View source for Concerto for Orchestra (Bartók)

{{Short description|Orchestral work by Béla Bartók}}
{{Infobox musical composition
| name                = Concerto for Orchestra
| composer            = [[Béla Bartók]]
| image               = Bartók Béla 1927.jpg
| caption             = The composer in 1927
| catalogue           = [[András Szöllősy|Sz.]] 116, BB 123
| composed            = 1943 rev. 1945
|duration=About 38 minutes| movements           = Five
| scoring             =[[Orchestra]] 
|premiere_date={{start date|1944|12|01|df=y}}|premiere_conductor=[[Serge Koussevitzky]]|premiere_location=[[Symphony Hall, Boston|Symphony Hall]], [[Boston]]|premiere_performers=[[Boston Symphony Orchestra]]}}
The '''Concerto for Orchestra''', [[András Szöllősy|Sz.]] 116, BB 123, is a five-movement [[orchestra|orchestral work]] composed by [[Béla Bartók]] in 1943. It is one of his best-known, most popular, and most accessible works.<ref name="Cooper">{{cite book |last=Cooper |first=David |title=Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra|year=1996 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0-521-48505-0 }}</ref>

The score is inscribed "15 August – 8 October 1943". It was premiered on December 1, 1944, at [[Boston Symphony Hall|Symphony Hall]], Boston, by the [[Boston Symphony Orchestra]] [[conducting|conducted]] by [[Serge Koussevitzky]]. It was a great success and has been regularly performed since.<ref name="Cooper" /> Bartók revised the piece in February 1945.

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 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.<ref name="notes">Bartók, Béla. "Explanation to Concerto for Orchestra," for the Boston premiere at Symphony Hall.{{Full citation needed|date=June 2014}}<!--All publication details are needed: place, publisher, year, editor, and inclusive pages if in a book; journal title, volume, issue, date, and page number if in a journal; etc.--></ref>

==Composition==
The work was written in response to a commission from the [[Koussevitzky Foundation]] (run by the conductor [[Serge Koussevitzky]]) after Bartók moved 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 (Bartók)|String Quartet No. 6]] (1939), could well have been his last were it not for this commission, which also sparked a few other compositions, including his [[Sonata for Solo Violin (Bartók)|Sonata for Solo Violin]] and [[Piano Concerto No. 3 (Bartók)|Piano Concerto No. 3]].<ref name="Cooper"/>

In 1943, while Bartok was in hospital suffering from what would later be discovered to be leukemia, he was visited by Koussevitzky, who wanted to inform him of the commission for him to write the work that became this concerto.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gustavodudamel.com/us-en/bartk-br-concerto-for-orchestra|title=Recording - Bartók Concerto for Orchestra|website=[[Gustavo Dudamel]]|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221116181513/https://www.gustavodudamel.com/us-en/bartk-br-concerto-for-orchestra|archive-date=2022-11-16}}</ref>

== Instrumentation ==
The piece is scored for the following instrumentation.<ref name="score">{{cite book|title=Concerto for Orchestra (Score)|last=Bartók|first=Béla|publisher=Boosey & Hawkes|year=2004|isbn=978-0-85162-189-0|location=New York}}</ref>

{{col-begin}}
{{col-4}}
;[[Woodwind instrument|Woodwinds]]:
: {{Hanging indent |text=3 [[flute]]s (one doubling [[piccolo]])}}
: {{Hanging indent |text=3 [[oboe]]s (one doubling [[cor anglais]])}}
: {{Hanging indent |text=3 [[clarinet]]s (one doubling [[bass clarinet]])}}
: {{Hanging indent |text=3 [[bassoon]]s (one doubling [[contrabassoon]])}}

{{col-4}}
;[[Brass instrument|Brass]]:
:4 [[French horn|horn]]s
:3 [[trumpet]]s
:3 [[trombone]]s
:1 [[tuba]]

{{col-4}}
;[[Percussion instrument|Percussion]]:
:[[timpani]]
:[[Snare drum|side drum]]
:[[bass drum]]
:[[cymbal]]s
:[[triangle (musical instrument)|triangle]]
:[[Gong|tam-tam]]

{{col-4}}

;[[String section|Strings]]:
:2 [[harp]]s

:[[violin]]s I, II
:[[viola]]s
:[[cello]]s
:[[double bass]]es
{{col-end}}

==Musical analysis==

The piece is in five movements:
{{Ordered list|type=upper-roman
|Introduzione. Andante non troppo – Allegro vivace
|Presentando le coppie. Allegro [[Scherzo|scherzando]]
|Elegia. Andante non troppo
|Intermezzo interrotto. Allegretto
|Finale. Presto
}}

Bartók makes extensive use of [[classical period (music)|classical]] elements in the work;<ref name="Cooper"/> for instance, the first and fifth movements are in [[sonata-allegro form]].

