Three Works by Bartók / Kocsis Season Ticket/1

Wednesday, 25 September 2019, 7.30 pm
Müpa Budapest – Béla Bartók National Concert Hall
Kocsis Season Ticket/1

Three Works by Bartók
BARTÓK: Two Portraits, op. 5
BARTÓK: Piano Concerto No. 3
***
BARTÓK: Bluebeard's Castle, op. 11

Jenő Koppándi – violin
Dezső Ránki – piano
Ildikó Komlósi – Judith
Krisztián Cser – Bluebeard
Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor: Zsolt Hamar

Portraits of women in musical notes – this could be a fitting title for this concert. The first is
an ideal image of a woman face, as Bartók saw Stefi Geyer, a young girl studying violin
with Jenő Hubay. He wrote a concerto with a beautiful opening melody for her. After
corresponding for a bit, however, they split up. The composer of the concerto renounced the
work and only used the first movement as part of Two Portraits, with the subtitle One Ideal,
appending to it another with the title One Grotesque, a sarcastic version of the lovely basic
theme. The Piano Concerto No. 3 also begins with a female portrait. A royal princess appears
in a fabulous forest. The orchestra recalls Wagner forest murmurs from Siegfried (the key
– E major – is also identical), with the piano theme perhaps reminding us of the verbunkos-
flavoured melody of the female figure in The Wooden Prince. The gravely-ill composer wrote
the work for Ditta Pásztory, his second wife. The interval will be followed by Bluebeard
Castle, a work that Bartók composed during his first marriage. It is a parable of the
mysterious Man, whose secret the Woman wishes to learn at any cost. The Man is none other
than the composer himself. Or would this be too banal an explanation? There is a legend that
someone once annoyed Bartók with a conjecture along these lines.
– he retorted in irritation. But that may just be a story.