Sunday Classics: More musical funny business with Béla Bartók

Zubin Mehta and the Los Angeles Philharmonic perform the second-movement "Game of Couples" of Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra in 1977.

by Ken

Last night, as we edged closer to talking about Zoltán Kodály's Háry János Suite and Prokofiev's Lt. Kijé Suite (which we previewed last week) as well as other music that is at the same time funny and artistically serious, we heard both the piano original of a little "Bear Dance" by Bela Bártok and the later orchestration the composer did for his Hungarian Sketches.

This isn't "masterpiece" Bartók, of course. The composer admitted that he did this set of orchestrations as a way to have some of his more accessible music more widely played, notably on the radio (and maybe even earn him a bit of money). Nevertheless, the Hungarian Sketches are wonderful stuff. Only a couple of them clearly fall under our heading of musical funny business. Let's first refresh our memory of the "Bear Dance":

BARTÓK: "Bear Dance"
(No. 10 of Ten Easy Pieces, Sz. 39 (1908)

Béla Bartók, piano. Dutch Radio broadcast, Hilversum, Jan. 31, 1935

BARTÓK: "Bear Dance"
(No. 2 of Hungarian Sketches, Sz. 71 (1931)

Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Fritz Reiner, cond. RCA/BMG, recorded 1958

In the nonhumorous category, here's the opening Hungarian Sketch, first in the composer-played piano version -- an unfortunately incomplete (and technically less good) transcription from the same broadcast as the "Bear Dance" -- and then, again, in the Reiner orchestral version.

BARTÓK: "Evening in Transylvania" (for piano, incomplete)
(No. 5 of Ten Easy Pieces, Sz. 39 (1908)

Béla Bartók, piano. Dutch Radio broadcast, Hilversum, Jan. 31, 1935

BARTÓK: "Evening in the Village" (for orchestra)
(No. 1 of Hungarian Sketches, Sz. 71 (1931)

Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Fritz Reiner, cond. RCA/BMG, recorded 1958

We're going to come back to the Hungarian Sketches, but to return to last week's preview subject (see the link above), "Musical funny business from two great composers and a great conductor," I'm surely not alone in specially treasuring the Háry János and Lt. Kijé music precisely because they draw on their composers' wit, and I think the sense of humor -- in particular from a predominantly "serious" artist of great stature -- is often one of his or her most personal dimensions. (At this stage of his career, actually, Prokofiev was unleashing his wicked sense of humor all over the place, and we'll hear some of it when we come around to a Prokofiev "Musical Funny Business" installment.)

As I thought about this subject of musical funny business, I made an effort to gather CD versions of recordings that have meant a lot to me. You already heard one fruit of this in last week's sampling of Klaus Tennstedt's incandescent recording of Háry János and Kijé. By way of a tease, here are additional excerpts from each.

KODÁLY: Háry János Suite:

ii. Viennese Musical Clock
v. Intermezzo


PROKOFIEV: Lt. Kijé Suite:

iii. Wedding of Kijé
iv. Troika

London Philharmonic Orchestra, Klaus Tennstedt, cond. EMI, recorded c 1983

As I mentioned last week, I also had George Szell's memorable Háry János-Kijé coupling (to which Sony has added his outstanding recording of Maurice Ravel's beloved orchestration of Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition) on order. That CD has since tumbled in, and we'll be hearing some if it when we come back to this music. I also tracked down a CD of the Háry János Suite from the much underrated series of recordings made by Erich Leinsdorf while he was music director of the Boston Symphony (1962-69).

That recording was presumably made at the same time I heard and them play it at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. (Back then the BSO not only played an extensive series of concerts each season at Carnegie Hall but a shorter series in Brooklyn, with student tickets often available for a dollar.) That was the first time I ever heard Háry János. If I recall correctly, it was on the program with the Mahler First Symphony, and that would have been the first Mahler symphony I ever heard. (Leinsdorf and the BSO also recorded that, and even now, when I've got probably several dozen Mahler Firsts, I think that's still the one I would pick if I could have only one.)

