Bartok - Fifteen Hungarian Peasant Songs Sz.71 #7-15

[visitor]

c. 1914-1918
have not seen any Bartok uploaded for a little while.

revisiting an old student performance of mine (maybe 10 yrs ago) , this is live in recital, closing number. Remains one of the most enjoyable pieces I've played, it ignited in me a love for folk music based pieces and ethnomusicology as pertains to piano.

four files containing 2nd half of the set. I am toying w/ going back to learn 1-6.

decent hall and mics. piano is a Hamburg SS Model D. Powerful instrument.

[josh93248]

Hi Visitor

It's a shame you haven't even got a response yet, your playing is pretty darn good!

I've never really been a big fan of Bartok but I can see the appeal in this case. Quite charming pieces overall, thankyou for sharing.

[visitor]

thanks. I didn't expect a lot of chatter on this. I think Bartok is misunderstood a lot of the time. seems mostly it's appreciated by pianists w a bit of formal advanced and/or academic study under their belts. it is not 'text book pretty' but I think its beauty comes about more if people understand his music's construction and that he was trying to notate and compose music with a set of rules that did not wholey apply to the source material. quarter tones, augmented  intervals, bitonality and stuff sorta hard to name....
I think probably and hope, people just aren't familiar w these pieces, so less discussion on them as a result. still I loved playing these more than anything else in the program. I think that happens a lot, stuff pianists geek out on is not exactly the stuff that audiences gravitate towards.
the less acclimated the ear is to 20th century and eastern European/western Asian folk music, the harder I think it is to appreciate it.

glad you liked them and thanks for the props on my playing of these. glad I could add them to the aud. board archive 

[josh93248]

thanks. I didn't expect a lot of chatter on this. I think Bartok is misunderstood a lot of the time. seems mostly it's appreciated by pianists w a bit of formal advanced and/or academic study under their belts. it is not 'text book pretty' but I think its beauty comes about more if people understand his music's construction and that he was trying to notate and compose music with a set of rules that did not wholey apply to the source material. quarter tones, augmented  intervals, bitonality and stuff sorta hard to name....
I think probably and hope, people just aren't familiar w these pieces, so less discussion on them as a result. still I loved playing these more than anything else in the program. I think that happens a lot, stuff pianists geek out on is not exactly the stuff that audiences gravitate towards.
the less acclimated the ear is to 20th century and eastern European/western Asian folk music, the harder I think it is to appreciate it.

glad you liked them and thanks for the props on my playing of these. glad I could add them to the aud. board archive 

That's a very good point about what pianists "geek out on"

I've found this applies to the manner of playing as well, there is such a thing as a pianist's pianist and a general audience pianist (Your Lang Langs and Liberaces).

Dare I say that people who are a bit more knowledgeable tend to appreciate my playing more than people who aren't. It's also my choices of rep I suppose...

By the way I've always respected your interest and advocacy of lesser known and championed music, I've got to reduce the narrowness of my focus, I've had a lot of dumb ideas about what is and is not worth listening to.

[visitor]

That's a very good point about what pianists "geek out on"

I've found this applies to the manner of playing as well, there is such a thing as a pianist's pianist and a general audience pianist (Your Lang Langs and Liberaces).

Dare I say that people who are a bit more knowledgeable tend to appreciate my playing more than people who aren't. It's also my choices of rep I suppose...

By the way I've always respected your interest and advocacy of lesser known and championed music, I've got to reduce the narrowness of my focus, I've had a lot of dumb ideas about what is and is not worth listening to.

I enjoy your playing, especially since you gave such good consideration to that little A major Chopin Prelude, as it's my favorite of his lot.  I'm actually working on it , sorta, so will post when i'm done 

as for what's 'worth' listening to or learning, we all grow in our tastes and sensibilities, at the end of the day, if you like it's sound, if it moves you , or challenges your thinking or helps you grow, or broadens your view(s), then i'd say it's worth it ,to you at least, and that right there makes it worthwhile, whether other people agree or not (and if not, it's their problem)
Thanks for the props.

[huaidongxi]

delightful music, enchanting performance, mil grazie maestro.  Bartok i.m.h.o. is the greatest 20th cent. composer in the european tradition and neglected at least here in amerika by the solo piano recitalists. my guess, not conventional, too folkish, not showy nor superficially pretty nor sufficiently impressive technically. nice to hear that your audience appreciated your performance.

relearning technique at present exclusively from playing microcosmos bk.3-4, his children's pieces, and some Bach, with these peasant songs and other similar works by him my goal. aspiring toward some of the schubert imprompti as well. thank you for the inspiration.

