Viola Concerto (Bartók)

The Bartók Viola Concerto, Sz. 120, BB 128 (also known as Concerto for Viola and Orchestra), was one of the last pieces written by Béla Bartók of Hungary. He began composing the work while living in Saranac Lake, New York, in July 1945. The piece was commissioned by William Primrose, a respected violist of the 20th Century. Primrose requested this concerto because he knew that Bartók could provide a challenging piece for him to perform, stating that Bartók should not “feel in any way proscribed by the apparent technical limitations of the instrument.”[1] Unfortunately Bartók was suffering from the terminal stages of leukemia when he began writing the viola concerto and he left only sketches at the time of his death.

History

Primrose asked Bartók to write the concerto in the winter of 1945.[2] There are several letters between Bartók and William Primrose regarding this piece. One letter was written September 8, 1945 where Bartók claims that he is nearly done with the piece and only has the orchestration to complete. It is when viewing the sketches that it is clear that this was not truly the case. When Bartók died, the piece was finished by his close friend Tibor Serly in 1949.[3] The first revision was done by Béla Bartók’s son Peter Bartók and Paul Neubauer in 1995, and it was revised one other time by Csaba Erdélyi. The concerto was premiered on December 2, 1949 by the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra with Antal Doráti conducting and William Primrose as violist.

Form

The concerto has three movements, and Bartók states in a letter dated August 5, 1945 that the general concept is, “a serious Allegro, a Scherzo, a (rather short) slow movement, and a finale beginning Allegretto and developing the tempo to an Allegro molto. Each movement, or at least 3 of them will [be] preceded by a (short) recurring introduction (mostly solo for the viola), a kind of ritornello.”[4] (The aforementioned idea of a thematic introduction to each movement was also used in Bartók's String Quartet no. 6 Sz. 114) The first movement is in a loose sonata form. The slow second movement is significantly shorter, and closes with a very short scherzo movement that is an attacca right into the third movement. The time stamps, as seen in Bartók’s manuscript, states that the first movement should be 10’20”, the second 5’10” and the third 4’45”.

The first movement of the concerto is said to loosely contain a phrase that is reminiscent of the Scottish tune “Gin a Body Meet a Body, Colmin’ Thro’ the Rye.”[5] This is probably done to pay honor to William Primrose’s heritage.[6]

Instrumentation

Tibor Serly's edition is orchestrated for: piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets in B♭, 2 bassoons, 3 horns in F, 3 trumpets in B♭, 2 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion and strings.

Peter Bartók and Paul Neubauer's edition is orchestrated for: piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes (2nd doubling cor anglais), 2 clarinets in B♭, 2 bassoons (2nd doubling double bassoon), 4 horns in F, 3 trumpets in B♭, tenor trombone, bass trombone, tuba, timpani, percussion (2), strings.

Editions

There are some large discrepancies between the different editions of this concerto, due to little being known about Bartóks own intentions regarding this concerto. Some of these are as simple as the metronome markings for each movement. Each editor also had very different interpretations of fingerings for the concerto. One edition suggests beginning the first movement on the open A string, while others suggest beginning on the D string. The Peter Bartók edition, especially, has interesting fingerings because Paul Neubauer edited most of the viola part.[7]

Many bowings also differ between different editions, some of them inserted specifically to accent certain rhythms and high notes, such as in mm. 8-10 in the Tibor Serly edition, where William Primrose included some bowing suggestions to emphasize the syncopation of the line.[8]

Overall, there are a significant amount of surface level discrepancies such as bowings, fingerings and dynamics. However, some editions contain more changes than editor markings; in the Peter Bartók revision there are measures that are added, completely missing or with note changes, which can cause several discrepancies in the performance of the piece.

Omissions and Amendments between Editions

Peter Bartók explains, “It became clear that we could not merely compare the printed score with the final manuscript prepared from my father’s sketches by Tibor Serly, and discover engraving errors, but we would have to start with the sketch itself.”[9]

The first of the note changes begins in measure 44 on beat two, where there is an added D sharp as a double stop against a D natural. In the next measure, the first beat is transposed down an octave, probably to facilitate performance. Everything remains consistent until measure 54. At this point Tibor Serly has the viola resting, and yet Peter Bartók has actually included two measure of a melody to the soloists’ line. The most significant changes have yet to appear. Tibor Serly’s edition places measure 67 as a 6/4 bar, but Peter Bartók splits it into a 4/4 bar plus a 3/4 bar, and he actually adds a group of triplets. It is now clear why an orchestra must be absolutely certain which edition they are performing and ensure everyone has the same parts. This trend of alterations continues as Peter Bartók adds octave displacements, and even omits what is measure 74 in the Tibor Serly score.[10] It appears that with most, if not all of the changes, Csaba Erdélyi agrees with the Peter Bartók edition as opposed to that of Tibor Serly.[11]

Recordings

Other recordings:

Notes

  1. ↑ Béla Bartók, Viola Concerto: Facsimile Edition of the Autograph Draft, Nelson Dellamaggiore, editor (Tampa: Rinaldi Printing, 1995): 24.
  2. ↑ Peter, Bartók, “The Principal Theme of Béla Bartók’s Viola Concerto,” Studia Musicologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae T. 35 (1993-1994): 47.
  3. ↑ Béla Bartók, Viola Concerto, ed. by Tibor Serly (England: Boosey & Hawkes, 1949), 1.
  4. ↑ Nelson Dellamaggiore, Facsimile Edition, 25.
  5. ↑ Bartók, “The Principal Theme,” 47.
  6. ↑ Bartók, “The Principal Theme,” 46.
  7. ↑ Béla Bartók, Viola Concerto, ed. by Paul Neubauer (USA: Boosey & Hawkes, 2003), 1.
  8. ↑ Tibor Serly, 1.
  9. ↑ Bartók, “The Principal Theme,” 45.
  10. ↑ Béla Bartók, Viola Concerto, ed. by Paul Neubauer (USA: Boosey & Hawkes, 2003), 3.
  11. ↑ Béla Bartók, Viola Concerto, ed. by Csaba Erdélyi (New Zealand: Promethean Editions Limited, 2002).

References