{"id":2160,"date":"2010-12-20T14:55:47","date_gmt":"2010-12-20T13:55:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/?p=2160"},"modified":"2012-07-14T23:16:38","modified_gmt":"2012-07-14T22:16:38","slug":"program-note-archive-bartok-viola-concerto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/2010\/12\/20\/program-note-archive-bartok-viola-concerto\/","title":{"rendered":"Program note archive: Bartok Viola Concerto"},"content":{"rendered":"

B\u00e9la\u00a0Bart\u00f3k- Concerto for Viola (1945) completed by\u00a0Tibor\u00a0Serly<\/strong><\/p>\n

William Primrose, maybe the most important violist of modern times, asked the then-ailing\u00a0Bart\u00f3k\u00a0to write a concerto for his use in 1945. Since emigrating from\u00a0Hungary\u00a0to the\u00a0US\u00a0in 1940,\u00a0Bart\u00f3k\u00a0had endured a period of terrible neglect, poverty and homesickness. Howard Hanson, the reactionary and xenophobic president of the Eastman School of Music, had turned away\u00a0Bart\u00f3k’s\u00a0application for a teaching position in spite of his reputation as possibly the most important living composer and ethnomusicologist of his day.<\/p>\n

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Word of\u00a0Bart\u00f3k’s\u00a0desperate situation finally reached Serge\u00a0Koussevitsky, the visionary music director of the \u00a0Boston \u00a0Symphony, who did as much as any conductor in the 20th\u00a0Century to commission and premiere important new works. In 1942, upon hearing that\u00a0Bart\u00f3k\u00a0was both ill and destitute,\u00a0Koussevitsky\u00a0doubted\u00a0Bartok\u00a0would be up to the strain of writing a major work, but also knew that\u00a0Bart\u00f3k\u00a0would not accept charity. Koussevitsky \u00a0commissioned \u00a0Bart\u00f3k\u00a0to write a showpiece for the Boston Symphony, and\u00a0Bart\u00f3k\u00a0was so overjoyed at the opportunity that he quickly forgot his problems and embarked on the writing of his Concerto for Orchestra, a joyous and brilliant piece universally acknowledged as one of the masterpieces of the 20th\u00a0Century.<\/p>\n

After this, Bart\u00f3k\u2019s creative powers returned to full strength, even as his body started to fail. Commissions began to pour in, and\u00a0Bart\u00f3k\u00a0turned to work on a 3rd\u00a0Piano Concerto, a Sonata for Solo Violin and the Viola Concerto. By 1945, his health was rapidly failing, and it became clear while working on the 3rd\u00a0Piano Concerto and the Viola Concerto that he would not finish either work.\u00a0Bart\u00f3k\u00a0hoped the Piano Concerto would provide a source of income for his wife, the pianist for whom it was written, and so made a great push to complete the work before succumbing to leukemia.\u00a0Bart\u00f3k\u00a0entrusted the completion of the Viola Concerto to his friend and former pupil\u00a0Tibor\u00a0Serly, who also completed the 3rd<\/sup> Piano Concerto.<\/p>\n

Like the Concerto for Orchestra and the last Piano Concerto, the Viola Concerto is a profoundly lyrical, spiritual and life affirming work. In those sad, final years\u00a0Bart\u00f3k\u00a0found within himself a capacity for expressing warmth and joy that listeners continue to marvel at 50 years later. The first movement is the most complete and fully developed and shows\u00a0Bart\u00f3k\u00a0at the height of his musical powers. The lyrical second movement is deeply spiritual in feeling, but the folk-music inspired fire of the finale is no less full of life. Sadly, the finale shows the most evidence of\u00a0Serly\u2019s hand- in spite of the richly promising musical material the movement is less completely developed that one would expect in a mature work of the master. Still a brilliant conclusion to the greatest work in the viola repertoire, its slightly weakened musical finish is a poignant reminder of the fate of its creator, who did not live to complete it or hear it performed.<\/p>\n