Violin Concerto No. 2, BB 117

Program notes

About the Work

Bartók’s Second Violin Concerto, written in 1937–38, is one of the great twentieth-century concertos. Composed on the eve of the Second World War as fascism engulfed Europe, it carries the weight of a farewell to the Hungary Bartók would soon leave forever for American exile. He wrote it for the violinist Zoltán Székely, a close friend and recital partner. There is a charming compromise at its heart: Bartók wanted to write a single-movement set of variations, while Székely insisted on a traditional three-movement concerto. In the end both got their way: the concerto has three movements, but the central one is a formal set of variations, and Bartók even based the outer movements on related material, so the whole work has a satisfying symmetry.

The concerto is a rich, generous, often lyrical work, fusing Bartók’s deep roots in Hungarian and Eastern European folk music with the most sophisticated modern technique (including, here and there, flirtations with twelve-note writing, Bartók’s wry comment on the serialists). It ranges from soaring romanticism to spiky energy to night-music mystery, all crowned by brilliant, demanding solo writing. Premiered in Amsterdam in 1939 under Mengelberg, it has been a cornerstone of the repertoire ever since.

What to Listen For

The first movement opens with strummed harp and pizzicato strings, like a folk minstrel tuning up, before the violin enters with a broad, noble, rhapsodic theme; listen for the music’s swing between Hungarian-flavoured lyricism and fierce energy, for the eerie quarter-tone slides in the solo part, and for the dazzling cadenza.

The central slow movement is the set of variations: listen for the simple, songful theme stated at the start, then for the extraordinary variety of its transformations: by turns serene, glittering, agitated and mysterious, including a magical ‘night music’ variation. The finale is a dancing, driving transformation of the first movement’s material (Bartók’s symmetry at work), full of folk-rhythm exuberance and brilliance. Patricia Kopatchinskaja, a fearless and characterful soloist, brings the work both its lyricism and its wild, earthy edge.