BaL 29.02.20 - Bartók: Piano Concerto No 3.

[teamsaint]

Slightly off topic, but the ubiquitous Kate Molleson has a new book scheduled .....for 2022. Which probably means it has yet to be written.

https://www.thebookseller.com/news/faber-snaps-kate-mollesons-book-4-way-bidding-war-1181116

Lets hope she keeps that anger under control on Saturday........

[Wolfram]

When was that?

Harriet Smith reviewed the second concerto for BaL in November 2015. Bavouzet was her top choice then. I don't when the third concerto was last featured, but it would have been before 1995.

[Barbirollians]

Harriet Smith reviewed the second concerto for BaL in November 2015. Bavouzet was her top choice then. I don't when the third concerto was last featured, but it would have been before 1995.

Indeed it was the Second but far from Anda not featuring much I recalled it being treated as best performance . Returning to that thread I see Bryn notes it lost out to Bavouzet only on the basis of a dated recording in comparison.

[teamsaint]

For those who fancy a listen with score before Saturday.

It's the Schiff/ Elder recording.

[Pulcinella]

For those who fancy a listen with score before Saturday.

It's the Schiff/ Elder recording.

Many thanks, ts.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

For those who fancy a listen with score before Saturday.

Unusually, I have a score of this work, but no recording, so this BaL may well be useful.

[Pulcinella]

Unusually, I have a score of this work, but no recording, so this BaL may well be useful.

Having just followed the YouTube performance, I now need my own copy of the score as I'm in the opposite position to you, Alpie (and tbh I wouldn't want to endure that performance every time I wanted to look at the score, interesting as it is to have it available).
More expense.

[Bryn]

The B&H pocket score of this work was one of the first I bought in my youth. It does not still bear the price but I recall it being less than £1. That was over half a century ago, however. These days it is out of copyright in the UK, so a visit to the IMSLP site might be in order.

I note the B&H score was revised in 1994. In what way and to what extent, I do not know.

[I now find on Wikipedia that:

"Beginning in the 1990s, the composer's son, Peter Bartók, in association with Argentinian musician Nelson Dellamaggiore, worked to re-print and revise past editions of the Third Piano Concerto, to eradicate the many printed errors identified but never corrected by his father. Although few in actual number, changes made to the Piano Concerto affected the pitch content, pedalling and tempos of several key passages"]

[Wolfram]

I think Bavouzet was the winner when they did the 2nd concerto recently. I think you are right; Geza Anda didn't figure strongly at all. I grew up with Anda's recordings of the Mozart piano concertos and have had his versions of the Bartoks for a long while. But now I really do think the likes Bavouzet and Fischer, and even Agerich with Dutoit, find more light and shade, more variety in the Bartok, and a vein of melancholy that eludes Anda.

Think I might have been a bit hasty here with the above. Just listened to Anda and Fricsay again and they are terrific in both nos 2 and 3. Can't find much to complain about with the sound quality either: good early 60s DG sound.

[Bryn]

I have been listening to this piece quire a bit lately, as I purchased Zoltan Kocsis recording with Ivan Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra, which I greatly prefer to my other two recordings, Boulez/Barenboim and and Bronfman with Salonen. The Kocsis sounds much more idiomatic

Listened to the Kocsis/BFO/Fischer recording from the Decca complete Bartok box last night. For me, considerably more idiomatic than the Bavouzet. No wonder it took pride of place in that Decca box.

My first recording of the work was that by Eva Bernáthová with the Czech Philharmonic and Karel Ancerl. Must dig that out for a listen, too, though I recall it having been fairly comprehesively eclipsed by later acquisitions of recordings of the work, Ancerl's contribution notwithstanding.

[rauschwerk]

Think I might have been a bit hasty here with the above. Just listened to Anda and Fricsay again and they are terrific in both nos 2 and 3. Can't find much to complain about with the sound quality either: good early 60s DG sound.

To my ears, the Anda recording lacks some refinement at climaxes (I do agree that the performance is top notch).

[Bryn]

Having just followed the YouTube performance, I now need my own copy of the score as I'm in the opposite position to you, Alpie (and tbh I wouldn't want to endure that performance every time I wanted to look at the score, interesting as it is to have it available).
More expense.

Looks like you might need two scores. One for those recordings which used that published in 1947 and the 1994 revision for later recordings. Will Peter Bartok's corrections of errors in the origial publication be discussed on Saturday, I wonder?

[Pulcinella]

Looks like you might need two scores. One for those recordings which used that published in 1947 and the 1994 revision for later recordings. Will Peter Bartok's corrections of errors in the origial publication be discussed on Saturday, I wonder?

Revised edition £23.99

https://www.prestomusic.com/sheet-music/products/7190300--bartok-b-piano-concerto-no-3

That's a lot of bargain CDs!

[Bryn]

Revised edition £23.99

https://www.prestomusic.com/sheet-music/products/7190300--bartok-b-piano-concerto-no-3

That's a lot of bargain CDs!

I think the tax-dodgershave it for around £16.

[Pulcinella]

I think the tax-dodgershave it for around £16.

Thanks.
Having no image confused me, in case their offering was the piano reduction: I should have (and now have done) checked the ISBN.