Béla Bartók: For Children, Sz. 42, revised edition

by Robert von Heeren

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Full Digital Discography

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Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Génari Karganoff: 12 Arabesques, op. 6, Béla Bartók: For Children, Sz. 42, revised edition, Robert Schumann: Album for the Young, op. 68, incl. pieces from the Supplement, Génari Karganoff: Album Lyrique, op. 20, Robert Schumann: Various little piano pieces, Dream Journey - Special Edition 2022 - Part II, Dream Journey - Special Edition 2022 - Part I, Edvard Grieg: Lyric pieces for piano, Book I, op. 12, and 12 more. , and , .

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1.	Children at Play - Allegro - C-major - Sz. 42 - No. 1 00:34	buy track
2.	Children's Song- Andante - C-major - Sz. 42 - No. 2 00:56	buy track
3.	Quasi Adagio - A-minor - Sz. 42 - No. 3 00:52	buy track
4.	Pillow Dance - Allegro - C-major - Sz. 42 - No. 4 01:00	buy track
5.	Game - Allegretto - C-major - Sz. 42 -No. 5 01:08	buy track
6.	Study for the left Hand - Allegro - D-minor - Sz. 42 - No. 6 00:51	buy track
7.	Play Song - Andante Grazioso - C-major - Sz. 42 - No. 7 00:36	buy track
8.	Children's Game - Allegretto - A-minor - Sz. 42 - No. 8 01:35	buy track
9.	Song - Adagio - D-major - Sz. 42 - No. 9 00:59	buy track
10.	Children's Dance - Allegro Molto - A-minor - Sz. 42 - No. 10 00:49	buy track
11.	Lento - D-major - Sz. 42 - No. 11 01:05	buy track
12.	Allegro - C-major - Sz. 42 - No. 12 01:29	buy track
13.	Ballad - Andante - D minor - Sz. 42 - No. 13 00:52	buy track
14.	Allegretto - D-minor - Sz. 42 - No. 14 00:35	buy track
15.	Allegro Moderato - D-major - Sz. 42 - No. 15 00:35	buy track
16.	Old Hungarian Tune - Andante Rubato - G-minor -Sz. 42 - No. 16 00:39	buy track
17.	Round Dance - Lento - Sz. 42 - E - Minor - No. 17 01:10	buy track
18.	Soldier's Song - Andante Non Troppo - D-major - Sz. 42 - No. 18 01:07	buy track
19.	Allegretto - D-major - Sz. 42 - No. 19 00:35	buy track
20.	Drinking Song - Allegro - G-minor - Sz. 42 - No. 20 00:40	buy track
21.	Allegro Robusto - A-minor - Sz. 42 - No. 21 00:47	buy track
22.	Allegretto - F-major - Sz. 42 - No. 22 00:57	buy track
23.	Dance Song - Allegro Grazioso - C-major - Sz. 42 - No. 23 00:51	buy track
24.	Andante Sostenuto - A-minor - Sz. 42 - No. 24 00:59	buy track
25.	Parlando - E-minor - Sz. 42 - No. 25 00:40	buy track
26.	Moderato - G-minor - Sz. 42 - No. 26 00:46	buy track
27.	Joke - Jest - Allegramente - D-major - Sz. 42 - No. 27 01:03	buy track
28.	Chorale - Andante - D-minor - Sz. 42 - No. 28 01:33	buy track
29.	Pentatonic Tune - Allegro Scherzando - Sz. 42 - No. 29 01:04	buy track
30.	Jeering Song - Allegro Ironico - C-major - Sz. 42 - No. 30 00:40	buy track
31.	Andante Tranquillo - F-minor - Sz. 42 - No. 31 01:33	buy track
32.	Andante - F-minor - Sz. 42 - No. 32 01:15	buy track
33.	Allegro Non Troppo - A-minor - Sz. 42 - No. 33 00:46	buy track
34.	Allegretto - G-minor - Sz. 42 - No. 34 00:34	buy track
35.	Con Moto - G-minor - Sz. 42 - No. 35 00:33	buy track
36.	Drunkards' Song - Vivace - G-minor - Sz. 42 - No. 36 00:50	buy track
37.	Swine-Herd's Song - Allegro - G-minor - Sz. 42 - No. 37 00:42	buy track
38.	Winter Solstice Song - Molto Vivace - F-major - Sz. 42 - No. 38 01:14	buy track
39.	Allegro Moderato - A major - Sz. 42 - No. 39 01:57	buy track
40.	Swine Herd's Dance - Allegro Vivace - G major - Sz. 42 - No. 40 02:16	buy track
41.	Allegro - F-major - Sz. 42 - No. 41 00:37	buy track
42.	Andante - F-major - Sz. 42 - No. 42 00:45	buy track
43.	Allegretto - F-major - Sz. 42 - No. 43 00:36	buy track
44.	Wedding Song - Andante - F-major - Sz. 42 - No. 44 00:37	buy track
45.	Variations - Molto Andante - G-major - Sz. 42 - No. 45 02:25	buy track
46.	Round Dance I - Allegro - C-major - Sz. 42 - No. 46 00:40	buy track
47.	Sorrow - Andante - A-minor - Sz. 42 - No. 47 00:54	buy track
48.	Dance - Allegro Non Troppo - E-minor - Sz. 42 - No. 48 00:40	buy track
49.	Round Dance II - Andante - B-flat major - Sz. 42 - No. 49 00:32	buy track
50.	Funeral Song - Largo - A-minor - Sz. 42 - No. 50 01:28	buy track
51.	Lento - D minor - Sz. 42 - No. 51 01:13	buy track
52.	Andante Rubato - D-major - Sz. 42 - No. 52 00:41	buy track
53.	Allegro - G-minor - Sz. 42 - No. 53 00:42	buy track
54.	Moderato - D-major - Sz. 42 - No. 54 00:39	buy track
55.	Bagpipe I - Molto Tranquillo - G-major - Sz. 42 - No. 55 00:57	buy track
56.	Lament - Lento - E-minor - Sz. 42 - No. 56 00:59	buy track
57.	Andante - E-minor - Sz. 42 - No. 57 00:53	buy track
58.	Teasing Song - Allegro Vivace - E-major - Sz. 42 - No. 58 00:42	buy track
59.	Romance - Assai Lento - A-minor - Sz. 42 - No. 59 01:26	buy track
60.	Game Of Tag - Presto - F-major - Sz. 42 - No. 60 00:32	buy track
61.	Pleasantry I - Allegro Moderato - C-major - Sz. 42 - No. 61 01:08	buy track
62.	Revelry - Molto Allegro - A-minor - Sz. 42 - No. 62 00:52	buy track
63.	Andante Tranquillo - D-minor - Sz. 42 - No. 63 00:46	buy track
64.	Andante - A-minor - Sz. 42 - No. 64 01:04	buy track
65.	Scherzando - Allegretto - C-major - Sz. 42 - No. 65 00:46	buy track
66.	Peasant's Flute - Andante Molto Rubato - A-major - Sz. 42 - No. 66 01:00	buy track
67.	Pleasantry II - Allegro - A-major - Sz. 42 - No. 67 01:02	buy track
68.	Andante Molto Rubato - G-minor - Sz. 42 - No. 68 01:16	buy track
69.	Canon - Allegro Non Troppo - E-minor - Sz. 42 - No. 69 00:59	buy track
70.	Bagpipe II - Vivace - G-major - Sz. 42 - No. 70 01:05	buy track
71.	The Highway Robber - Allegro - F-major - Sz. 42 - No. 71 00:45	buy track
72.	Pesante - C-major - Sz. 42 - No. 72 01:02	buy track
73.	Andante Tranquillo - C-minor - Sz. 42 - No. 73 00:45	buy track
74.	Farewell - Adagio - Sz. 42 - No. 74 01:41	buy track
75.	Ballad - Moderato - D-minor - Sz. 42 - No. 75 01:25	buy track
76.	Rhapsody - Allegro Moderato - G-major - Sz. 42 - Nos. 76 and 77 03:02	buy track
77.	Dirge - Lento - Sz. 42 - No. 78 01:40	buy track
78.	Mourning Song - Lento - C-major - Sz. 42 - No. 79 01:55	buy track
79.	Outtakes - Allegro - D-major - Sz. 42 - No. 25 00:48	buy track
80.	Outtakes - Allegro - B-minor - Sz. 42 - No. 29 00:43	buy track
81.	Outtakes - Molto Rubato Non Troppo - Lento - D-minor - Sz. 42 - No. 23 02:42	buy track
82.	Outtakes - Mocking Song - Allegro - F-minor - Sz. 42 - No. 27 00:46	buy track
83.	Outtakes - The Orphan Child - Poco Andante - Sz. 42 - No. 33 01:19	buy track
84.	Outtakes - Romance - Poco Allegretto - Sz. 42 - No. 34 02:03	buy track