The work combines elements of [[Classical music|Western art music]] and eastern European folk music, especially [[Hungarian folk music|that of Hungary]], and departs from standard [[tonality]], often using non-traditional [[mode (music)|modes]] and artificial scales.<ref name="Cooper" /> 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.<ref name="Cooper" />

[[Image:Bartok-ThemeB.PNG|thumb|The second theme of the first movement (measure 155). The harp is not shown.|left|273x273px]]

=== I. Introduzione ===
The first movement, Introduzione, consists of a slow introduction, presenting the main material (consecutive intervals of fourths, scale fragments, mirror ideas, etc.) leading to an ''allegro'' with numerous [[fugato]] passages. The quick part is in sonata-allegro form.<ref name="notes"/>

===II. Presentando le coppie===
The second movement is called "Game of Pairs" (but see note below). Its main part has five sections, each thematically distinct from the others, with a different pair of instruments playing together in each.<ref name="notes"/> In each passage, a different [[interval (music)|interval]] separates the pair—bassoons are a [[minor sixth]] apart, oboes are in [[minor third]]s, clarinets in [[minor seventh]]s, flutes in [[Perfect fifth|fifths]], and muted trumpets in [[major second]]s.<ref name="score"/> The movement prominently features a side drum that taps out a rhythm at the beginning and end of this part. In fact this main part is played twice. Careful listening will reveal some small differences when it is played the second time. In between the first and second playing of this part is a short interlude that to some listeners (including some who wrote cover notes for recordings of this work) suggests a kind of marriage ceremony. So one can imagine that, when the main part is played a second time, the five couples that appeared earlier are now married.

The published score titles the movement "Giuoco delle coppie" or "Game of the couples", but Bartók's manuscript had no title for this movement at the time the engraving-copy blueprint was made. 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. 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.<ref>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.</ref>

The original 1946 printed score also had an incorrect metronome marking for this movement. This was brought to light by [[Georg Solti|Sir Georg Solti]] as he was preparing to record the piece with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1980:
{{blockquote|When preparing ... 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.... 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!<ref>Sir Georg Solti, Liner notes from London LP LDR 71036, Bartók ''Concerto for Orchestra'' and ''Dance Suite'', [[Chicago Symphony Orchestra]], recorded January 1980.</ref>|sign=|source=}}

Despite Solti's assertion that thousands of earlier performances had been played at the wrong speed, both of [[Fritz Reiner]]'s recordings—his 1946 recording with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (the first recording of the work) and his 1955 recording with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (the same orchestra whose side drum player called the matter to Solti's attention)—use the tempo (crotchet equals 94) Solti later recommended. Reiner had known Bartók since 1905, when they were fellow students at the Budapest Academy. In 1943, it was Reiner, along with [[Joseph Szigeti]], who persuaded Koussevitsky to commission the Concerto for Orchestra.<ref>Morgan, Kenneth (2005). Fritz Reiner, Maestro and Martinet'', p. 120. University of Illinois Press, Champaign. {{ISBN|0252029356}}.</ref>

===III. Elegia===
The third movement, "Elegia", is another slow movement, typical of Bartók's so-called [[Night music (Bartók)|"Night music"]]. It revolves around three themes derived primarily from the first movement.<ref name="notes" />