The BMG CD that contains Leinsdorf's Háry János also contains two works by Kodály's countryman, onetime student, and longtime friend and colleague, Béla Bartók. (That's the young Bartók with Kodály in the photo.) First, there's his culminating orchestral masterpiece, the Concerto for Orchestra. (Parenthetically, this was the first recording Leinsdorf and the BSO made together, and to celebrate the occasion RCA originally issued it along with a promotional LP gathering BSO recordings made by Leinsdorf's illustrious predecessors in Boston going back to a 1918 acoustical Lohengrin Act III Prelude conducted by Karl Muck, which I played endlessly, and also including Serge Koussevitzky's recording of Prokofiev's Classical Symphony, which is how I got to know that delectable piece (which we'll be hearing when we come back to Prokofiev). Then there's the recording of the Hungarian Sketches by that volatile Hungarian Fritz Reiner with the Chicago Symphony.

BARTÓK: Concerto for Orchestra, Sz. 116

ii. Giuoco delle coppie (Game of Couples)
(Allegretto scherzando)

Wikipedia notes that the movement "is in five sections, each thematically distinct from each other, with a different pair of instruments playing together in each section. In each passage a different interval separates the pair—bassoons are a minor sixth apart, oboes are in minor thirds, clarinets in minor sevenths, flutes in fifths and muted trumpets in major seconds. The movement prominently features a side drum which taps out a rhythm at the beginning and end of the movement.

(Wikipedia also notes that Sir Georg Solti, after consulting the manuscript, discovered that Bartók indicated a considerably faster metronome marking than we have in the printed score, and a tempo marking for the movement of "Allegro scherzando" rather than "Allegretto scherzando." We're going to hear a Solti Concerto for Orchestra at the end of this post. Note the difference in "Giuoco delle coppie.")



iv. Intermezzo interrotto (Interrupted Intermezzo)
(Allegretto)

Wikipedia, again, says the movement "consists of a flowing melody with changing time signatures, intermixed with a theme parodying and ridiculing the march tune in Dmitri Shostakovich's 'Leningrad' Symphony (No. 7). The theme is itself interrupted by glissandi on the trombones and woodwinds. In this movement, the timpani are featured when the second theme is introduced, requiring 12 different pitches of the timpani over the course of 20 seconds. The general structure is 'ABA–interruption–BA.'"

Boston Symphony Orchestra, Erich Leinsdorf, cond. RCA/BMG, recorded 1962

After all the bits and pieces, I thought we should listen to all of the two Bartók orchestral pieces we've sampled, starting with the Hungarian Sketches -- first in the Reiner recording, then in one by another distinguished Hungarian-born conductor, Antal Dorati.

BARTÓK: Hungarian Sketches, Sz. 71

i. Evening in the Village
ii. Bear Dance
iii. Melody
iv. A Bit Tipsy
v. Swineherds' Dance


Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Fritz Reiner, cond. RCA/BMG, recorded 1958


Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, Antal Dorati, cond. Mercury, recorded 1956

Finally we come back t what I would think is Bartók's best-known work, completed in 1943 by the already-ill composer on a (temporarily) life-saving commission engineered by Boston Symphony music director Serge Koussevitzky, played first by the BSO under Erich Leinsdorf and then by the World Orchestra for Peace conducted by yet another celebrated Hungarian-born conductor, Sir Georg Solti.

BARTÓK: Concerto for Orchestra, Sz.116

i. Introduzione (Allegro vivace)
ii. Giuoco delle coppie (Allegretto scherzando)
iii. Elegia (Andante non troppo)
iv. Intermezzo interrotto (Allegretto)
v. Finale (Pesante; Presto)

Movements i.-ii.

Movements iii.-v.

Boston Symphony Orchestra, Erich Leinsdorf, cond. RCA/BMG, recorded 1962

Movements i.-ii.

Movements iii.-v.

World Orchestra for Peace, Sir Georg Solti, cond. Decca, recorded live at the United Nations 50th Anniversary Concert, Geneva, July 5, 1995

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