[visitor]

delightful music, enchanting performance, mil grazie maestro.  Bartok i.m.h.o. is the greatest 20th cent. composer in the european tradition and neglected at least here in amerika by the solo piano recitalists. my guess, not conventional, too folkish, not showy nor superficially pretty nor sufficiently impressive technically. nice to hear that your audience appreciated your performance.

relearning technique at present exclusively from playing microcosmos bk.3-4, his children's pieces, and some Bach, with these peasant songs and other similar works by him my goal. aspiring toward some of the schubert imprompti as well. thank you for the inspiration.

many many many thanks huaidongxi!
i feel the same way, in terms or creative genius, innovation (ie moving composition forward and having a way to apply western theory to a system of modified tonality/polytonality that doesn't quite fit neatly into it), Bartok was in a class of his own (which is one reason why I am so enamored with Mikuli's early pioneering work as well).
Any doubt that he had the std European tradition piano chops should be non existent if one spends time looking at his early output and his transcriptions of17th and 18th cent. music/keyboard pieces for piano.

Alas, i think like i said above, it's a lack of familiarity or formal training to have enough background knowledge to appreciate and understand how much was going on in his music. it is said too often but i think it really applies, he's a bit of an acquired taste you gotta give it time to see if it grows on you after a while.

however not everyone has to like him/his music or my performance. there's all sorts of room in this playground for all sorts of kids.   , so that's totally cool too/either way

for some it just might be too exotic or 'spicey' , perhaps one reason why generally for an almost universally loved composer like Chopin, his Mazurkas are under appreciated.... they are my favorite of his piano output for similar reasons.

I loved playing these and really do hope you get a chance to visit this set, i want to put nos 1-6 in  consideration so i can feel a sense of 'closure' w/ the work.

Your work on mikrokosmos will help immensely, had i done that i would have been able to learn these faster , w/ greater ease, and possibly given an even more effective performance of them.

Bartok is one of the few composers that when he wrote for children (talented children) he did't 'talk down to them' he forces them to step up and if they have the talent, instruction, and work ethic to stick with it, are rewarded with a lot of learning and  effective/beautiful miniatures.

Thanks again for stopping in to comment, made me glad this spoke to someone too :-)

[huaidongxi]

after reviewing a number of scores for beginners and kids, my conclusion was, three composers wrote material suited to various levels of proficiency that lent themselves to progressive study, and more importantly, the easier stuff was musically interesting and engaging -- bartok, bach, schumann.  later, found out what bartok himself wrote, after he was appointed to the position of national supervisor for piano pedagogy in Hungary, that he considered only bach and schumann to have children's pieces with serious musical content and merit. his dedication and prolific output for children's instruction left us a tremendous legacy. even if my progress slows down or stops, though the works might be brief or simple to serious pianists, can still enjoy them the rest of my life.  peace, maestro visitor.

[cbreemer]

I love to play this set too. There's something here for everyone, even for those who did not think they liked Bartok. You play them convincingly. There's plenty of mistakes, some of it the inevitable sh*t that happens when you play live, some of it (I think) read errors, it might be an idea to check against the score (could also be the read errors are mine, haha). But none of it matters much when it's played so spiritedly. The coda of the closing bagpipe seems a bit underpowered but I much like how you make the apoggiaturas sound. All in all, very good work !

[visitor]

I love to play this set too. There's something here for everyone, even for those who did not think they liked Bartok. You play them convincingly. There's plenty of mistakes, some of it the inevitable sh*t that happens when you play live, some of it (I think) read errors, it might be an idea to check against the score (could also be the read errors are mine, haha). But none of it matters much when it's played so spiritedly. The coda of the closing bagpipe seems a bit underpowered but I much like how you make the apoggiaturas sound. All in all, very good work !

hi cbreemer! I am supremely sorry to resurrect an old response like this but I have to claim ignorance I didn't realize you had responded as I aim to thank and acknowledge anyone that takes time to comment critique or compliment any of my playing
yes I acknowledge there were some interesting issues at play it was an unusual recital scenario a super rare summer one, ie most of these things occurred in spring or fall but I had so much academically load that i had to do final prep during a very short and compressed summer semester of about 1 month vs a usual 4 month spring or autumn term
so that and nerves etc did have some play. this set went a bit better in my recital hearing
I did aim high for character and charm and color and it seems I hit many of the checks I wanted so all.in all I was pleased
super happy you enjoyed and appreciate these pieces. they are wonderful , I like the set over all but the first through no 6 dont move me as much as the last half
 -)
sincerest apologies for not noticing your reply and it just sitting out there, certainly wasn't my intent
😊

[cbreemer]

Oh that's alright. I probably haven't been here since that posting and had forgotten all about it. Thanks for still acknowledging it though ! As you imply, it is the right thing to do.