Bartok Records recordings of Bartok's music were often made by musicians with some personal association with the composer. Their importance to performance history is inestimable. If by now some of them seem far from conclusive readings, they are normally reasonably well recorded, well pressed for their time, and well, if not always definitively performed. This is a very nice recording led by Tibor Serly, who has the distinction of having been chosen to complete the orchestration of the last measures of Bartok's 3rd Piano Concerto and to decipher the cryptic shorthand in which the composer left his viola concerto, commissioned by William Primrose, to produce a performing edition. A composer of some talent himself, Serly fills the record with his own affecting arrangement for strings of Gesualdo's madrigal Dulcissima Mia Vita, and a string arrangement of Domenico Scarlatti's Cat's Fugue by A.W. Kramer. Baroque purists will have fits, but the Gesualdo, in particular, is delicious.
I had uploaded the renovated files, but Buster at Big 10-Inch Record brought my attention to the fact that this LP is still available from Bartok Records, linked below.
Link to buy LP from Bartok Records
I do not believe these are readily available anymore, so I am restoring my links to the renovated files I originally posted:
Peter Bartok is still around, and this record is still available - on vinyl!
ReplyDeleteThanks Buster. I knew Peter Bartok was still around -- in Florida I think -- and that some of the original records were still for sale. I neglected to check on this one, though, as I should have. I removed the link to downloadable files and provided, instead, a link to the Bartok Records page where the LP can be purchased. Thanks again. I do try not to post files for things that can be readily obtained from the original copyright holder.
ReplyDeleteI am fascinated that one can actually obtain new vinyl LPs of these fine and interesting recordings! I had no idea - Wow!
ReplyDeleteSquirrel: I think these are old new stock, records remaining from earlier pressings, available while supplies last. But they don't seem to be depleting rapidly.
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