Philharmonia Orchestra – Bartók & Kodály
Where: Royal Festival Hall
When: Thursday 8th Feb 2018
Bartók’s witty Concerto for Orchestra darts and dives across the orchestra, spotlighting each section as melodies race from one instrument to the next.
Bartók described the work as `apart from the jesting second movement, a gradual transition from the sternness of the first movement . . . to the life-assertion of the last one’. This `jesting’ refers to Bartók’s tongue in cheek quotation of Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony. Bartók detested this piece, and made sure to give his borrowed theme an orchestral raspberry.
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