The Concerto for Orchestra, Sz. 116, BB 123, is a five-movement musical work for orchestra composed by Béla Bartók in 1943. It is one of his best-known, most popular and most accessible works. The score is inscribed "15 August – 8 October 1943". It was premiered on December 1, 1944, in Symphony Hall, Boston, by the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Serge Koussevitzky. It was a great success and has been regularly performed since. It is perhaps the best-known of a number of pieces that have the apparently contradictory title Concerto for Orchestra. This is in contrast to the conventional concerto form, which features a solo instrument with orchestral accompaniment. Bartók said that he called the piece a concerto rather than a symphony because of the way each section of instruments is treated in a soloistic and virtuosic way.

Composition

The work was written in response to a commission from the Koussevitzky Foundation (run by the conductor Serge Koussevitzky) following Bartók's move to the United States from his native Hungary, which he had fled because of World War II. It has been speculated that Bartók's previous work, the String Quartet No. 6 (1939), could well have been his last were it not for this commission, which sparked a small number of other compositions, including his Sonata for Solo Violin and Piano Concerto No. 3. Bartók revised the piece in February 1945, the biggest change coming in the last movement, where he wrote a longer ending. Both versions of the ending were published, and both versions are performed today.

Musical analysis

The second theme of the first movement (measure 155). The harp, which plays a quarter note (F sharp) in the last measure, is omitted.

Bartók makes extensive use of classical elements in the work; for instance, the first and fifth movements are in sonata-allegro form. The work combines elements of Western art music and eastern European folk music, especially that of Hungary, and it departs from traditional tonality, often using non-traditional modes and artificial scales. Bartók researched folk melodies, and their influence is felt throughout the work. For example, the second main theme of the first movement, as played by the first oboe, resembles a folk melody, with its narrow range and almost haphazard rhythm. The drone in the horns and strings also indicates folk influence (see example).

The piece is scored for 3 flutes (one doubling piccolo), 3 oboes (one doubling cor anglais), 3 clarinets (one doubling bass clarinet), 3 bassoons (one doubling contrabassoon), 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, side drum, bass drum, cymbals, triangle, tam-tam, 2 harps and strings.

I. Introduzione. Andante non troppo – Allegro vivace

The first movement, Introduzione, is a slow introduction of Night music type that gives way to an allegro with numerous fugato passages. This movement is in sonata-allegro form.

II. "Presentando le coppie". Allegro scherzando

The second movement, called "Game of Pairs" (but see note below), is in five sections, each thematically distinct from each other, with a different pair of instruments playing together in each section. In each passage a different interval separates the pair—bassoons are a minor sixth apart, oboes are in minor thirds, clarinets in minor sevenths, flutes in fifths and muted trumpets in major seconds. The movement prominently features a side drum that taps out a rhythm at the beginning and end of the movement.

While the printed score titles the second movement "Giuoco delle coppie" or "Game of the couples", Bartók's manuscript had no title at all for this movement at the time the engraving-copy blueprint was made for the publisher. At some later date, Bartók added the words "Presentando le coppie" or "Presentation of the couples" to the manuscript and the addition of this title was included in the list of corrections to be made to the score. However, in Bartók's file blueprint the final title is found, and because it is believed to have been the composer's later thought, it is retained in the revised edition of the score. The original 1946 printed score also had an incorrect metronome marking for this movement. This was brought to light by Sir Georg Solti as he was preparing to record the Concerto for Orchestra and the Dance Suite:

When preparing these two works for the recording I was determined that the tempi should be exactly as Bartók wrote and this led me to some extraordinary discoveries, chief of which was in the second movement of the Concerto for Orchestra. The printed score gives crotchet equals 74, which is extremely slow, but I thought that I must follow what it says. When we rehearsed I could see that the musicians didn't like it at all and in the break the side drum player (who starts the movement with a solo) came to me and said "Maestro, my part is marked crotchet equals 94", which I thought must be a mistake, since none of the other parts have a tempo marking. The only way to check was to locate the manuscript and through the courtesy of the Library of Congress in Washington we obtained a copy of the relevant page, which not only clearly showed crotchet equals 94, but a tempo marking of "Allegro scherzando" (the printed score gives "Allegretto scherzando"). Furthermore Bartók headed it "Presentando le coppie" (Presentation of the couples), not "Giuoco delle coppie" (Game of the couples). I was most excited by this, because it becomes a quite different piece. The programme of the first performance in Boston clearly has the movement marked "Allegro scherzando" and the keeper of the Bartók archives was able to give us further conclusive evidence that the faster tempo must be correct. I have no doubt that thousands of performances, including my own up to now, have been given at the wrong speed!

III. "Elegia". Andante non troppo

The third movement, "Elegia", is another slow movement, typical of Bartók's so-called "Night music". The movement revolves around three themes which derive primarily from the first movement.

