Progetto Martha Argerich

italiano

Works

Béla Bartok

Sonata for violin and piano n. 1 Sz 75

 

Bartók composed his Sonata No. 1for Violin and Piano in the autumn of 1921 and dedicated it to the violinist Jelly d’Arányi, with whom he often played duo recitals during those years. For the piano as well as the violin, the work is of vast proportions and great technical difficulty; the two instruments never exchange a theme during the entire length of the composition. The Sonata No. 1 is made up of three movements. It opens with an introverted Allegro appassionato in free sonata form, marked by Bartók’s personal re-thinking of Schoenbergian expressionism. The second movement, Adagio, is in classic three-part form and contains echoes of Debussy, whereas the finale, Allegro, with its “barbarian taste for the ostinato and its rough rhythmic energy” (to quote Massimo Mila) is in a rondo-like form and contains many hints of Romanian folk music, of which Bartók was an expert connoisseur.

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1. Allegro appassionato
2. Adagio
3. Allegro

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Performance