Korossy Quartet - Bartók String Quartets/1 Presented by Liszt Academy

Béla Bartók’s six string quartets stand among the defining masterpieces of 20th-century music. Although each work differs markedly in style and was written under varied circumstances, many consider them a cycle. The String Quartet No. 1 (1908–1909), like the Violin Concerto No. 1 composed in his early years, was inspired by Stefi Geyer. The work blends a range of art and folk music influences from Beethoven and Debussy to Reger and the Transylvanian folk music that was newly discovered. The String Quartet No. 3 (1927) inhabits an entirely different world. The shortest of the six, it reflects Bartók’s mature, distilled style, shaped in the previous year in part by his encounter with Alban Berg’s Lyric Suite. Submitted to a Philadelphia composition competition, it earned Bartók a shared first prize and cemented his international reputation. The String Quartet No. 5 (1934) also connects to the United States, commissioned by the visionary patron Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, a great supporter of modern music. This expansive, classically structured work paved the way for the monumental Bartók compositions of the late 1930s.