Bartok: Violin Concerto #2 / Dumay, Nagano

Bartók's Violin Concerto No.2 was commissioned in 1936 by the eminent Hungarian violinist Zoltán Székely, a personal friend and frequent recital partner of the composer. It is a work that takes the virtuosity and melodic richness of the Romantic concerto tradition and recasts it in the terms of Bartók's own, highly personal idiom, with all its contradictions - spiky yet warm, bold and yet contained. The violin concerto is paired with the Concerto for Orchestra, a work that embodies a perfect synthesis of all the elements of Bartók's mature style. By virtue of its accessibility, it brought him a far wider audience than he had previously known. French violinist Augustin Dumay is the soloist in the violin concerto, joined by Kent Nagano leading the Montréal Symphony Orchestra.

Price: $23.98