Describing Béla Bartók’s Violin Sonata No. 1, Sz. 75, violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja notes
The facility within the first motion, the loneliness of the violin melody and the states of panic within the second; the virtually grotesquely joyful and folk-like character of the third — it’s a particular pleasure for those who can play it with pleasure and with out stress, with out worrying about all its terrifying difficulties. It’s technically extraordinarily troublesome, with all of the micro-canons going previous at breakneck velocity…
Bartók composed this evocative music in 1921, concurrently with the rating for the “pantomime grotesque” ballet, The Miraculous Mandarin. The Sonata was written for Hungarian violinist Jelly d’Aranyi, the great-niece of Joseph Joachim, the violinist who labored carefully with Brahms. Bartók and d’Aranyi gave the premiere in London in 1922.
Infused with the influences of Hungarian folks music, which the composer spent years learning and amassing, the Sonata’s three actions unfold rhapsodically, with frequent tempo adjustments. Hugh Macdonald observes that “neither participant ever shares the opposite’s materials (this isn’t Mozart) and even appears to react to it; they usually look like inhabiting totally different musical worlds solely to return collectively at essential moments and to take pleasure in one another’s rhapsodizing in a totally spontaneous and uninhibited style.” Dreamy, haunting, and atmospheric, the music wanders into the hazy world of atonality and the unique whole-tone scale, solely to return briefly to a tonal heart. It ventures into the world of Bartók’s “Night music,” during which we hear one thing akin to the hum of bugs, frog calls, and birdsongs.
The primary motion (Allegro appassionato) begins with a lamenting fiddle melody which floats above the piano’s ghostly arpeggios. At occasions, there are faint echoes of the shrieking voices of The Miraculous Mandarin.
The lamenting second motion (Adagio) begins with a wandering melody, heard within the violin alone. The piano enters with a cosmic chorale which drifts into parallel chords. Its stoic timelessness stands in distinction with the violin’s weeping, longing exclamations.
Erupting with wild, terrifying power, the ultimate motion (Allegro) is an exhilarating folks dance. There are zesty, irregular rhythms, swirling arpeggios and glissandi, and strumming pizzicati. The frenzied coda concludes with a vibrant if unsettling tone cluster, which blends a C-sharp main and C-sharp minor with an added seventh (B) within the violin.
I. Allegro appassionato:
II. Adagio:
III. Allegro:
