Bartók, Béla - String Quartet no. 5

Grade of Difficulty	difficult
ISMN	9790201874258 (M201874258)

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The longest and at the same time most complex of Bartók’s six string quartets was composed in the summer of 1934 as a well-paid commission for the renowned Elisabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation in Washington. Bartók wrote it in a few weeks in Budapest. The substantially reworked autograph shows us how hard he laboured on the elaborate five-movement form. In the run-up to the premiere, he clarified numerous questions concerning the execution – including specific practice instructions for the “Bulgarian rhythm” of the third movement – with the first violinist of the Kolisch Quartet.