Max Derrickson

Bartok – Third Piano Concerto

[. . .]  Though much of Bartok’s music is rather modern and dissonant, the Third Piano Concerto is very different in nature.  The first movement, Allegretto, opens with gently pulsing strings and a lilting first theme from the piano.  The entire work is very tonal harmonically, and this opening paves the way.  It evokes a rhapsodic tenderness, a quiet brimming of joy.  The second section, the development, paraphrases a tune from Maurice Ravel’s G-Major Piano Concerto.   The music in this movement is never dense but retains a transparent quality. The solo piano part is tempered and linear, rarely evoking bravura.

Adagio religioso, the second movement, begins like a setting sun on a summer evening.    [. . .]   The Allegro vivace closes the whole work in the form of a rondo in syncopated overdrive.  It is very Bartokian in its spirit and rhythmical interplay, complex but utterly playful.  As so many finales are intended to do, this one is a release of energy, a jubilation, a spirited dance.  As the work flies toward an exuberant end, [. . .]