BARTÓK Violin Sonatas, Romanian Folk Dances, Rhapsody No. 1 | Deutsche Grammophon

Violinist Sophia Jaffé and pianist Hansjacob Staemmler release an album coupling Bartók’s two sonatas for violin and piano with the Romanian Folk Dances Sz. 56 and the Rhapsody No. 1 Sz. 86. 

In Bartók’s oeuvre the violin played almost as important a role as his own instrument, the piano. Apart from several early works for violin, the composer wrote two violin concertos, two sonatas and two rhapsodies, and, as one of his last pieces, the great solo sonata. Bartók’s circle of friends, patrons, and concert partners included several important violinists.   

Having said that, Bartók initially wrote the Romanian Folk Dances in 1915 for solo piano; the well-known arrangement in this album for violin and piano is by Zoltán Székely. The First Rhapsody was indeed initially premiered in 1929 in a version for cello and piano by cellist Jenö Kerpely and Bartók at the piano. Later, in the fall of the same year in Berlin, it was performed in the version for violin and piano, with the dedicatee, violinist Joseph Szigeti. The Violin Sonatas are among his most radical and uncompromising. He departs from tonality, replacing it by individual tones as centers around which the music moves.