Of the two works presented on this 2018 Pentatone release by Jakub Hrusa and the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Béla Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra is decidedly the most famous and popular. Composed in 1943 on a commission from the Koussevitsky Foundation, this tour de force for orchestra inspired many other composers to write their own concertos for orchestra, though it was by no means the first of such pieces, with important examples by Paul Hindemith, Vagn Holmboe, Gian Francesco Malipiero, Walter Piston, and ...
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Of the two works presented on this 2018 Pentatone release by Jakub Hrusa and the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Béla Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra is decidedly the most famous and popular. Composed in 1943 on a commission from the Koussevitsky Foundation, this tour de force for orchestra inspired many other composers to write their own concertos for orchestra, though it was by no means the first of such pieces, with important examples by Paul Hindemith, Vagn Holmboe, Gian Francesco Malipiero, Walter Piston, and Alfredo Casella preceding it. Indeed, Zoltán Kodály composed his Concerto for orchestra three years before Bartók's, and though it shows a similar engagement with Hungarian folk music as thematic material, it is cast in a loose structure similar to a rhapsody, as opposed to the more symphonic, five-movement layout of Bartók's work. Yet despite the differences between these concertos, they are both showcases for brilliant instrumental effects, vibrant tone colors, and flashy passages...
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