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The two discs considered must-have classics by smartypantses like me are:

-- The Concerto for Orchestra and Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta by Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony on RCA

-- and the three piano concertos by Geza Anda and Ferenc Fricsay on DG.

Both should be pretty easy to get. The former was just reissued on SACD hybrid.

From there, you'll need to expand into the string quartets. I recommend the Keller Quartet set on Erato above all, even the oft-recommended Emerson Quartet on DG.

Also grab the disc of violin and piano sonatas on Naxos. Some of Bartok's least user-friendly music, but you can handle it.

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I was hoping to be able to link to their online catalog, but it's not working. The catalog number is 8.550749, the violinist is Gyorgy Pauk.

While you're at it, might want to get the Naxos disc of the two violin concertos.

There's some great solo piano music too -- the "Out of Doors" suite is cool beyond cool -- but I don't know of any recording in print that satisfies me. The Naxos might do until something better comes along.

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I second Spontooneous's recommendations.

ESPECIALLY the string quartets. (I'll have to check out the Keller rendition myself. I became a Bartok convert for life in college, when I sat in a lecture hall about three feet away from a quartet, including violinist Phil Setzer who's now in the Emerson Quartet, while they played Bartok's fourth String Quartet. Can't say I'm a big fan of the Emerson Quartet, though).

A personal favorite: the Historic 1940 Library of Congress Recording of Joseph Szigeti on violin and Bartok himself on Piano (Vanguard Classics).

Hungarian fire! Not only do they play Bartok's own Sonata No. 2 and Rhapsody No. 1, but also Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata and Debussy's Sonata.

Sound is OK, performances amazing.

Edited by Kalo
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You have received some great recommendations. I want to suggest a couple possible substitutions. If you can't locate the Keller Quartets, the Takacs Quartet is dandy. The Anda/Fricsay piano concertos are very fine (I've had them since the early '70s) but I think the first concerto is taken too slowly (for my taste). I suggest the Kocsis/Fischer disc on Philips.

The Naxos violin concerto disc is 8.554321. The violin sonata disc mentioned has a "companion disc" of the 2 Rhapsodies for Violin and Piano along with the Piano Quintet - Naxos 8.550886.

A fine budget set of the solo piano music by Gyory Sandor is available on Vox. You should be able to find this 5 disc set for less than $20.

Exploring the rest of the orchestral music, you will need The Miraculous Mandarin, The Wooden Prince and Dance Suite. All of these are available in a wonderful series conducted by Ivan Fischer on Philips.

If you can find it, in 1991 Columbia/Sony issued a disc of Bartok playing selections from Mikrokosmos and the premier of Contrasts with Benny Goodman and Joseph Szigeti.

Edited by Chuck Nessa
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There was a multi-CD box on Hungaroton with all of Bartok's recordings of his own works, which gives fascinating insights. I'd suggest reading some, his biography is quite interesting.

My way of exploring a composer with many recordings available is either chronological to follow his personal development, or starting with solo piano, and gardually moving on to orchestral via chamber music.

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Chuck Nessa Posted: May 18 2005, 06:55 AM

If you can find it, in 1991 Columbia/Sony issued a disc of Bartok playing selections from Mikrokosmos and the premier of Contrasts with Benny Goodman and Joseph Sizeti.

That one's nice, and budget priced, too, as I recall.

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The two discs considered must-have classics by smartypantses like me are:

-- The Concerto for Orchestra and Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta by Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony on RCA

My knowledge of Bartok is pretty superficial, but for the Music for P, S & C I like Boulez's version (on DG, coupled with the Miraculous Mandarin pantomime music) better than the Reiner.

Guy

Edited by Guy Berger
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A fine budget set of the solo piano music by Gyory Sandor is available on Vox. You should be able to find this 5 disc set for less than $20.

Chuck, I read a rumor that this set was remastered from LPs rather than the tapes. (Of course I believe everything I read on the Internet.) Do the CDs sound OK to you?
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A fine budget set of the solo piano music by Gyory Sandor is available on Vox. You should be able to find this 5 disc set for less than $20.

