

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Composition History

Bartók's Violin Sonatas were inspired by his meeting with the outstanding violinist Jelly d'Arányi, who also introduced him to Szymanowski's works, including Mythes, influencing his violin writing.

Composition History

Szymanowski's works for violin, including Mythes, were profoundly influenced by his collaboration with violinist Paweł Kochański, who helped him create a "new mode of expression" for the instrument.

Composer Biography

Béla Bartók, a Hungarian composer, was also a composition and ethnomusicology teacher at the Budapest Academy of Music and a concert pianist, performing across Europe and familiarizing himself with new musical trends.

Composer Biography

Karol Szymanowski, a Polish composer, initially influenced by Romantic composers like Chopin and Wagner, later shifted his style from 1914 onwards to embrace the sound colour focus of Debussy, Ravel, and Scriabin.

Historical Context

The three works on this album reflect the changes at the beginning of musical modernism from 1900 onwards, a period of transformation in musical genres and innovation in harmonic, melodic, timbral, and rhythmic elements.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Szymanowski's Mythes is a musical meditation on Greek mythology, aiming to express the "striking beauty of the myth" rather than directly conveying impressions or following a specific literary program.

Compositional Technique

Szymanowski's "new mode of expression" for the violin involved fusing the violin and piano into a complex sound entity and using advanced violin techniques like frequent double stopping, tremolando, and triple/quadruple pizzicato, not for virtuosity but to create a new poetic universe.