One of the architects of 20th-century Hungarian music, he championed the music of Bartok and Kodaly.
Consider the opening of the suite from Bartok's 1926 ballet, The Miraculous Mandarin (audio).
Both Bartok and Shostakovich fell foul of the authorities in a favourite playground for censors sex.
We're listening to the Hungarian-born pianist Gyorgy Sandor playing one of Bela Bartok's three Hungarian folk tunes.
He studied piano with Bartok and kept up a close friendship with the composer until his death in 1945.
The era in which Bartok lived was rife with these over-the-top story lines.
Born in 1912 in Budapest, he studied composition there with Bartok and Dohnanyi.
Mr. Sandor really respects how Bartok approaches music and his understanding of what music is, is the commonality of all music.
Sandor premiered Bartok's Dance Suite and also his Piano Concerto Number 3.
Were there times when, as Mr. Sandor's student, you felt like, in some way, you were also by extension studying with Bela Bartok?
Mr. Sandor was so well-known for his connection with Bela Bartok, for having studied under him in Hungary, for having premiered some of his works.
He adds that the quartet was surprised to find that, while conventional audiences may bristle at modern repertoire, non-traditional audiences respond enthusiastically to Bartok or Zemlinsky.
So I don't think it was unusual for Bartok to pick a revisionist rendition of a dark and terror-filled fairy tale as the libretto for his first and only opera, Duke Bluebeard's Castle.
Benedetti will lead the ensemble as they prepare and perform what is billed as "one of the most difficult and exciting pieces for string orchestra - Bartok's Divertimento - a piece selected to challenge the players and encourage musical excellence".
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