Chuck, I read a rumor that this set was remastered from LPs rather than the tapes. (Of course I believe everything I read on the Internet.) Do the CDs sound OK to you?

The last half of disc 4 and all of disc 5 are dubbed from lps. I think they sound fine. I had this material since the late '60s and was happy to have the material on cd at last.

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My favorite version of the String Quartets is, by far, the one by THE VÉGH STRING QUARTET on ASTRÉE/ AUVIDIS for the modern time (I mean in stéréo) and by THE HUNGARIAN STRING QUARTET, to whom SANDOR VÉGH was member before founding is own string quartet, for a great older version (they recorded the six quartet in the fifties just before their separation) in mono.

There's a box set for both.

The HUNGARIAN STRING QUARTET (in french LE QUATUOR HONGROIS) should be on EMI.

The last string quartet of BARTOK (the six) has been dedicated to the HUNGARIAN by the composer and the "première" of the work was given by them.

So, you can't find more "idiomatic" version of these quartets than by this two (and the VÉGH has a great sound quality).

I don't know the KELLER in BARTOK but their version of THE ART OF THE FUGUE on ECM is the best I've heard from a String Quartet (much better than by the JUILLIARD, by example).

They have recorded also a magnificient "integral" of the string Quartets of GYÖRGY KURTAG (on ECM also).

So, maybe, it's the way to go for an "easy to get" version of this quartets.

Edited by P.L.M
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For BARTOK's piano music, the integral of ZOLTAN KOCSIS on PHILIPS is the absolute must in the best sound possible.

Of course Gyorgy Sandor is a great choice.

For the violin & piano sonatas, the most stunning to my ears are the interprétation of GIDON KREMER (violin) & MARTHA ARGERICH (piano) for the first sonata (on DG with the LEOS JANACEK's sonata and the short MESSIAN's THEME AND VARIATIONS) and the interprétation of KREMER again and, this time, OLEG MAISANBERG for the second (on TELDEC with GEORGE ENESCU's IMPRESSIONS D'ENFANCE and ERVIN SCHULHOFF's SONATA N°2).

Edited by P.L.M
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For BARTOK's piano music, the integral of ZOLTAN KOCSIS on PHILIPS is the absolute must in the best sound possible.

Of course Gyorgy Sandor is a great choice.

For the violin & piano sonatas, the most stunning to my ears are the interprétation of GIDON KREMER (violin) & MARTHA ARGERICH (piano) for the first sonata (on DG with the LEOS JANACEK's sonata and the short MESSIAN's THEME AND VARIATIONS) and the interprétation of KREMER again and, this time, OLEG MAISANBERG for the second (on TELDEC with GEORGE ENESCU's IMPRESSIONS D'ENFANCE and ERVIN SCHULHOFF's SONATA N°2).

Sadly most of the Kocsis Philips discs are gone or I would have leaned heavily on them for recommendations. I missed vol 6 and recently ordered vol 7 from Berkshire.

I have an allergy to Kremer's tone - I want to "love" him but find it difficult to "like" him. Beyond the "historical" recommendations the Pauk discs suffice for me.

Your earlier touting of the Vegh quartets is right on but hard to find and relatively expensive. Both Takacs and Keller are in the "Vegh mode" - not the "streamlined 20th century" style created by Julliard and finished by Emerson. In fact Sandor Vegh wrote the first page in the Keller notes.

Since we are speaking of Sandor(s) and hinting at "great performances", no Bartok fan should ignore the inexpensive VoxBox by Gyorgy Sandor of the 3 piano concertos, Rhapsody for Piano and Orch, Scherzo for Piano and Orch and Sonata for 2 Pianos and Percussion. AND for my alltime favorite violin concerto another VoxBox of concerto performance by Ivry Gitlis. This early '50s recording of the Bartok is a desert island performance for me.

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My knowledge of Bartok is also relatively superficial, but 'Bluebeard's Castle' is a wonderful piece. Extremely dark music...I especially love the orchestrations here; really magical moments. I don't know many recordings of it, but of what I know, my clear favourite is the Walter Berry/Christa Ludwig with Istvan Kertesz and the LPO (although is this the 'first recording you hear' syndrome?).

