MARIA BASILIDES (Soprano) BELA BARTOK (Pianoforte)
I II
Original Compositions :
MARIA BASILIDES
Five Songs on Poems by Andreas Ally (1916)
BELA BARTOK
Second Burlesque, ' Un pea gris ' (A Little T:p-v)
(1910)
Bears' Dance (1908)
Allegro barbaro (1911)
MARIA BASILIDES
Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 5 from ' Eight Hungarian Folk-songs ' (1907-1911) from the Comitat Csik
BELA BARTOK
First Roumanian Dance (1909)
Sonata (1926), in three Movements
Allegro moderato ; Lento ; Allegro molto
BARTOK'S name is now well known as that of one whoso compositions have striking individuality and uncommon force.
Ho is a Hungarian (though the place in which he was born in 1881 in now annexed by Roumania). Ho began to compose when he was nine, entered the Royal Hungarian High School for Music at Budapest, and first became known, not as a Composer, but as a Pianist. His latent aptitude for composition was awakened by hearing Strauss' Symphonic Poem, Thus Spake Zarathustra, and soon ho was producing works in various forms, including a Symphonic Poem of his own, entitled Kosulth (the name of the leader of the Hungarian Revolution in the middle of the last century), which Riehtcr performed at a Halle concert in Manchester. A Piano Quintet and some pieces were other early works. He has devoted a great deal of his time to his studies in folk-music, travelling as far afield as Arabia. in his investigations. Ho has put his view of the attitude of the composer to folk-music very clearly. Its appropriate use, he says, ' is not, of course, limited to the sporadic introduction or the imitation of these melodies, or to the arbitrary thematic use of them in works of foreign or international tendencies. It is rather a question of absorbing the moans of musical expression hidden in this treasure of folk-tunes, just as the most subtle possibilities of any language may be assimilated. It is necessary for the composer to command the musical language so completely that it becomes the natural expression of his own musical ideas.'
Perhaps the work which best shows Bartok's manner of utilizing folk material is his Dance Sitite, written in ]923 for a concert that celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the union between the cities of Buda and Pest. Bartok's style, here as in most of his later works, is bold and uncompromising. Tho Suite, which has been heard two or three times in London, is one of the most vigorous and vital products of the new Hungarian school.
In to-night's Concert wo have the advantage of the personal co-operation of this distinguished Composer, whom we heartily welcome.