IV. "Intermezzo interrotto". Allegretto

The fourth movement, "Intermezzo interrotto" (literally "interrupted intermezzo"), consists of a flowing melody with changing time signatures, intermixed with a theme parodying the song "Da geh' ich zu Maxim" from Franz Lehár's operetta The Merry Widow, as the composer's pianist friend György Sándor has made clear. The later idea that Bartók was ridiculing the march tune in Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7 "Leningrad" came from a misinterpreted claim by the composer's son Peter. It is much more likely, however, that both composers were parodying Lehár's universally popular song. The theme is itself interrupted by glissandi on the trombones and woodwinds. In this movement, the timpani are featured when the second theme is introduced, requiring 10 different pitches of the timpani over the course of 20 seconds. The general structure is "ABA–interruption–BA."

V. Finale. Presto

The fifth movement, Finale, marked "presto", consists of a whirling perpetuum mobile main theme competing with fugato fireworks and folk melodies. This is also in sonata-allegro form.

Recordings

• In 1946 Columbia Records released a recording with Fritz Reiner conducting the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. 12-inch LP recording. Columbia ML 4102 (monaural). New York: Columbia.
• In 1953 Angel Records released a recording with Herbert von Karajan conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra. 12-inch LP recording. ANG 35003. Hollywood: Angel Records.
• In 1954 Columbia Records released a recording with Eugene Ormandy conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra. 12-inch LP recording. Columbia ML 4973. New York: Columbia.
• In 1955 RCA Victor released a recording with Fritz Reiner conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. 12-inch LP recording. [N.p.]: RCA.
• In 1956 Decca Records released a recording with Ernest Ansermet conducting the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, also including Frank Martin's Concerto for seven winds, percussion, and string orchestra. Decca LXT 5305; London CS-6086; Decca Eclipse (stereo). London: Decca.
• In 1958 Capitol Records released a recording with Rafael Kubelik conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, also including Bartók's Two portraits, op. 5. 12-inch LP recording. [Hollywood]: Capitol Records.
• In 1960 Columbia Records released a recording with Leonard Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, recorded at St. George Hotel, Brooklyn, New York, November 30, 1959. 12-inch LP recording. Columbia MS 6140 (stereo). New York: Columbia Records.
• In 1962RCA Records released a recording with Erich Leinsdorf conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra, made in Symphony Hall, Boston. 12-inch LP recording. RCA Victor LM-2643 (monaural). New York: RCA Victor.
• In 1965 Columbia Records released a recording with George Szell conducting the Cleveland Orchestra, also including Leoš Janáček's Sinfonietta. 12-inch LP recording. Columbia ML 6215 (stereo). New York: Columbia.
• In 1965 Decca Records released a recording with Georg Solti conducting the London Symphony Orchestra. 12-inch LP recording. Decca SXL 6212 (stereo).
• In 2012 Naxos Records released a recording with Marin Alsop conducting the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in addition to Bartók's Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta. Digital recording. Naxos 8.572486.

References

1. ^ Cooper, David (1996). Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-48505-3. 
2. ^ Bartók, Béla. "Explanation to Concerto for Orchestra," for the Boston premiere at Symphony Hall.
3. ^ Bartók, Béla (2004). Concerto for Orchestra (Score). New York: Boosey & Hawkes. ISBN 0-85162-189-9. 
4. ^ Peter Bartók, "Preface to the Revised Edition, 1993", in Béla Bartók, Concerto for Orchestra: Full Score, revised edition, [iii–v] (London, New York, Bonn, Sydney, Tokyo: Boosey & Hawkes, 1993). The citation is on p. iv.
5. ^ Sir Georg Solti, Liner notes from London LP LDR 71036, Bartók Concerto for Orchestra and Dance Suite, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, recorded January 1980.
6. ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbradio3/html/NF2620064?thread=3048897
7. ^ Griffiths, Paul (February 22, 1999). "A Peacetime Hearing of the Shostakovich 'Leningrad,' Forged in War". The New York Times. Retrieved 30 March 2010. 
8. ^ Stevens, Halsey. 1964. The Life and Music of Béla Bartók, second edition. New York: Oxford University Press. ASIN: B000NZ54ZS (Third edition 1993, ISBN 978-0-19-816349-7).
9. ^ Recorded on 4–5 February 1946: Columbia Masterworks M-793 (78 rpm)
10. ^ Recorded on 14 February 1954
11. ^ Recorded on 22 October 1955
12. ^ Recorded on 11–12/15 November 1956
13. ^ Recorded on 1 November 1958
14. ^ Recorded on September 1962
15. ^ Recorded on 15–16 January 1965
16. ^ Clements, Andrew (May 8, 2012). "Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra; Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta – review". The Guardian. Retrieved May 20, 2015.