Redirected from Concerto for Orchestra (Bartok)
It was written in response to a commission from the Koussevitzky Foundation (run by the conductor Serge Koussevitzky[?]) following Bartók's move to the United States from his native Hungary from where he had fled because of World War II. It has been speculated that Bartók's previous work, the String Quartet No. 6 (1939), may well have been his last were it not for this commission, which sparked a small number of other compositions, including the Sonata for solo violin[?] and the Piano Concerto No. 3[?].
The piece was written in 1943, the score being inscribed "15 August - 8 October 1943". It was premiered on December 1, 1944, in Boston, Massachusetts by the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Serge Koussevitzky[?]. It was a great success, and has been regularly performed since.
Bartók revised the piece in February 1945, the biggest change coming in the last movement, where he wrote a longer ending. Both verions of the ending were published, and both versions are performed today.
The piece is in five movements:
This is the best known of a number of pieces to have the apparently contradictory title Concerto for Orchestra. Bartók said that he called the piece a concerto rather than a symphony because of the way the instruments are treated in a solistic and virtuosic way.
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