Bartok - Etude op. 18 nr 3

[fnork]

Another recently-started work which I'm trying to get ready for upcoming performances - it's not there yet, but I'd truly appreciate some feedback. Did anyone here try to play this beast...?

[furtwaengler]

I opened a few recitals with this etude 10 or 11 years ago. I love the piece, but it did take long to put together. Memory says mine was a bit lighter and dryer at that time...fire flies, lacking the edge you bring.

And with that I *love* your jarring, expressionistic approach to this etude, in keeping with my favorite Bartok work, the 1st violin sonata which was written at this same period. I might like the resonance to hang in the air a bit more at the start...but I have to think about that - your cut off is effective in context. I love the transition to the middle section as well as your subtle handling of the details in the middle section. Coming back around at around 1:30 onward, I love so much what you are doing that I wish it could be exaggerated even more, especially accenting the quickly changing harmonic patterns with the left hand (spiking the first note in every sequence).

(I don't have the score in front of me. These are my on the fly impressions. I love hearing you play!)

[fnork]

Hey Furtaengler, many thanks for commenting, I was in need of some helpful ears and I'm glad you took your time I have yet to study the violin sonatas, but they're of course outstanding. The amount of "outstanding" works for solo piano by Bartok seems to be small - or, say, in the light of his achievements with the string quartets, the concerti, orchestral masterpieces etc etc, many of the solo piano works rarely reach the same heights. It has always seemed to me that Bartok really was one of those composers that went the way Schumann thought one should go - starting from small-scale works for smaller settings or preferably solo piano, and eventually writing for greater forces, as one matures as a composer. So many of the piano works, from Mikrokosmos or elsewhere, seem to be Bartok trying out things compositionally, things he would eventually go on and make use of in large-scale works. With that said, the Etudes op. 18 seem to be perhaps his most successful achievement for solo piano (out of doors, the op. 20 and the piano sonata are among the few works that can compete, in my opinion), and it also seems that his reasons for turning away from solo piano works was that his musical ideas were growing too complex, and they could rarely be expressed by just one pianist with two hands. Hence, some of his most wonderful piano writing comes when the piano joins forces with others - in the violin sonatas, the sonata for 2 pianos and percussion, the concerti etc etc (let's not forget he makes great use of the "percussive piano" in music for strings, percussion and celesta). I keep thinking of if there are any works of his that could be transcribed well for solo piano, there's just so much out there that I love. Some of the songs (op. 15 and 16) might be doable...

Yes, I know what you mean with the cut-off in the beginning. What I DON'T like too much is using full pedal through the introduction - whatever you do, some flutter-pedal seems necessary. Cutting off, or just letting some of the sound stay, is another option. I think Bartok would be open to many versions! Interestingly, the ONLY pedal marking in this piece is for this introduction.

About the middle section, I still haven't figured out if I want it so light and unpedalled or not. It seems to give a more contrasting and "lyrical" impression if done with more pedal. However, that way you'd have to disregard the slurs over two notes and create a longer line instead, and yes, all of the off-beat fifths, alternating between treble and bass, are written staccato. Then again, Bartok only wrote one pedal indication (and glancing through the whole set, I just noticed it's the ONLY pedal indication in the whole opus!), but he surely didn't want everything without pedal...

How do you mean that I could exaggerate the final section more? I like starting it dryly, but perhaps I should make a better use of the pedal, gradually?