Bartok Solo Piano Works Volume 2
On this CD:
1. Suite, for piano, Sz. 62, BB 70 (Op. 14)
Composed by Bela Bartok
Performed by June De Toth
2. For Children, eighty-five teaching pieces without octaves in four volumes for piano (Gyermekeknek), Sz. 42, BB 53
Composed by Bela Bartok
Performed by June De Toth
3. Burlesques (3), for piano, Sz. 47, BB 55 (Op. 8c)
Composed by Bela Bartok
Performed by June De Toth
Editorial Reviews
AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE: March/April 1999
There's more to Bartok's music than meets the eye-or the ear. Nowadays the debt he owed to recording technology as far back as 1905 (when he first met Zoltan Kodaly) is little more than a dim memory, save for a handful of scholars and his most ardent devotees. But Bartok was a devoted collector relying on wax cylinders to record and study thousands of indigenous Eastern European folk tunes. Indeed, in his effort to codify in music the diatonic constructions of the gypsy and peasant cultures of Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia and Romania he elevated the natural charms of a backwoods genre to high art. It is fitting that the very technology that played midwife to Bartok's melismatic exoticisms now offers an ideal format for their realization. In her exhaustive survey of his complete piano works (these are the first three out of seven CDs), June de Toth proves herself a smart, solid, and reliable pianist. She offers thoughtful and often eloquent readings that reject both hysteria and the kind of kamikaze approach of so many young piano lions. Its overall sobriety and discipline is such that the music speaks for itself. In the wistful 'Street of Istvand', for example, or in the rugged yet oddly seductive sailor song 'In the Harbor of Nagyvarad', her no-nonsense surefootedness gives ample voice to Bartok's nostalgic melancholia. Indeed, in these works, part of the 42 Hungarian Folk Songs for Children, she fathoms each as a kind of apposite gestuary of hemiolas and unnerving hesitations, and as the stuff of musical speech. If Bartok was Hungary's answer to Moussorgsky, nowhere i! s it more evident than here. Capturing the essentially trochaic inflections of Hungarian speech with the knowing temperament of a native (Ms de Toth is full blood Hungarian) she lays out the keyboard songs with the patrician air of an old storyteller at a family gathering. Whatever one's ideas and taste may be in interpretation of Bartok, her performances are persuasive. Take particular note of her attractive readings of the 14 Bagatelles: these she portrays with a kind of arid simplicity that enhances their now playful, now lonely ethos. This set would make an ideal introduction to Bartok's piano music, especially if you are still unfamiliar with the bulk of it. These are urbane, honest, eminently intelligible interpretations that will draw the uninitiated into the texts of this extraordinarily rich music. YOUNG
Le Guide Du Concert et du Disque
Paris: "She gave a clear vision of the eternity of the great Gods of music: Bartok, Chopin, Liszt, Debussy, and Ravel.. June De Toth possesses a marvelous technique. She made a clear distinction between the styles of Beethoven and Bartk.''
Album Description
This set (this is the second out of seven CDs), would make an ideal introduction to Bartok's piano music, especially if you are still unfamiliar with the bulk of it. These are urbane, honest, eminently intelligible interpretations that will draw the uninitiated into the texts of this extraordinarily rich music. In her exhaustive survey of his complete piano works June de Toth proves herself a smart, solid, and reliable pianist. She offers thoughtful and often eloquent readings that reject both hysteria and the kind of kamikaze approach of so many young piano lions. Its overall sobriety and discipline is such that the music speaks for itself In the wistful 'Street of Istvand', for example, or in the rugged yet oddly seductive sailor song 'In the Harbor of Nagyvarad', her no-nonsense surefootedness gives ample voice to Bartok's nostalgic melancholia. Indeed, in these works, part of the 42 Hungarian Folk Songs for Children, she fathoms each as a kind of apposite gestuary of hemiolas and unnerving hesitations, and as the stuff of musical speech. If Bartok was Hungary's answer to Moussorgsky, nowhere is it more evident than here. Capturing the essentially trochaic inflections of Hungarian speech with the knowing temperament of a native (Ms de Toth is full blood Hungarian) she lays out the keyboard songs with the patrician air of an old storyteller at a family gathering. Whatever one's ideas and taste may be in interpretation of Bartok, her performances are persuasive. Take particular note of her attractive readings of the 14 Bagatelles: these she portrays with a kind of arid simplicity that enhances their now playful, now lonely ethos.
Bartok Solo Piano Works Volume 2
Bartok Solo Piano Works Volume 2, Music, Bela Bartok, June de Toth, Burleske for Keyboard, Capturing the essentially trochaic inflections of Hungarian speech with the knowing temperament of a native, she lays out the keyboard songs with the patrician air of an old storyteller at a family gathering., Chamber Music & Recitals, Classical, Classical Composers, Classical Music, Coll. of Character/Single-Movement/Misc. Works for Keyb., Keyboard, Music for Keyboard, Suite/Partita for Keyboard
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Bartok Solo Piano Works Volume 2
Manufacturer: Eroica Classical Recordings ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD ASIN: B00000FDHO Release Date: 1999-12-15 |
Tracks:
Album Description
This set (this is the second out of seven CDs), would make an ideal introduction to Bartok's piano music, especially if you are still unfamiliar with the bulk of it. These are urbane, honest, eminently intelligible interpretations that will draw the uninitiated into the texts of this extraordinarily rich music. In her exhaustive survey of his complete piano works June de Toth proves herself a smart, solid, and reliable pianist. She offers thoughtful and often eloquent readings that reject both hysteria and the kind of kamikaze approach of so many young piano lions. Its overall sobriety and discipline is such that the music speaks for itself In the wistful 'Street of Istvand', for example, or in the rugged yet oddly seductive sailor song 'In the Harbor of Nagyvarad', her no-nonsense surefootedness gives ample voice to Bartok's nostalgic melancholia. Indeed, in these works, part of the 42 Hungarian Folk Songs for Children, she fathoms each as a kind of apposite gestuary of hemiolas and unnerving hesitations, and as the stuff of musical speech. If Bartok was Hungary's answer to Moussorgsky, nowhere is it more evident than here. Capturing the essentially trochaic inflections of Hungarian speech with the knowing temperament of a native (Ms de Toth is full blood Hungarian) she lays out the keyboard songs with the patrician air of an old storyteller at a family gathering. Whatever one's ideas and taste may be in interpretation of Bartok, her performances are persuasive. Take particular note of her attractive readings of the 14 Bagatelles: these she portrays with a kind of arid simplicity that enhances their now playful, now lonely ethos.Music Review:
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