Bartok - Romanian Folk Dances

Nick.
Thanks for your interesting reply.
I'm going to get 'Childrens Songs'. Sounds right up my street.
May hold fire on the Bartok box set for the moment. I know Bartok has a reputation for being 'difficult' and i'm a relative newcomer to classical music! I have the strings version of '6 Romanian Folk Dances'. It really is exquisite. It's on the Ivor Cutler CD from the 'Songbook Series'. A really interesting compliation. I think it's deleted now but I could let you have a copy if you have trouble finding it.

Nick

Hi Nick,

Pierre Boulez and the Chicago Symphony have recorded a very nice cd with a Dance Suite and the Hungarian Sketches.

You could also go a little down the modernism / complexity ladder and try a good recording of Dvorak's Slavonic Dances.

And just wait till the sun rises on the Pacific Coast and Todd finds you're interested in Bartok!

Herman

quote:

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Originally posted by the other nickc:

I really don't know anything about Bartok and was wondering if anyone could recommend a definitive CD in the same vein?!

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Yes.

For the piano version of the Romanian Folk Dances try Gyorgy Sandor on Sony. Kocsis is good. Sandor is better. His most recent Sony recordings from the 90s have just been reissued as a budget box. You may still be able to find Volume II from the first release.

For the orchestral version of the Romanian Folk Dances, the obvious first choice today is Ivan Fischer’s recording on Philips. It comes as a filler on the Miraculous Mandarin disc.

Other works that similar in approach that you may like include:

Dance Suite (already mentioned) – Gyorgy Sandor (Sony) or Andras Schiff (Denon) for piano version; Antal Dorati (Mercury) for orchestral version – it comes with one of the greatest recordings of the Concerto for Orchestra.

15 Hungarian Peasant Songs – Gyorgy Sandor (Sony) or Annie Fischer (BBC Legends) for piano version; Ivan Fischer (Philips) for the orchestral. (It’s the same disc as mentioned above.)

Out of Doors – Gyorgy Sandor on Sony.

Mikrokosmos – especially the last three (of six) books. Gyorgy Sandor on Sony. Again.

Two Rhapsodies for Violin – for violin and orchestra see if you can still find the Isaac Stern / Leonard Bernstein set on Sony. Otherwise go for Gil Shaham with Pierre Boulez on DG. The versions for violin and piano are not as good, but you can sample them on Naxos, along with the early Piano Quintet.

Try these and then you will be ready for his bigger and better works. His best piano works – the Sonata and the Fourteen Bagatelles, among a few others – truly are brilliant, and after you absorb the more accessible music I recommend these. While Bartok certainly can be difficult to assimilate at first, his piano compositions are his most accessible music. He wrote much of the music to teach children – hence its progressively more complex nature in both For Children and Mikrokosmos – and used the piano as a testing ground for his more complex ideas. I admit to not listening to his piano music as much as his orchestral works or his string quartets, which are the greatest of the last century, but I do cherish the recordings. No one else is like Bartok.

Herm
The Boulez and Dvorak sound interesting. I've put them on my wish list at Amazon!

Todd
I've hit the Jackpot here I think!
great info and advice: my appetite is well and truly wetted! Going to do a bit of online perusing...