Béla Bartók - String Quartet No. 1
238,514
Published 2015-09-18
- Performers: Hungarian String Quartet
- Year of recording: 1961
String Quartet No. 1 in A minor, Sz. 40, BB 52 (Op. 7), written in 1908.
00:00 - I. Lento
10:48 - II. Allegretto {Poco a poco accelerando all'allegretto} - Introduzione
20:41 - III. Allegro vivace
In a letter to violinist Stefi Geyer, Bartók described the opening movement of this quartet as his "funeral dirge." The quartet's first four notes -- a descending major sixth and a minor sixth interval played imitatively by the first and second violins -- are nearly identical to the opening motif of the second, giocoso, movement of the Violin Concerto No. 1 (1908), Bartók's musical portrait of Geyer, with whom he was unrequitedly in love. Bartók dealt with the rejection of his love in a series of autobiographical works, of which this quartet is the culmination. Kodály called this quartet a "return to life," and its three accelerating movements (Lento, Allegretto, and Allegro vivace) plainly trace a course from the Liebestod-like anguish of the convoluted first movement to the heady, forceful finale.
- The Lento is marked by a hyper-chromatic Romantic mood characteristic of many works written around the turn of the century. Sadness and despair are the prevailing sentiments in this work, with wistful nostalgia expressed in passing episodes of Impressionistic delicacy that are quickly subsumed by the darker mood. After the first theme is explored, (the counterpoint is reminiscent of Beethoven's late string quartets), a funereal element is introduced with forceful, bell-like fifths on the cello, over which sounds a sobbing second theme, on viola and second violin harmonized in thirds, while the first violin muses detachedly in the upper register. The mood and style are reminiscent of the first violin concerto's opening movement. A hesitant bridge passage accelerates gradually to...
- the next movement, which presents a delicate and witty theme, a stepwise motif that is subjected to a series of explorations in various settings suggestive of variation technique. The mood is ambiguous, despite light-hearted interplay among the instruments; when a distinct mood finally manifests itself toward the end of the movement, it is one of anger, driven by an insistent pulsing ostinato on a single note that begins as an ominous pizzicato on the cello and grows to fist-shaking open fifths arco. The mood is not resolved by movement's end. Another bridge passage leads to...
- the finale, an accelerating Allegro vivace that is the longest of the three movements. In the first movement, there was only a brief suggestion of Hungarian folk music in the cello's soulful melody during the Impressionistic episode; here the character of folk music is more pronounced. Its use here, though not as organic as in later works, nevertheless seems central to the young composer's "return to life" after a period of despair. The main theme, which has a "scolding" quality (and is intervallically related to the descending sixths of the first movement), is developed through a series of episodes, one of which parodies European café music, after which it is treated, fugato-style, in a grotesque, scherzando section. The coda is fast and propulsive, the final, emphatic chords of open fifths barely able to block its momentum.
All Comments (21)
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Good stuff. Listening to Bartoks string quartets for 30 years. They still sound fresh and reward the listener with new perspectives and insights upon numerous repeated listenings.
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Bartok's contrapuntal writing never ceases to blow me away. A master at his craft.
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Love Bartok's wonderful, complex, post-tonal, dissonant language !!!! Tension remains present even in the slower sections; textures vary greatly and include an awesome, contrapuntal, fugue-like procedure.
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Bartok, thanks for your beautifull music from another dimension
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Oct. 2017: Who knew I would live so long, or care! But my Uncle David played for many years in the Houston Symphony. I lived in Houston in 1965 (hated it). But when Dave gave me a gift certificate at Foley's Dept. Store, what I purchased was a Columbia Box of the Six Quartets. Haven't listened to these discs for quite a while! It comes back. It IS a bit of heaven!
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The first is the sexiest string quartet movement i can think of
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Kedves magyar zene - nagyon szeretem Bartok Bélát. Üdvözlet Dániából
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Someone said my work sounds like Bartok's early works, and after hearing this I am very flattered
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Play music like you are singing it, Play music like you are dancing. Play like you are traveling around the world and play like you are telling a story.
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olla-vogala for president
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What sublime music, I got carried away in to another dimension, carrying on where Beethoven left off in op. 131, when all of a sudden I heard: "The new Hyundai is finally for sale! Supplies limited - hurry to your nearst dealer and try it!..." Wonderful!. If you're going to put ads on your music you must have a really low regard for Bartok. Or at least time them appropriately.
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As much as I love Schoenberg's early work, I never really appreciated his 12-tone approach; it always sounded too artificial. Bartok manages to achieve near-atonality without the forced mechanism.
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00:06 : Partie A motif de Stefi (deux premières du violon 1 suivies des deux premières notes du violon 2 fa lab do mi) 01:08 : Motif de Stefi 03:55 : Motif de Stefi 04:34 : Motif de Stefi 05:19 : Partie B 06:42 : Passage "ravélien" 07:57 : Partie A 10:48 : Deuxième mouvement - Forme sonate 11:39 : Exposition - Premier groupe thématique 12:38 : Exposition - Deuxième groupe thématique 13:14 : Passage en gamme par ton 13:41 : Développement 16:58 : Réexposition 17:42 : Deuxième groupe thématique (uniquement le passage en gamme par ton) 18:24 : Coda 19:05 : Introduzione 20:43 : Troisième mouvement - Forme sonate - Exposition - Premier groupe thématique 21:32 : en diminution, présenté de manière contrapuntique 22:01 : Exposition - Second groupe thématique 22:45 : Exposition - Second groupe thématique - Adagio, thème populaire 24:13 : Développement (basé sur le premier thème) 24:33 : à l'unisson 24:47 : déformé 25:08 : passage fugué 27:07 : Réexposition - Premier groupe thématique 28:04 : Réexposition - Second groupe thématique 28:48 : Réexposition - Second groupe thématique - Adagio thème populaire 30:19 : Coda
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I sort of hear war(s) coming closer. Tense, anxious, stressful impression. But exquisite.
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Once again, thanks for posting and thanks especially for the notes. Besides finding the content of your notes so enlightening, I also think they are a model of clarity in style.
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Back in my “yoof”, in the local libraries audio section, I decided I should expand my cultural horizons… I took out a vinyl copy of Bartok’s string quartets.. On listening I was astonished.. I still am..
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No one does tension and suspense in music quite like Bartok. The more I listen to his music the more impressed I am.
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28:47 holy moly
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7:38 that moment is perfect
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His "Concerto for Orchestra" is full of references to this work, especially the last movement.
