GREAT RECORDINGS phase 11

BARTÓK: PIANO CONCERTOS Nos.1 & 3,
*RHAPSODIES Nos.1 & 2
Daniel Barenboim
New Philharmonia Orchestra
*Yehudi Menuhin
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Pierre Boulez

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'In a fascinating collaboration between Barenboim and Boulez, the playing of the orchestra is wonderfully warm to match the superbly expressive playing of the soloist. In the Rhapsodies Menuhin's assumption of an earthy peasant manner is brilliantly effective and this emphasis on the folk element is beautifully matched by Boulez's accompaniment.' (Gramophone)

For the distinguished French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez, Bartók is one of the greatest figures in 20th-century music and his works have always featured prominently in Boulez's concert programmes and in his discography, alongside music by Berg, Debussy, Messiaen, Ravel, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Webern and Varèse.

In two important EMI recordings from 1967 and 1968, Boulez collaborated with the 25-year-old Daniel Barenboim in two of the composer's three piano concertos (the strikingly original No.1 from 1927 and the amiable No.3, Bartók's last work, completed just before his death in 1945) and with Yehudi Menuhin in the two folk-inspired Rhapsodies for violin and orchestra of 1928.

In the words of Bryce Morrison in his booklet essay for this release, the performers 'achieve an almost romantic flexibility of expression or, more precisely, that parlando so characteristic of Bartók's own inimitable playing. In short they perform these works in truly authentic Bartók style'.