===IV. Intermezzo interrotto===
The fourth movement, "Intermezzo interrotto" (literally "interrupted [[intermezzo]]"), consists of a flowing melody with changing [[time signature]]s, intermixed with a theme that quotes the song "Da geh' ich zu Maxim" from [[Franz Lehár]]'s [[operetta]] ''[[The Merry Widow]]'',<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbradio3/html/NF2620064?thread=3048897 |date=23 May 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160819234849/https://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbradio3/html/NF2620064?thread=3048897|archive-date=19 August 2016| title=Discuss Shostakovich|website=BBC}}</ref> which had recently also been referenced in the "invasion" theme of [[Dmitri Shostakovich]]'s [[Symphony No. 7 (Shostakovich)|Symphony No. 7 "Leningrad"]].<ref>{{cite news |title=A Peacetime Hearing of the Shostakovich 'Leningrad,' Forged in War |first=Paul |last=Griffiths |author-link=Paul Griffiths (writer) |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/02/22/arts/music-review-a-peacetime-hearing-of-the-shostakovich-leningrad-forged-in-war.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |accessdate=30 March 2010 | date=February 22, 1999}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|first=Kristian|last=Hibberd|url=http://www.shostakovich.com/may2002.html|title=Saturday 18th May 2002|website=London Shostakovich Orchestra|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110516112926/http://www.shostakovich.com/may2002.html|archivedate=16 May 2011}}</ref><ref>Mostel, Raphael. [http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/188036/the-merry-widows-fling-with-hitler "''The Merry Widow's'' Fling With Hitler"], TabletMag.com, 30 December 2014, accessed 11 November 2016</ref> Whether Bartók was parodying Lehár, Shostakovich, or both has been hotly disputed, without conclusive evidence either way. The theme is itself interrupted by [[glissandi]] on the trombones and [[Woodwind instrument|woodwinds]].

:<score sound="1">
\new Staff \with {
  instrumentName = "Cl. I "
} 
\relative c''' { 
  \transpose bes c'
  \set Staff.midiInstrument = #"clarinet"
  \key c \major
  \time 2/2
  \tempo 2 = 94
  \partial4 g4( f) e( d) c( bes-.) bes-. r4 \tuplet 3/2 { f'8( g f } e4) d( c) bes( a-.) a-.
  r4 \tuplet 3/2 { e'8( f e } d4) c( bes) \tuplet 3/2 { a8( bes a } g4-.) g-.
  r4 \tuplet 3/2 { d'8( e d } \tuplet 3/2 { [c8 d c] } \tuplet 3/2 { bes c bes } 
  \tuplet 3/2 { [a bes a] }   \tuplet 3/2 { g a g } f4-.) f-.\stopTextSpan r2
}
</score>

{{listen |
 | filename = Bartók - Concerto for Orchestra (clip).ogg
 | title = Timpani excerpt
 | description = Excerpt from the fourth movement. The timpanist plays a chromatic bass line, requiring using the pedal to change pitches.
|}}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."<ref name="notes" />

===V. Finale===
The fifth movement, marked ''presto'', consists of a whirling [[perpetuum mobile]] main theme competing with [[fugato]] fireworks and folk melodies. It is in sonata-allegro form.<ref name="notes" />

