Bartok: Violin Concerto #2, Rhapsodies

A proficient, accomplished pianist Béla Bartók also had a life-long, intimate association with the violin, and violinists, several of whom would go on to have lengthy, important careers, and/or inspired his violin-focused masterworks; Joseph Szegeti and Zoltán Székely among the men, Stefi Geyer and Jelly d’Arányi among the women. As a pianist, fellow countryman Zoltán Kocsis has recorded Bartók’s complete piano music in something approaching definitive interpretations. Increasingly active as a conductor, he leads the Hungarian Nat’l Philharmonic in recordings of the Violin Concerto No. 2 and the Orchestral Rhapsodies 1 & 2 with Hungarian violinist Barnabás Kelemen (b. 1978) in the solo spotlight. Alternate versions of both Rhapsodies as well as that of the second movement of the Second Concerto in its first-ever recording are also presented. [Kelemen’s] “innate musicality…” combines with a technical execution that belongs “only to the greatest.” (The Guardian)

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