Bartok Violin Concerto No 2 - a stunning discovery for me anyway

[richardfinegold]

I've just never been able to appreciate this piece. I have the Chung and the recording with Ancerl and still find myself unmoved.
I'll be in Budapest in a few days; maybe I'll eat a good helping of Paprika and finally get it.

[Nick Armstrong]

Not a piece I know well. But the French critics covered it in their blind-tasting review show on Sunday evening. I haven't heard it yet, but once the podcast has been listened to, I will report back if anyone's interested...

[HighlandDougie]

I've just never been able to appreciate this piece.

It look me along time to do so - I didn't listen to it for a long time then heard it in concert and, as is often the case with hearing a work in the flesh, it all fell into place. I've not heard Kopatchinskaja's Beethoven but, as she is clearly a violinist with a strong personality, I can quite understand Barb's antipathy to her in Beethoven. In Bartok, though, she is something quite special. Like a modern-day Ida Haendel but recorded in excellent sound. I thought that Isabelle Faust's recent recording was pretty good but this one (with Peter Eotvös inspiring a really characterful accompaniment from the orchestra - by no means always the case in this concerto) really is excellent.

[visualnickmos]

..... I will report back if anyone's interested...

I would be interested, and may do a "listen again" myself if I have time.

[Sir Velo]

This is one of the great 20th century concertos IMO. Anyone who responds to the contrast of biting rhythmic energy and seductively mysterious night music which lies at the core of Bartok's writing will love this piece. My only recording is K-W Chung's 70s celebrated recording with Solti and the LPO. However, I've been much taken with Isabelle Faust's and Gyorgy Pauk's respective recordings of the violin sonatas, so have little doubt that they would be worth hearing in this repertoire.

[Rolmill]

Maybe I've been partly seduced by the very fine recording but the playing is astonishingly assured - and very exciting. Thrilling stuff.

This recording has just been announced as Gramophone's overall disc of the year (as well as winning the concerto section), so you are in good company. I'll be keeping an eye open to see if it becomes available at a price within my (considerably less than eye-watering) budget! As you say later, it sounds like her approach may be more effective in Bartok than in Beethoven.

[Bryn]

This recording has just been announced as Gramophone's overall disc of the year (as well as winning the concerto section), so you are in good company. I'll be keeping an eye open to see if it becomes available at a price within my (considerably less than eye-watering) budget! As you say later, it sounds like her approach may be more effective in Bartok than in Beethoven.

I don't think the £9.84 including p&p that I just agreed to was too bad.

[Ferretfancy]

Szekely/Mengelberg (the first performance), Perlman/Previn, and more recently Steinbacher/anowski are my personal favourites. Chung is very fine too.

I have too many versions of this marvellous concerto to pick a favourite, but the Szekeley / Mengelberg is particularly fascinating, and we are lucky to have it. As you know, Bartok had already left for America by the time of the premiere, although he and Szekely had worked on the piece. Luckily friends were able to make acetate discs of the broadcast and sent them to the composer, so we can hear it now.

I suppose most of us might think that a new work needs time to settle in as it were, as performers develop a full understanding of the music, but not so here. This a a completely finished interpretation, which yields very little to later ones.

[Barbirollians]

KWC of course also won a Gramophone award with her remake of the concerto with Rattle .

I might have to get this version and give Ms K a chance if she sounds like a modern day Ida H - Ida's live account is magnificent on Hanssler Classics .

I see , however, it is coupled with Eotvos - is that the concerto that sounds like a cat being tortured ?

[Bryn]

...

I see , however, it is coupled with Eotvos - is that the concerto that sounds like a cat being tortured ?

That would be the Brahms, surely? Funnily enough, it's also what my musically antediluvian mother would have said re. the Bartok.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

That would be the Brahms, surely? Funnily enough, it's also what my musically antediluvian mother would have said re. the Bartok.

Or another Hungarian:

"[in Liszt's work] the violinists are always capering and scraping nearly up to the bridge, where the tone is apt to resemble the forlorn wail of an amorous cat upon the tiles at midnight ... or the sigh of a prize pig at a cattle show."
(London Era, 25/2/1882)

"It seems as though [Liszt] had attempted to depict in Music every moan and howl of pain ever heard by the human kind ... interspersed now and then by a choice selection of the various shades of expression of which the voice of the nocturnal cat is capable."
(Boston Gazette, 28/2/1886)

[pastoralguy]

I might have to get this version and give Ms K a chance if she sounds like a modern day Ida H - Ida's live account is magnificent on Hanssler Classics .

:

[Barbirollians]

That would be the Brahms, surely? Funnily enough, it's also what my musically antediluvian mother would have said re. the Bartok.

I was referring to an august forumite's assessment of the concerto at the Proms !

[Bryn]

I was referring to an august forumite's assessment of the concerto at the Proms !

And I to the old saw re. Brahms and cats.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I was referring to an august forumite's assessment of the concerto at the Proms !

Sounds more like a wet October to me.