==Recordings==

The following are only a small selection of the numerous available recordings.
*Recorded on 4–5 February 1946, with [[Fritz Reiner]] conducting the [[Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra]]. Columbia Masterworks M-793 (78 rpm). [[Columbia Records]] later released a 12-inch LP recording. Columbia ML 4102 (monaural). New York: Columbia.
*In 1953, [[Columbia Graphophone Company|Columbia (UK)]] released a recording with [[Herbert von Karajan]] conducting the [[Philharmonia Orchestra]]. 12-inch LP recording. Columbia 33CX 1054 (monaural). London: Columbia Records.
*In 1954,<ref>Recorded on 14 February 1954</ref> Columbia Records released a recording with [[Eugene Ormandy]] conducting the [[Philadelphia Orchestra]]. 12-inch LP recording. Columbia ML 4973 (monaural). New York: Columbia.
* In 1958,<ref>Recorded on 22 October 1955</ref> [[RCA Red Seal|RCA Victor]] issued a recording with [[Fritz Reiner]] conducting the [[Chicago Symphony Orchestra]]. 12-inch LP recording. RCA Victor LSC-1934
*In 1956,<ref>Recorded on 11–12/15 November 1956</ref> [[Decca Records]] released a recording with [[Ernest Ansermet]] conducting the [[Orchestre de la Suisse Romande]], also including [[Frank Martin (composer)|Frank Martin]]'s Concerto for seven winds, percussion, and string orchestra. Decca LXT 5305; London CS-6086; Decca Eclipse (stereo). London: Decca.
* In 1959,<ref>Recorded on 1 November 1958</ref> [[EMI Records]] released a recording with [[Rafael Kubelik]] conducting the [[Royal Philharmonic Orchestra]], also including Bartók's Two Portraits, Op. 5. 12-inch LP recording. HMV ASD 312 (stereo). UK: His Master's Voice.
*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 1962,<ref>Recorded in September 1962</ref> RCA Victor released a recording with [[Erich Leinsdorf]] conducting the [[Boston Symphony Orchestra]], made in Symphony Hall, Boston. 12-inch LP recording. RCA Victor LSC-2643. New York: RCA Victor.
* 1963, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Karel Ančerl. Dvorak Hall, Prague. Supraphon. 
*In 1965,<ref>Recorded on 15–16 January 1965</ref> 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 1979, [[RCA Red Seal]] released the first [[digital recording]] of the work with [[Eugene Ormandy]] conducting the [[Philadelphia Orchestra]]. RCA Red Seal ARC1-3421
*Recorded in Orchestra Hall, Chicago in January 1981, [[Georg Solti|Sir Georg Solti]] conducting the [[Chicago Symphony Orchestra]]. Digital recording, coupled with Mussorgsky, ''[[Pictures at an Exhibition]]'', orchestrated by Ravel, [[Decca Records|Decca]] 417 754–2.
*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.<ref>{{cite web |last=Clements |first=Andrew |title=Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra; Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta – review |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=May 8, 2012 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/may/08/bartok-baltimore-alsop-cd-review |accessdate=May 20, 2015}}</ref>

==Piano reduction==

In 1985, Bartók's son Peter Bartók discovered a manuscript of a piano reduction of the score in the large body of material left to him upon his father's death. This version had been prepared for rehearsals of a ballet interpretation of the Concerto, to be performed by the Ballet Theatre in New York. This performance never took place, and the piano score was shelved. Soon after the discovery of this manuscript, Peter Bartók asked the Hungarian pianist [[György Sándor]] to prepare the manuscript for publication and performance. The world premiere recording of this edited reduction was made by Sándor in 1987, on CBS Masterworks: the CD also includes piano versions of the Dance Suite, Sz. 77 and Petite Suite, Sz. 105, which was adapted from some of the 44 Violin Duos.<ref>György Sándor, Liner notes to the cited recording (MK 44526)</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
*Fosler-Lussier, Danielle (2000). "Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra in Postwar Hungary: A Road Not Taken." ''International Journal of Musicology'', vol. 9, pp.&nbsp;363–383. 
*French, Gilbert G. (1967). "Continuity and Discontinuity in Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra." ''The Music Review'', vol. 28, pp.&nbsp;122–134.
*Móricz, Klára (1993-1994). "New Aspects of the Genesis of Béla Bartók's 'Concerto for Orchestra': Concepts of 'Finality' and 'Intention.'" ''Studia Musicologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae'', T. 35, Fasc. 1/3, pp.&nbsp;181–219. 
*Parker, Beverly Lewis (1989). "Parallels between Bartók's 'Concerto for Orchestra' and Kübler-Ross's Theory about the Dying." [[The Musical Quarterly]], vol. 73, no. 4, pp.&nbsp;532–556. 
*Suchoff, Benjamin (2000). "Background and Sources of Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra." ''International Journal of Musicology'', vol. 9, pp.&nbsp;339–361.

==External links==
* {{IMSLP2|work=Concerto_for_Orchestra%2C_Sz.116_%28Bart%C3%B3k%2C_B%C3%A9la%29|cname=Concerto for Orchestra}}

{{Béla Bartók}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Concerto For Orchestra (Bartok)}}
[[Category:Modernist compositions]]
[[Category:Music commissioned by Serge Koussevitzky or the Koussevitzky Music Foundation]]
[[Category:Concertos by Béla Bartók]]
[[Category:Concertos for orchestra|Bartok, Concerto for orchestra]]
[[Category:1943 compositions]]