Violin Concerto No. 2 (Bartók)
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This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in the Hungarian Wikipedia. (August 2009) Click [show] on the right for instructions.
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Béla Bartók's Violin Concerto No. 2, BB 117 (written 1937–38) was dedicated to the Hungarian violin virtuoso, Zoltán Székely, who requested the composition in 1936,[1] and is a prime example of verbunkos style.[citation needed]
Bartók composed the concerto in a difficult life situation, filled with serious concern about the growing strength of fascism. He was of firm anti-fascist stand, and therefore became the target of various attacks in the pre-war Hungary. However, the composition is written in rather optimistic atmosphere.[1][vague]
Bartók initially planned to write a single-movement set of variations, but Székely wanted a standard three-movement concerto. In the end, Székely got his three movements and Bartók got his variations (the second movement being possibly the most formal set of variations Bartók wrote in his career, and the third movement being a variation on material from the first).[2]
Though not employing twelve-tone technique the piece contains twelve-tone themes, such as in the first and third movements:
The work was premiered at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam on March 23, 1939 with Zoltán Székely, violin and Willem Mengelberg conducting the Concertgebouw Orchestra.
It had its United States premiere in Cleveland, Ohio in 1943, with Tossy Spivakovsky and the Cleveland Orchestra under Artur Rodziński. Spivakovsky later gave the New York and San Francisco premieres of the work.[4]
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[edit] Structure
It has the following three movements:
- Allegro non troppo
- Andante tranquillo
- Allegro molto
The concerto is scored for 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, side drum, bass drum, cymbals, triangle, tamtam, celesta, harp, and strings.[2]
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ a b Sleeve note of the Supraphon CD (SU 3682-2011)[not in citation given]
- ^ a b Phillip Huscher, "Béla Bartók: Violin Concerto No. 2". Chicago Symphony Orchestra program notes, 2006. Chicago Symphony Orchestra website (Archive from 27 September 2007, accessed 4 March 2012).
- ^ Arnold Whittall, The Cambridge Introduction to Serialism. Cambridge Introductions to Music. (London and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008), p. 152. ISBN 978-0-521-68200-8 (pbk).
- ^ Allan Kozinn, "Tossy Spivakovsky, 91, Violinist Who Created Bowing Technique", New York Times (obituary) (27 July 1998).
[edit] Further reading
- Somfai, László. 1977. "Strategics of Variation in the Second Movement of Bartók's Violin Concerto 1937–1938". Studia Musicologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 19, Fasc. 1/4:161–202.
- Ujfalussy, József. 1971. "Is Bartók's Concerto for Violin Really His Second?" Studia Musicologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 13, Fasc. 1/4:355–56.
[edit] External links
- AllMusicGuide. "Béla Bartók Violin Concerto No. 2, About". http://www.classicalarchives.com/work/115567.html#tvf=tracks&tv=about. Retrieved October 7, 2010.
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