Search - Bela Bartok, Márta Lukin, Zoltán Kocsis :: Zoltán Kocsis plays Bartók [Box Set]

Masterful interpretation of Bartok's piano works

Santa Dog | Norfolk, VA United States | 10/21/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Without a doubt Bartok is one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. Combining a deep understanding of the possibilities of eastern European folk music - particularly Hungarian and Romanian - with an extremely advanced harmonic and rhythmic vocabulary, Bartok composed some of the greatest works of the last century.



Although Bartok wrote some sublime orchestral music (The Music for strings, percussion and celeste comes instantly to mind), it is in the realms of string quartet and solo piano music that Bartok reigns supreme among 20th century composers in the humble opinion of this reviewer.



So. Here is an 8 CD set of all of Bartok's solo piano music by (argueably) the pre-eminent interpreter of his piano music. These are insightful, passionate performances beautifully recorded.



I for one am thrilled to have this set - particularly since many of these CDs were unavailable up till now. The box is also very reasonably priced compared to the separate CDs.



Highly recommended - modern music begins here."

Excellent Buy

Monkey Business | New York | 01/29/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have no other recordings of these works to compare but bought these because I am a big fan of Bartoks orchestral works, concertos and the string quartets. This is great set given the low prices you can find on Amazon. Some of the pieces were written for children or are practice material for pianists. However Bartoks unique vision and personality shine throughout all the performances no matter how simple or complex."