Edited by Red
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Sadly most of the Kocsis Philips discs are gone or I would have leaned heavily on them for recommendations. I missed vol 6 and recently ordered vol 7 from Berkshire.

I have an allergy to Kremer's tone - I want to "love" him but find it difficult to "like" him. Beyond the "historical" recommendations the Pauk discs suffice for me.

Your earlier touting of the Vegh quartets is right on but hard to find and relatively expensive.  Both Takacs and Keller are in the "Vegh mode" - not the "streamlined 20th century" style created by Julliard and finished by Emerson.  In fact Sandor Vegh wrote the first page in the Keller notes.

Since we are speaking of Sandor(s) and hinting at "great performances", no Bartok fan should ignore the inexpensive VoxBox by Gyorgy Sandor of the 3 piano concertos, Rhapsody for Piano and Orch, Scherzo for Piano and Orch and Sonata for 2 Pianos and Percussion. AND for my alltime favorite violin concerto another VoxBox of concerto performance by Ivry Gitlis. This early '50s recording of the Bartok is a desert island performance for me.

Its possible to find KOCSIS records here (I mean in Europe), particularly in second hand shop. But it's completely possible than PHILLIPS has started to delete this fantastic integral from the catalogue.

About the VÉGH, I think than BRIGHT MOMENTS was asking for recommendation, not for cheap version of BARTOK's works. Of course, if the two can mixed together... The VÉGH's version of BARTOK quartets are available here without much problem. It surely because they are edited by a French label who is not (i'm guessing) very well distributed in the USA.

But, hey, we, european, are buying all the time tons of records from american website, I think that you could try to buy this records from european's one (it could be expensive, though).

Aniway, you could try the FNAC site (www.fnac.fr or if not working, just GoOOGLE the name) where, maybe, CHUCK, you could find yourself more KOCSIS.

The problem with the sonatas it's than there are not so many "modern" versions available, good or not (and it's the same for his two RHAPSODIES ).

KREMER is great in my opinion (also in PROKOFIEV on DG with ARGERICH again) and he is the first choice for that "modern" version IMO.

Strangely, it seems than the SECOND SONATAS has been more recorded than the first.

I have two other versions of the SECOND, one by ANNE-SOPHIE MUTTER on a record where she plays METAMORPHOSEN, the second PENDERECKI VIOLIN CONCERTO (on DG), and by two young french players, ISABELLE FAUST & FLORENT BOFFARD on HARMONIA MUNDI.

But none equal KREMER for me, including (sorry) the PAUK.

Edited by P.L.M
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For BARTOK's piano music, the integral of ZOLTAN KOCSIS on PHILIPS is the absolute must in the best sound possible.

Sadly most of the Kocsis Philips discs are gone or I would have leaned heavily on them for recommendations. I missed vol 6 and recently ordered vol 7 from Berkshire.

I just read that an 8-CD box set of the complete Bartok piano music by Kocsis is scheduled for May 31 release in Germany, if that helps.

I would like to repeat my recommendation for the composer's own recordings, which are still available from Hungartoton (6 CDs):

0497.jpg

Bartok at the piano

0495.jpg

Recordings from private collections

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  • 2 weeks later...

The two discs considered must-have classics by smartypantses like me are:

-- The Concerto for Orchestra and Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta by Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony on RCA

-- and the three piano concertos by Geza Anda and Ferenc Fricsay on DG.

Both should be pretty easy to get. The former was just reissued on SACD hybrid.

From there, you'll need to expand into the string quartets. I recommend the Keller Quartet set on Erato above all, even the oft-recommended Emerson Quartet on DG.

Also grab the disc of violin and piano sonatas on Naxos. Some of Bartok's least user-friendly music, but you can handle it.

i just got to spin the three piano concertos by Geza Anda and Ferenc Fricsay on DG. i am BLOWN AWAY!!!!!!!! :excited::tup:tup:tup

thanks!!!!!

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