Friday, September 24, 2010

Spectacular Bartok Alert

I heard a knock-your-Hungarian-socks-off performance of the Bartok Violin Concerto from the Finals of International Violin Competition of Indianapolis this evening that was streamed live from the performance. Part of the joy of listening to this was to observe the way the orchestra responded to Szalai's "mother tongue" sense of color in the piece. Figurative lightbulbs were turning on above the heads of the musicians in the orchestra, and I imagined thought balloons that read, "Oh, so this is what the piece is about." The recording of it is archived here. Unfortunately mac computers require a special plug-in to listen successfully to the archived performances (which I couldn't find through the link). The fiddle player was Antal Szalai, who happens to be the son of the great gypsy fiddler Antal Szalai.

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