Concerto for Orchestra, Sz. 116

Cellos and double basses begin together, climbing in fourths. Muted violins enter above them, then a flute. The low phrase returns several times as more of the orchestra enters.

In October 1940 Bartók left Hungary for America. On the eve of leaving he wrote that the move was “like plunging into the unknown from what is known, but unbearable”. Columbia University gave him a modest research post in folk music for a number of months.

In early 1943, when Bartók was ill and short of money, two old friends, the violinist Joseph Szigeti and the conductor Fritz Reiner, suggested to Serge Koussevitzky that he commission an orchestral work from him in memory of his wife, Natalie.

In 1943 Serge Koussevitzky visited Bartók in a New York hospital with a commission worth $1,000. At first Bartók accepted only half the money, because he feared his health would prevent him from finishing the piece. The work is dedicated to Koussevitzky’s late wife, Natalie.

The violins play a quick, twisting tune, and horns and bassoons reply beneath them. Oboes and clarinets add short, accented chords.

In his note for the Boston première in 1944, Bartók explained the title. The work treats single instruments or groups in a “concertant”, soloistic manner. His first example of this “virtuoso” treatment was the brass fugato in the development of this movement.

From bar 155 the oboe plays a new tune, marked dolce, over rocking figures in the violins and cellos. Muted horns hold the harmony. At bar 174 the clarinets take over the melody, and the harp plays between their phrases.

The violins play the quick figure again. The trumpets follow, then bassoons and clarinets, then oboes and flutes. Each group enters before the previous one has finished.

Reiner and the Pittsburgh Symphony made the first commercial recording of the Concerto on 4–⁠5 February 1946, and it was issued in 1948. Reiner recorded the work again in Chicago for RCA on 22 October 1955.

At the Tranquillo (bar 272) the clarinet plays over violins and violas while most of the orchestra rests. The cor anglais takes over the line at bar 287, with a flute above it. The bass clarinet enters at bar 300.

The trombones begin a fugato from bar 316, the same theme entering at different pitches before the earlier entries have finished. The trumpets then enter. Bartók marks the entries ben marcato.

After the brass passage ends, the clarinet brings back the Tranquillo tune over strings and harp. Bartók reversed the earlier order, so the lyrical tune returns before the fast violin theme.

The strings accelerate and bring back the first fast theme. Below them, the horns repeat their short figure.

The side drum begins alone, with its snares switched off. After seven bars of taps the first pair enters, two bassoons moving together a sixth apart over plucked strings.

The two oboes play in thirds over the strings (bars 25–⁠44). Their tune has quick turns and short rests. The bassoons, which played the preceding duet in wider intervals, now rest.

According to Bartók’s editor Benjamin Suchoff, the opening bassoon duet, a major sixth apart, imitates a Yugoslav kolo, a round dance. In America Bartók had spent months at Columbia University working on South Slavic folk music.

For the Boston première in 1944, Bartók described the concerto as moving from sternness to a “life-assertion” in the finale. He made one exception, the “jesting second movement”.

From bar 123 the trumpets play senza sordino in a five-part brass chorale. The note values are longer, and Bartók marks the passage lo stesso tempo. The side drum continues its pattern under the chords.

The original bassoon pair returns, still a sixth apart. A third bassoon plays beneath them in quicker notes, marked staccato. The plucked string accompaniment also returns.

Fritz Reiner studied in Budapest, where Bartók was among his teachers. His biographer Philip Hart wrote that Reiner had “an understanding and devotion of Bartók’s music that no other conductor of his time equaled”.

The strings stop and the winds hold a last chord. The side drum, still without snares, ends the movement alone with the same dry taps that opened it.

The double basses begin, with timpani beside them. Cellos, violas and second violins enter in turn. The phrase repeats the slow ascent from the bottom of the orchestra that opens the first movement.

In bars 10–⁠17 the flute and clarinet play rising and falling groups of eleven notes. The harp adds glissandos, and the oboe holds a long sustained line. The strings sustain beneath them.

In his note for the Boston première Bartók called this movement a “lugubrious death-song”. He described the concerto as moving from the sternness of the first movement and this death-song to the life-assertion of the last.

In 1943 Bartók worked on the concerto at Saranac Lake in upstate New York while recovering from illness. Koussevitzky’s commission had reached him in hospital. By autumn the five movements were finished.

