Continue the journey…
We suggest other works to explore after Bartók’s Violin Concerto No. 2
Bartók drafted his Viola Concerto just before his death in 1945; it is usually performed in the version his Hungarian colleague, Tibor Serly, completed with assistance from the work’s dedicatee, William Primrose. Though its orchestration does not match the evocative subtlety of the Second Violin Concerto’s, the lyricism of the solo part in particular is both unmistakable and hauntingly beautiful. (Kim Kashkashian; Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra/peter Eötvös ECM 465 4202).
Bartók, as a rule sparing in his praise, described Karol Szymanowski as ‘one of the leading composers of the world’, and in both 1921 and ’36 asked their mutual publisher, Universal Edition, to send him all the Polish composer’s published violin works. Szymanowski’s First Violin Concerto, written in 1916 (though not published until 1923), clearly anticipates Bartók’s soundworld in its lusciously masterful orchestration and whirring avian sounds. (Baiba Skride; Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra/vasily Petrenko Orfeo C 873141 A).
Few composers quite match Bartók’s flair for combining richly coloured yet leanly purposeful orchestration with rhythmically vibrant music. One who did was the Finnish Aarre Merikanto (1893-1958). His Second Violin Concerto (1925), strikingly beautiful and masterful in its own right, is uncannily close to Bartók in its soundworld. (Kaija Saarikettu (violin); Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra/james Depriest Finlandia – digital only).
Bartók-like in its dance rhythms and sinewy, quirky lyricism is Hindemith’s Violin Concerto of 1939. This includes several moments of startling yet understated beauty, while the central movement strikingly recalls the Hungarian composer’s soundworld with rushing torrents of woodwind and strings surmounted with brass fanfares. (David Oistrakh; London Symphony Orchestra/ Paul Hindemith Decca 433 0812).
The affinity between Bartók and the very American Roy Harris is perhaps a bigger surprise. Yet Harris’s recently rediscovered Violin Concerto of 1949, with its folksy dance rhythms, the bitter-sweet twist of its tonality and its clean-cut orchestration with vigorous brass fanfares, makes him appear perhaps the US’S answer to Bartók. (Tamsin Waley-cohen (violin); BBC Symphony Orchestra/andrew Litton Signum SIGCD 468).
The lyricism of the solo part is both unmistakable and hauntingly beautiful