Viola Concerto (Bartók)

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Viola Concerto
by
Sz. 120, BB 128
Composed1945 (1945)
DedicationWilliam Primrose
PerformedDecember 2, 1949 (1949-12-02): Minneapolis
MovementsThree

The Viola Concerto, Sz. 120, BB 128 (also known as Concerto for Viola and Orchestra) was one of the last pieces Béla Bartók wrote. He began composing it while living in Saranac Lake, New York, in July 1945. It was commissioned by William Primrose, a respected violist who knew that Bartók could provide a challenging piece for him to perform. He said that Bartók should not "feel in any way proscribed by the apparent technical limitations of the instrument".[1] Bartók was suffering the terminal stages of leukemia when he began writing the piece and left only sketches at the time of his death.

History

Primrose asked Bartók to write the concerto in the winter of 1944.

Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, with Antal Doráti conducting.[4] Another revision has been prepared by the violist Tabea Zimmermann.[5]

Form

The concerto has three movements, and Bartók wrote in a letter dated August 5, 1945 that the general concept is "a serious

Allegretto and developing the tempo to an Allegro molto. Each movement, or at least 3 of them will, [be] preceded by a (short) recurring introduction (mostly solo for the viola), a kind of ritornello."[6] (The aforementioned idea of a thematic introduction to each movement was also used in Bartók's String Quartet No. 6
.) The first movement is in a loose sonata form. The second movement is significantly shorter, and closes with a very short scherzo movement with an attacca into the third movement. Bartók's manuscript gives the first movement's duration as 10’20", the second as 5’10" and the third as 4’45".

The first and third movements are said to loosely contain a phrase reminiscent of the Scottish tune "Gin a Body Meet a Body, Colmin' Thro' the Rye."[7] This is probably in honor of Primrose's heritage.[8]

Instrumentation

Bartók's manuscript only specifies flute, oboe, 2 clarinets, bassoon, horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, strings.

Serly's edition is orchestrated for piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets in B♭, 2 bassoons, 3 horns in F, 3 trumpets in B♭, 2 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion and strings.

Peter Bartók and Paul Neubauer's edition is orchestrated for piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes (2nd doubling cor anglais), 2 clarinets in B♭, 2 bassoons (2nd doubling contrabassoon), 4 horns in F, 3 trumpets in B♭, tenor trombone, bass trombone, tuba, timpani, percussion (2), strings.

Editions

There are some large discrepancies between the different editions. Some are as simple as the metronome markings. Each editor also had very different interpretations of fingerings for the concerto. One edition suggests beginning the first movement on the open A string, while others suggest beginning on the D string. The Peter Bartók edition, especially, has interesting fingerings because Neubauer edited most of the viola part.[9]

Many bowings also differ between different editions, some of them inserted specifically to accent certain rhythms and high notes, such as in mm. 8-10 in Serly's edition, where Primrose included some bowing suggestions to emphasize the syncopation.[10]

Overall, there are significant surface-level discrepancies such as bowings, fingerings and dynamics. Some editions contain more changes than editor markings; in Peter Bartók's revision, measures are added, completely missing, or with note changes.

Omissions and amendments between editions

Peter Bartók said, "It became clear that we could not merely compare the printed score with the final manuscript prepared from my father’s sketches by Tibor Serly, and discover engraving errors, but we would have to start with the sketch itself."[11]

The first of the note changes begins in measure 44 on beat two, where there is an added D♯ as a double stop against a D♮. In the next measure, the first beat is transposed down an octave, probably to facilitate performance. Everything remains consistent until measure 54, where Serly has the viola resting but Peter Bartók has included two measures of melody in the soloist's part. Serly's edition makes measure 67 a 6
4 bar, but Peter Bartók splits it into a 4
4 bar plus a 3
4 bar and adds a group of triplets. This trend of alterations continues as Peter Bartók adds octave displacements, and omits what is measure 74 in Serly's version.[12]

Cello arrangement

Serly also arranged the work as a cello concerto. After the completion, a gathering of friends of Bartók expressed an eight-to-six preference for the cello transcription over the original.[13] Cellist János Starker was the first to play and record the adaptation.[13]

Recordings

As a cello concerto:

Notes

  1. ^ Béla Bartók, Viola Concerto: Facsimile Edition of the Autograph Draft, Nelson Dellamaggiore, editor (Tampa: Rinaldi Printing, 1995): 24.
  2. ^ Peter, Bartók: "The Principal Theme of Béla Bartók’s Viola Concerto," Studia Musicologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae T. 35 (1993-1994): 47.
  3. ^ Béla Bartók: Viola Concerto, ed. by Tibor Serly (England: Boosey & Hawkes, 1949), 1.
  4. ^ Tibor Serly (December 11, 1949). "Story of a Concerto: Bartók's Last Work". The New York Times.
  5. ^ Liljeroos, Mats (6 February 2022). "Virtuos Bartók à la Zimmermann". Hufvudstadsbladet (in Swedish). Helsingfors. p. 33.
  6. ^ Nelson Dellamaggiore, Facsimile Edition, 25.
  7. ^ Bartók, "The Principal Theme," 47.
  8. ^ Bartók, "The Principal Theme," 46.
  9. ^ Béla Bartók, Viola Concerto, ed. by Paul Neubauer (USA: Boosey & Hawkes, 2003), 1.
  10. ^ Tibor Serly, 1.
  11. ^ Bartók, "The Principal Theme," 45.
  12. ^ Béla Bartók, Viola Concerto, ed. by Paul Neubauer (USA: Boosey & Hawkes, 2003), 3.
  13. ^ a b Musicweb International Review, 2015.
  14. ^ Morris, Andrew. "James Ehnes plays Bartók's Violin Concertos and Viola Concerto". The Classical Source. The Classical Source. Retrieved 5 February 2024.

References

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