Word: bartok
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra (Minneapolis Symphony conducted by Antal Dorati; Mercury). The fourth LP of a contemporary classic, this version has the distinction of dazzlingly clear and closeup sound, presumably authentic interpretation by one of Bartok's pupils and performance by a fine orchestra...
...Impression of a Windy Day, which had its prom premiere in 1921; Liszt's Hungarian Fantasia, played by Pianist Mark Hambourg, 75, who played his first prom in 1896; Hary Janos Suite, by Hungary's Zoltan Kodaly, which, like works by many other modern composers (e.g., Bartok and Stravinsky), was first introduced to a curious London public at the prom concerts...
Four Sonatas for Piano (Zadel Skolovsky; Columbia). A talented pianist enthusiastically takes on four distinctive 20th century styles: Scriabin's still-misty modernity (Sonata No. 4); Alban Berg's early and rather turbid atonality (Sonata, Op. 1) ; Bartok's lean, athletic, but vividly coherent paganism (Sonata); and Hindemith's smooth-flowing manner that says little at great length (Sonata No. 2). The performances are clean and sure...
...also has "an amazing ability to see talent. He is a man of great intelligence." "Writing Is Funny." Kirchner was a man of considerable ability himself by 1947, and he began turning out his share of compositions. One of the most imposing to date: his first String Quartet, a Bartok-ian piece with a now-gritty, now-smooth character, scalp-tingling dissonances, and immense technical facility...
More meaty is the 40-minute Hello Out There, adapted from William Saroyan's play and composed by a newcomer, Jack Beeson, 32, a student of the late Bela Bartok. Trapped in a Texas county jail sits an easygoing gambler falsely charged with rape, and in danger of being lynched. Before he meets his end, he talks of love and freedom to the jail's cleaning girl and of bitterer truths to the hotheaded husband of the woman he supposedly wronged. The music too often slips out of focus, but at its best contains some genuinely affecting melody...