Setting Bartok’s Craggy Beauty Within Its Contemporary Landscape

[haydnguy]

Pierre-Laurent Aimard on Wednesday after playing one of two Bartok piano concertos.



It was not entirely surprising that there were many empty seats at Avery Fisher Hall for the two remarkable concerts by the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Jonathan Nott, on Wednesday and Thursday nights. Mr. Nott, the English conductor who has directed the Bamberg Symphony, in Germany, since 2000, is an astute and exciting musician who has won enormous respect within the field. Yet he has never cultivated the maestro mystique and remains relatively little known.

These programs featured the brilliant French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, who played all three Bartok piano concertos over two nights: a rare chance to hear these landmark 20th-century pieces in close succession. And Mr. Aimard has won a devoted following in New York in recent years.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/23/ar...html?ref=music

[stephen w]

Turkish Folk Music From Asia Minor, Bela Bartok, ed. Benjamin Suchoff (afterword Kurt Reinhard), Princeton University Press, 1976

[haydnguy]

Bartok - Piano Concerto No. 3 (Part 1)

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1PK3lkIAI4"]YouTube - Bartok - Piano Concerto No. 3 (Part 1)[/ame]