Béla Bartók: 44 Duos for Two Violins
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Composer: Béla BartókComposer: György Ligeti
Composer: György Kurtág
Performer: András Keller
Performer: János Pilz
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2002-06-18
Music Label: ECM Records
Soundtracks:
- Bartok: 44 Duos for Two Violins - Bartok, Bela
- Ligeti: Ballad and Dance - Bartok, Bela
- Kurtag: Ligatura-Message To Frances-Marie op. 31b - Bartok, Bela
Music reviews of Béla Bartók: 44 Duos for Two Violins
Music Review: Bartok at his most uplifting and approachable
Rating: 5 Stars
This, once more, is a perfect ECM package. The 44 Duos are a work that is singular in its scope, form and instrumentation. The musicianship is of the highest order, but at the same time it is also relaxed and down to earth. The recording (at ECM's familiar Kloster St Gerold in the Austrian Vorarlberg) is transparent, vivacious and set in a pleasingly resonant acoustic. Finally, the accompanying booklet is impeccably produced with an intelligent essay by Wolfgang Sandner (music editor at Germany's leading broadsheet) and a very evocative picture by author/photographer Peter Nadas gracing the cover.
This is Bartok at his most approachable. The 44 Duos were composed in the early Thirties as a kind of pendant to his 'For Children' for the piano. The initial purpose was didactic: a set of pieces for a German compendium of graded violin pieces. A little later this concept blossomed into the Mikrokosmos. Almost all are based on folk material, from all over the Balkans. Initially Bartok arranged them in order of difficulty but he anticipated that people would make selections of pieces for concert performance. In this recording, Andras Keller and Janos Pilz (both founding members of the Keller Quartet) have rearranged the order of the pieces so as to allow for sustained listening throughout the whole set. And this works admirably. It really is not a burden to sit through 52 minutes of music which occupies after all a relatively narrow textural bandwith. The overall impression is uplifting and cheerful but also epic, timeless. The music sounds like unbuttoned folk, yes, but in addition we hear echoes of Bach, Beethoven and, as Sandner discusses in his essay, also the grammar of New Music is brilliantly woven into the music. The avant garde echoes are subtly reinforced by the two very short works from other Hungarian composers - Ligeti and Kurtag - that are complementing this recording.
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Description of Béla Bartók: 44 Duos for Two Violins
All products are BRAND NEW and factory sealed. Fast shipping and 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed.Bartók's Duos are triple-threats: progressions of very brief practice works for violinists from students to skilled artists; transformations of folk dances and songs into art works; and pieces for concert performance, either piecemeal or complete. The Keller-Pilz duo makes its own sequence of the 44 primarily to heighten contrasts and sustain interest, a practice sanctioned by Bartók since the published order progressing from easiest to most difficult doesn't complement the pure listening experience. This revised order certainly works in these spirited performances.
Keller and Pilz convey the full range of Bartók's technical demands, even while they bring out the folk elements that pervade the music. In their opening "Transylvanian Song," they sound like village fiddlers; they quietly buzz away in the "Mosquito Dance" and seamlessly weave their contrasting lines in the more abstract Prelude and Canon. Further feats of violinism are expertly performed in the finger-breaking "Pizzicato" and the tremolos of the "Arabian Song." It's not all village fun or violinistic virtuosity either. Some of the slower pieces, such as the fragile "Ruthenian Song" and the moving "Lament," touch the heart. The brief fillers are a pair of similarly folk-based violin duos by Ligeti and Kurtág's hushed, pianissimo "Ligatura." Vibrant sound and ECM's usual deluxe packaging complete a highly desirable production. --Dan Davis
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