Bartok- Two Rumanian Danses Op. 8a

This upload marks the first in a series of re-uploads I will be doing, of videos where the sound is either of very poor quality (there was a short period where this was the case, as I had been using different software) or where there have been several glitches in the recording. As well as this, I'll be going back through all of my uploads and adding additional information about the pieces. It has always been my contention that people will learn more if they find something out for themselves, but that's apparently not happening. I had thought that the contemporary classical music listener was smarter than the average person, but I've been proven wrong, time and time and time again, so this is now a necessity. These are my primary projects at the moment, instead of uploading new music (which I will also be doing; simply in more moderation) as I don't currently have the same amount of free time I used to when I was uploading large quantities of music.

So, here is Bela Bartok's (1881-1945) solo piano work, the Two Rumanian Danses, Op. 8a (unrelated to the popular Romanian Folk Dances Sz. 68). This work is part of a three piece set, along with the Two Elegies Op. 8b and the Three Burlesques Op. 8c. This piece is fairly uncommon in both performance and competition repertoire, primarily due to its extreme difficulty. It is more difficult than the Piano Sonata Sz. 81, and in some ways more difficult than the Etudes Op. 18, although I would not say that it is actually *as difficult* as the etudes or Piano Concerto No. 2. The piece requires incredible strength and stamina, and often has passages of massive, unpianistic chord progressions, as well as large and varying leaps across the keyboard. The Op. 8b and Op. 8c works are also of high quality, but are again not performed often, most-likely due to their comparative inaccessibility to the more popular Sonata and Suite Op. 14. The central melodies of the two dances were written by Bartok himself, but are reminiscent of Gypsy dances, in particular sword dancing.

Performed here by Peter Frankl.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Bartok
• Two
• Rumanian
• Danses
• Piano

[mbmkeyboard]

Thanks for your reply John11 - I knew it was not Bartok - I finally found the one I was looking for. Bartok plays Bartok - give it a listen - the pitch is off a little but WOW!!! I truly think I am right about the misprint as well.

[John11inch]

@mbmkeyboard

What measure is this misprint supposed to be at, and in which edition, and what is the misprint?

[mbmkeyboard]

Hello - I would like to know who the performer is....there was a recording of Bartok playing this himself but I can longer locate it. I am chasing after what I think is an error in the score - and I think the key is hearing that performance again. I recall hearing it and noticing that he played a particular chord as I do - without an accidental that appears earlier in the bar - and it is a spot where all figures are exact transposed sets.

[John11inch]

@mbmkeyboard

I do not remember. However, the performer here is not Bartok.

[John11inch]

Oh, also, an attempt to upload a recording of a sonata by Scriabin which was owned by Warner Music Group has put me on youtube's shit list. Which basically means they will be actively checking for third party content on all videos from here forward, so they will probably all have that little advertisement. Not my doing.

[eurisko618]

Am I right to consider the 2nd Dance to be the one with the nastiest technical problems? I've been a long-time fan of the 1st Dance, but never paid much attention to the 2nd, possibly due to its pianistic as well as musical problems.

[grandepittore]

thank you!

[mbmkeyboard]

Hello all Bartok performers and enthusiasts - I believe that there is an error in measure 94 ( 3 bars before the FF return at Tempo 1) - the third LH chord has an e# resulting from an earlier accidental in the measure, but I personally believe that Bartok is playing e natural and also that e nat. fits the chord structure correctly - all of the gestures in that bar are exact transpositions and the other 3 chords are half diminished sevenths in quality. Dover edition - bet all editions are wrong.

[PRObifidus]

Probably the best version of this song on youtube...

But I find it too slow (just personal opinion)

[jamiebyrne77]

great music - thanks :)