Béla Bartók - Concerto for 2 Pianos, Percussion and Orchestra (1940)

Béla Viktor János Bartók (25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist, and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Franz Liszt are regarded as Hungary's greatest composers (Gillies 2001). Through his collection and analytical study of folk music, he was one of the founders of comparative musicology, which later became ethnomusicology.

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For 2 Pianos, Percussion and Orchestra

1.Assai lento - Allegro molto (0:00)
2. Lento, ma non troppo (12:30)
3. Allegro non troppo (18:58)

Lucas and Arthur Jussen, piano
Peter Stracke, percussion
Johannes Wippermann, percussion
WDR Sinfonieorchester conducted by Cristian Măcelaru
Recorded live on 15.03.2024 in the Kölner Philharmonie
https://youtu.be/CuJkkRr1RBQ?si=4o42xeg4ZnrNT7SA

In 1940, at the suggestion of his publisher and agent, Heinsheimer, Bartók orchestrated the Sonata for Two Piano and Percussion (1937) as Concerto for Two Pianos, Percussion and Orchestra. The parts for the four soloists were essentially unchanged. The world premiere was given at the Royal Albert Hall, London, at a Royal Philharmonic Society concert on 14 November 1942, with percussionists Ernest Gillegin and Frederick Bradshaw, the then-husband-and-wife piano team of Louis Kentner and Ilona Kabos, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir Adrian Boult. The composer and Ditta Pásztory-Bartók were piano soloists in a performance at Carnegie Hall in New York on January 21, 1943, with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Fritz Reiner. This was Bartók's final public appearance as a performer. He died of leukemia in 1945.

The score requires four performers, two pianists and two percussionists, who play seven instruments between them: timpani, bass drum (gran cassa), cymbals, triangle, snare drum (both on- and off- snares), tam-tam (gong) and xylophone. In the published score, the composer provides detailed instructions for the percussionists, stipulating, for example, which part of a suspended cymbal is to be struck with what type of stick. He also provides precise instructions for the platform layout of the four players and their instruments.