DÉNES VÁRJON PLAYS BÉLA BARTÓK | Deutsche Grammophon

Hungarian pianist Dénes Várjon releases his new album on our partner label CAvi music, on which he performs solo piano works by Bartók in commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the composer’s death (on 26 September 1945). 

For Várjon, bringing Bartók closer to the audience as a person and an artist is a labour of love: “I grew up with his music. It feels like a mother tongue to me." Várjon notes that Bartók was fascinated by the simplicity and sincerity of the people who sang the 15 Hungarian Peasant Songs on this album to him. Those two traits probably corresponded with Bartók’s own personality as an artist and a human being. “When I look at photos of him, what I see is a simple, sincere man. He also seems highly vulnerable. Bartók spoke slowly, quite naturally, but not much. At the same time, he had the energy and temperament of a volcano – an energy he harnessed with sheer discipline. The result was a fascinating, unresolved tension.”