A sharp horn chord is followed by a long, quiet note. Below wavering oboes and clarinets, two solo cellos play quick pizzicato figures. The violins and violas play close to the bridge, and the tam-tam sounds softly behind them.

From bar 62 the violas play a legato line marked molto espressivo, legato. Bartók also writes molto rubato, so the phrase may move freely against the beat. Muted violins and two harps play shorter figures.

At the end of 1942 Bartók complained: “The quasi boycott of my works by the leading orchestras continues; no performances either of old works or new ones.” Within months Koussevitzky’s commission reached him in hospital.

Flutes and violins play repeated high chords. Below them, the clarinets, bassoons, violas and cellos move in continuous lines.

At bar 99 (Tempo I) the opening phrase returns in basses, cellos and violas. The flute and clarinet runs return above it. The muted horn holds a single note beneath them.

Fritz Reiner conducted the Concerto in Pittsburgh on 18 and 20 January 1946 and recorded it on 4–⁠5 February. Bartók had died on 26 September 1945.

The piccolo plays short calls above a muted horn and the last notes of the strings. When the strings stop, piccolo and timpani play the ending pianissimo.

After a short string introduction, the oboe plays a tune in bars of changing length. Violas and cellos accompany it pizzicato.

At Calmo the violas play a broad cantabile melody over chords from two harps. The violins then take up the melody, and the cor anglais joins them.

In bars 75–⁠92 the clarinet plays the march tune from Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony. The strings accelerate and the brass enters. The trombones then play upward glissandi.

Bartók’s march parodies the “invasion” theme of Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony, which itself refers to “Da geh’ ich zu Maxim” from Lehár’s operetta The Merry Widow. Writers have long disagreed over whether the target is Shostakovich, Lehár or both.

The broad theme returns in muted violins and violas, over harp chords and pizzicato lower strings. Bartók marks it non crescendo as the line rises.

In January 1944 Bartók signed a contract with American Ballet Theatre for a ballet version of the concerto. He prepared a piano score, and the conductor Antal Doráti helped with the negotiations. The ballet was never staged.

The flute plays a short cadenza and the beat slackens. Horns and strings hold their notes underneath while the flute turns back on itself, pauses and continues. The final exchanges are short and quiet.

The horns play the opening call, marked Pesante, heavily. After a long pause, violas and cellos put their bows aside and strum chords like guitars. At bar 8 the second violins begin the Presto, playing at the tips of their bows.

On 26 September 1943 Bartók wrote to his son Péter: “The first 4 are already finished. Now I am having trouble with the last, which for certain reasons is the most difficult.” He was working on the concerto for most of each day.

The running figures stop, and a solo bassoon plays a new theme from bar 148, marked ben marcato. A second bassoon enters at bar 152 and the clarinets at bar 155, over muted strings.

Koussevitzky conducted the première with the Boston Symphony on 1 December 1944. Bartók told a pupil that Koussevitzky called it “the best orchestra piece of the last 25 years”, including the works of his idol Shostakovich.

The tempo slows to Un poco meno mosso (bars 256–⁠299). Two harps play chords above divided violins, and short woodwind phrases pass between the string lines. Some violinists bow the tune while others play the accompaniment pizzicato.

Reiner conducted from a score that Bartók himself had corrected. Paper strips with the revised passages are pasted over the old ones, and the new ending is inserted after the last page. The score is now in the Fritz Reiner Score Collection at Northwestern University.

The horns play a long phrase over the violins’ quick notes, and the cellos and double basses repeat a short figure below. Trumpets and trombones enter with accented chords. The fast line then returns in the strings.

The first violins play a soft melody marked dolce over muted chords in the other strings. Flutes, oboes, clarinets and horns enter in longer notes. Bartók adds the marking sempre più tranquillo.

The strings continue their running scales while winds and brass play longer phrases above them. Muted trombone and tuba add a low line; later the horns and trumpets enter. The double basses hold sustained notes beneath.

Koussevitzky’s radio broadcast of 30 December 1944 used Bartók’s original ending. Reiner’s Pittsburgh recording, made in February 1946, used the longer alternative ending that Bartók supplied.

Reiner plays Bartók’s expanded ending. The tempo increases again and the tune passes between strings and winds, with upward glissandos in the horns and trombones. Side drum and cymbal reinforce the final acceleration into F major.