Piano Concerto No. 3 (Bartók)

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Béla Bartók's Piano Concerto No. 3 in E major, Sz. 119, BB 127 is a musical composition for piano with orchestral accompaniment. The piece was composed in 1945 by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók during the final months of his career and life. It consists of three movements, and noticeably deviates from the composer's earlier works in that it contains tonal themes, and lacks much of the dark coloring and complex rhythmic features common in earlier works.

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[edit] Context

The Piano Concerto No. 3 was one of only a few pieces composed by Bartók after departing Hungary after the outbreak of World War II. Bartók's migration from Europe to America preceded that of his music. Lack of local interest, combined with Bartók's extended battle with leukemia and a general sense of discomfort in the American atmosphere prevented Bartók from composing in his early years in America. Fortunately, the composer was commissioned to create his Concerto for Orchestra which was extremely well received, and substantially decreased the composer's financial difficulties.

This, combined with a substantial abatement of his medical condition, allowed for a great change in the composer's general disposition. The drastic changes in the composer's emotional and financial state are often considered the primary causes for the third piano concerto's seemingly light, airy, almost neoclassical tone, especially in comparison to Bartók's earlier works [1][2].

The piece was not composed under commission, unlike much of Bartók's work, but was rather created as a surprise birthday gift for Bartók's second wife, Ditta Pásztory, who was, like Bartók, a skilled concert pianist. It has been suggested that many of the deviations from Bartók's prior style can be attributed to this. For example, this concerto is significantly less technically challenging than Bartók's two prior piano concertos, and it has been suggested that Bartók consciously created a less demanding piece so that his wife, who lacked the technical prowess to perform his two earlier concertos, would be able to perform the piece as a livelihood after Bartók had succumb to his terminal illness.
While the composition of a piece as a gift as opposed to a commission undoubtedly impacted the composing process, it is much more likely that the piece was instead the culmination of a trend of reduction and simplification, which began almost 10 years prior with the Second Violin Concerto, to conclude Bartók's exploration of tonality and complexity [3].

Bartók died on September 26, 1945, with the concerto unfinished. The task of completing the composition, including orchestration of the final 17 measures, drawing from Bartók's notes, was taken on by Tibor Serly, a friend and pupil of Bartók.
It premiered in Philadelphia on February 8, 1946 under Hungarian conductor Eugene Ormandy with György Sándor as piano soloist. The piece has since been adapted for two pianos by Mátyás Seiber.

[edit] Music

Piano Concerto No. 3 consists of three movements:

  1. Allegretto
  2. Adagio religioso
  3. Allegro vivace

which combine for an approximate duration of 23 minutes. The piece was originally scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets in A, 2 bassoons, 4 horns in F, 2 trumpets in C, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, strings, and piano.

[edit] Allegretto

The first movement, based in E major, features a Hungarian folk theme, similar to nineteenth century Hungarian verbunkos dance over which Bartók had enthused as a youth, first introduced by soloist piano. The theme is often mirrored and modulated by the orchestra throughout. The melody and piano solo are written with such rhythmic complexity and unpredictability that they seem almost improvisational, but closer inspection reveals that the melody was systematically crafted.

The first chord of the first movement, which holds four pitches, E, F#, A, and B, implying both E Dorian and E Mixolydian, and is relatively tonal, especially when compared to the first chord of Piano Concerto No. 1. The chord develops further with the addition of C# in the second bar, resulting in the pentatonic, which is followed with G#, leaving a major scale short of D#. Bartók continues to add D to complete the Mixolydian scale, followed by G# to suggest the Dorian mode. Finally, in bar six, Bartók displays the Lydian mode through G# and A#. This complex melodic pattern is an example of what Bartók called polymodal chromaticism, the rapid succession of many modes through chromatic alteration to produce a twelve tone, chromatic texture [4].

[edit] Adagio religioso

The second movement, based in C major, seems to directly mirror the style of a Beethoven chorale. The string introduction followed by the chorale on piano nearly mimic the third movement of Beethoven's String Quartet in A minor. The second movement is also suspected to be highly autobiographic.[citation needed] At the time of composition, Bartók may have been hopeful for a full recovery and, at the same time, the conflict which forced him out of Europe had come to a close. Therefore, it is not unreasonable to think that this section relates to Bartók's hopes of returning to Hungary. In fact, Bartók includes a harmony related to the Tristan chord, a set of intervals from Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde referred to as the ``characteristically sad and yearning harmony of Romanticism [5]. The final resolution of the Tristan chord comes as a C-based pentatonic mode, and as Bartók was known to consider pentatony a chief characteristic of ancient Hungarian folksong, this can be considered a musical symbol of his Hungarian homeland. The middle section is in Bartók's Night music style. It contains imitations of natural sounds of, among others, bird calls.

[edit] Allegro vivace

The third and final movement demonstrates a joie de vivre and apparent optimism often found in Bartók's final movements, though with considerably stronger folk inspiration with its apparent Hungarian folk melody and its rondo-like returning theme. It has been said that this movement captures the infectious ebullient spirit of the folk song [6]. There is also a central fugato section in almost Baroque style. The movement as a whole, while largely energetic and vivid, remains much lighter and simpler compared to Bartók's prior works, while still exhibiting atonality and rhythmic complexity.

[edit] Reception

The concerto's deviation from Bartók's compositional norm resulted in an uneasy reception. Critics were quick to criticize Bartók for his notable use of tonal themes throughout the piece, fearing he had adapted his composition to suit American taste. The piece is also considerably thinner in compositional complexity throughout, yielding further criticism. There existed, however, another group, who saw the piece as a continuation of Bartók's trend of simplification and condensation, a general return from exploration of tonality and complexity to begin integrating the two into existing, classical compositional structure.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Morgan, Robert P., Twentieth-Century Music, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., New York, pp. 179-186, [1991]
  2. ^ Antokoletz, Elliot, The Music of Béla Bartók: A Study of Tonality and Progression in Twentieth-Century Music, Univ. of California Press, Berkeley, [1984]
  3. ^ Gillies, Malcolm, ``Final Chamber Works in The Bartók Companion, edited by Gillies, Malcolm, Amadeus Press, Portland, pp. 538-553, [1993]
  4. ^ Gillies, Malcolm, ``Final Chamber Works in The Bartók Companion, edited by Gillies, Malcolm, Amadeus Press, Portland, pp. 538-553, [1993]
  5. ^ Gillies, Malcolm, ``Final Chamber Works in The Bartók Companion, edited by Gillies, Malcolm, Amadeus Press, Portland, pp. 538-553, [1993]
  6. ^ Nissman, Barbara, Bartók and the Piano: A Performer's View, The Scarecrow Press, Inc., Lanham, pp. 274-283, [2002]

[edit] Recordings