Top 5 Favorite Bartók Works

Started by Mirror Image, May 24, 2015, 08:51:38 PM

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Mirror Image

May 24, 2015, 08:51:38 PM


It's time for another poll. Aren't you all super excited?!?!? ::) ;D Anyway, there's one stipulation: you can only pick one concerto. Have fun! 8)

My picks (in no particular order):

Bluebeard's Castle
The Miraculous Mandarin
Piano Concerto No. 3
Contrasts
Dance Suite

springrite

#1
May 24, 2015, 08:55:58 PM Last Edit: May 26, 2015, 07:09:30 AM by springrite
Miraculous Mandarin
Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta
CfO
Dance Suite
Divertimento
Do what I must do, and let what must happen happen.

Jo498

#2
May 24, 2015, 11:50:36 PM
music for strings, percussion etc.
string quartets #4 and #5
piano concerto #2
sonata for 2 pianos + percussion (without restrictions I would have named another piano concerto)
Tout le malheur des hommes vient d'une seule chose, qui est de ne savoir pas demeurer en repos, dans une chambre.
- Blaise Pascal

North Star

#3
May 25, 2015, 12:28:49 AM
Violin Concerto no. 2
Out of Doors
Dance Suite
String Quartet no. 5
Miraculous Mandarin
"Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it." - Confucius

My photographs on Flickr

EigenUser

#4
May 25, 2015, 02:48:03 AM
Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta
Piano Concerto No. 2 (though, I could easily go with 1)
Piano Sonata, Sz. 80 (I could go with Out of Doors, but I'll pick the Sz. 80 since the former has been mentioned)
Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion
Dance Suite (if another concerto was allowed, I would have picked the CFO)
Beethoven's Op. 133 -- A fugue so bad that even Beethoven himself called it "Grosse".

amw

#5
May 25, 2015, 04:15:18 AM Last Edit: May 25, 2015, 04:32:40 AM by amw
Music for Strings, Percussion & Celesta
Piano Concerto 1
Quartets 3 & 5
Violin Sonata 1

ez

bonus poll: Top 5 Bartók Endings

Miraculous Mandarin (ballet)
Concerto for Orchestra (revised)
Sonata for 2 Pianos & Percussion
Quartet 5, movement 4
Piano Concerto 3

jochanaan

#6
May 25, 2015, 08:42:55 AM
Concerto #1 for Piano and Orchestra
Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion
Miraculous Mandarin
Mikrokosmos Book VI #144: Minor Seconds, Major Sevenths
Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta
And of course:
Concerto for Orchestra
Imagination + discipline = creativity

NorthNYMark

#7
May 25, 2015, 09:55:25 AM
String Quartet #5
Piano Concerto #1
Concerto for Orchestra (I categorize this as a symphony rather than a concerto, in spite of the title)
String Quartet #2
Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion

Wanderer

#8
May 25, 2015, 10:31:10 AM
Bluebeard's Castle
Music for Strings, Percussion & Celesta
Piano Concerto No.1
Piano Concerto No.2
Violin Concerto No.2

Kamisama

#9
May 25, 2015, 10:55:52 AM
The Miraculous Mandarin
Music for Strings, Percussion & Celesta
String Quartet 3
String Quartet 4
Piano Concerto 1

Mandryka

#10
May 25, 2015, 11:11:27 AM Last Edit: May 25, 2015, 11:14:02 AM by Mandryka
It's interesting that there's so little love for quartet 6 -- and yet there is for other later pieces (at least Concerto for Orchestra)  and other quartets. Just seeing those lists and the absence of quaret 6 has really made me think about it, and the more I think about it the more I don't know what to make of it. 

Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

NorthNYMark

#11
May 25, 2015, 12:06:58 PM Last Edit: May 25, 2015, 12:32:33 PM by NorthNYMark
Quote from: Mandryka on May 25, 2015, 11:11:27 AM
It's interesting that there's so little love for quartet 6 -- and yet there is for other later pieces (at least Concerto for Orchestra)  and other quartets. Just seeing those lists and the absence of quaret 6 has really made me think about it, and the more I think about it the more I don't know what to make of it.

It could easily have made my list--in fact, I strongly considered it, but just haven't developed enough familiarity with it to put in on in place of #2 yet (the latter of which I got to hear performed live not too long ago, which may be biasing me in its relative favor for the time being).  The 6th Quartet could well turn out to be my favorite, once I develop that level of familiarity with it.  The same may be true (in my case) for the third piano concerto--like the 6th quartet, it has the reputation for being a softer-edged, more accessible work, which is not normally what one thinks of when thinking, "I'm in the mood for some Bartók--for what shall I reach?"  However, what I do recall of the 6th Quartet is that it is the kind of work that seems to hold a certain amount of depth in reserve, that will almost certainly reward repeated listening (whereas the more "intense" parts of Quartet #3, for example, have started to become a bit overly familiar to me, losing some of their power to a certain extent).

NorthNYMark

#12
May 25, 2015, 12:26:16 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on May 25, 2015, 12:20:47 PM
The 6th quartet always makes me think of Shostakovich, and Mahler. From the heart, candid, like Shostakovich can be. And there are crazy marches and funny folk tunes like you get in Mahler, the Burletta and mahler 9. It's very odd.

These are just my random associations, I'm sure it has more to do with me than the music!

I'll definitely have to listen to it again, now.  Perhaps what I remember liking about it is the connection to Shostakovich (at least, the Shostakovich of the string quartets, who to me feels like an entirely different composer from that of the symphonies).  On the other hand, the crazy marches and funny folk tunes are what usually keep me from enjoying Mahler more than I do.  Still, I suspect Bartók does crazy marches and folk tunes in a rather different way from Mahler, so I may enjoy it more.

Henk

#13
May 25, 2015, 12:27:20 PM
No Bartok for me.. :P
'The 'I' is not prior to the 'we'.' (Jean-Luc Nancy)

Christo

#14
May 25, 2015, 12:45:04 PM
Dance Suite
Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta
Piano Concerto No. 3
Romanian Folk Dances
Concerto for Orchestra
... music is not only an 'entertainment', nor a mere luxury, but a necessity of the spiritual if not of the physical life, an opening of those magic casements through which we can catch a glimpse of that country where ultimate reality will be found.    RVW, 1948

Mirror Image

#15
May 25, 2015, 01:01:53 PM
Quote from: Christo on May 25, 2015, 12:45:04 PM
Dance Suite
Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta
Piano Concerto No. 3
Romanian Folk Dances
Concerto for Orchestra

All fine choices. I must listen to Romanian Folk Dances again as it's been quite some time.

TheGSMoeller

#16
May 25, 2015, 04:53:45 PM
 8) Only 2 can be called favorites..

Miraculous Mandarin
Ct. for Orchestra

vandermolen

#17
May 25, 2015, 10:44:24 PM
Piano Concerto 3
Concerto for Orchestra
Dance Suite
Violin Concerto 2

Don't have a fifth at the moment. I need to get to know the chamber music better.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

Dax

#18
May 26, 2015, 02:17:14 AM
Piano Quintet
String Quartet no 4
Cantata Profana
The Wooden Prince
Out of Doors

San Antone

#19
May 26, 2015, 03:41:55 AM
Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion
Romanian Folk Dances
Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta
Bluebeard's Castle
String Quartet No. 5
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