Bartók: Sonatina, BB 69, Sz. 55 (Sonatina on Romanian folk tunes, Sonatina on themes from Transylvania)

James Ehnes has previously explored Béla Bartók’s concertos for violin and for viola, to great acclaim. This disc is the second in his equally successful survey of Bartók’s chamber music for the violin. His accompanist, once more, is Andrew Armstrong, a pianist praised by critics for his passionate expression and dazzling technique.

The folk-inspired Sonata for Solo Violin was the last work that Bartók wrote for the instrument, not to mention the most challenging. In a departure from his usual practice, this work was written not for a fellow Hungarian, but rather for an artist born in New York where Bartók was now living: Yehudi Menuhin. Suitably impressed by a recital performance by Menuhin of his first Violin Sonata as well as Bach’s Sonata in C, he had no hesitation in accepting the violinist’s commission for a sonata that, like Bach’s, would be unaccompanied.

Almost half a century earlier, Bartók had written his Sonata for Violin and Piano in E minor. It was included in a concert given by graduating students of the Liszt Academy in June 1903, when a critic, most likely not realising just how right he would prove, hailed Bartók as ‘a phenomenal young genius, whose name today is known only to a few, but who is destined to play a great and brilliant role in the history of Hungarian music’.

Additionally on this disc we have three groups of Bartók’s Romanian and Hungarian folk dances, folksongs, and folk tunes, arranged for violin variously by Zoltán Székely, Tivadar Országh, and Joseph Szigeti, often with direct involvement by the composer himself who helped fine-tune the new arrangements. James Ehnes also highlights the Romanian influences in Bartók’s Sonatina for piano, transcribed for violin by André Gertler, a student of Bartók’s.

The first volume of an exciting 4 CD project: the complete works for violin of the great Hungarian 20-th century composer Béla Bartók.

The first volume offers early works and transcriptions, most of them with strong Hungarian folk music influence. Later volumes will include the violin sonatas, the solo sonata and the violin concertos. Excellent performances by Hungarian violinist Antal Zalai (formerly names Szalai) and Jozsef Balog, who already proved their superb skills in their recording of the Enescu violin sonatas on Brilliant Classics 9165.

In the early 1900s the young composer had studied many of Strauss’s scores, attempting a symphony in E flat. Gradually the music of his native Hungary began influence his musical voice as can be heard in the E minor violin sonata. The Austro-German musical hold on him was slipping. He took to wearing Hungarian national clothes, and rebelled at speaking German at home. Shortly after completing the violin sonata in 1903 he left for the countryside where he became interested in the folk music and songs of his countrymen. His research with fellow composer Zoltan Kodaly of Hungarian folk music is famous, but Bartók went beyond national boundaries for inspiration, as can be heard in the Transylvanian, Romanian and Slovak folk material featured on this disc of his early works for violin and piano.

An addition the DECCA Originals range to mark the 70th birthday of Stephen Kovacevich [17 October].

The original LP release containing Bartók's Sonata for two pianos and percussion with works by Mozart & Debussy won a Gramophone Award in 1978 for Best Chamber Music recording.

Stephen Kovacevich's recordings of Bartók have long been regarded as reference recordings, and also included in this reissue are his acclaimed performances of the Sonatina and Out of Doors.

Booklet contains an appreciation by David Gutman.