I used to have a handful of the Complete Edition LPs, bought for next to nothing back in the 1970s. Wish I'd held on to them as they are superb recordings which are very rare these days. This was one I owned and it was my first experience of Kossuth which, though it bore little resemblance to, say, The Wooden Prince, Bluebeard's Castle or Miraculous Mandarin (all of which I'd heard first), still appealed to me greatly. Okay, there are strong elements of Strauss in the orchestration but, as I listen again, I can detect hints of Bartok's later, more individual musical voice.
I've long felt that Bartok is over-rated, but this composition has given me second thoughts, and makes me want to search deeper into his work for more, wrongly-neglected treasures, like this one. Just goes to show that music is an inexhaustible reservoir of life's real riches. Thank you for posting "Kossuth", a far-too-seldom-heard masterpiece.
I actually have this album! Spent a semester in college studying Bartok's music and grabbed up everything I could find.
Marvelous -- thanks for sharing ! I have a reduction for piano that I will certainly revisit.
I used to have a handful of the Complete Edition LPs, bought for next to nothing back in the 1970s. Wish I'd held on to them as they are superb recordings which are very rare these days. This was one I owned and it was my first experience of Kossuth which, though it bore little resemblance to, say, The Wooden Prince, Bluebeard's Castle or Miraculous Mandarin (all of which I'd heard first), still appealed to me greatly. Okay, there are strong elements of Strauss in the orchestration but, as I listen again, I can detect hints of Bartok's later, more individual musical voice.
Thanks for sharing this very exciting work.
I've long felt that Bartok is over-rated, but this composition has given me second thoughts, and makes me want to search deeper into his work for more, wrongly-neglected treasures, like this one. Just goes to show that music is an inexhaustible reservoir of life's real riches. Thank you for posting "Kossuth", a far-too-seldom-heard masterpiece.