about

This doublealbum is the third in the series "Demanding pianomusic for children andf students".
Listen to track 1 first, an introduction to this Part I of the Double Album, spoken by Robert von Heeren.

Béla Bartók was a Hungarian composer, pianist and music ethnologist. In addition to composing, Bartók spent almost his entire life systematically collecting and recording folk songs. He composed his collection "For Children" in 1908/1909 at the beginning of his teaching career as professor for piano at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest. The first edition of this collection published in 1909 contained 85 piano pieces. Shortly before his death he revised this cycle: he made many changes, added metronome and duration information to each piece and removed six pieces whose origin he was not sure of. His “revised edition” from 1945 thus contains 79 compositions for solo piano, divided into two sub-cycles: Volume 1 contains 40 pieces based on Hungarian children and folk songs, Volume 2 contains 39 pieces whose melodies stem from Slovakian folk songs. On this double CD you’ll find these 79 pieces of the revised version and the six removed pieces, which were included in the first edition.

Whether Bartók consciously took up Schumann's idea of his Album for the Young op. 68 with his "For Children"-pieces is not known to me. But I’m sure that he knew Schumann's album. In contrast to Schumann, whose musical material is mainly based on his own ideas, Bartók follows a different, but no less brilliant path: each piece is based on a Hungarian or Slovakian folk song (he had the lyrics appended in the printed score), whose melody he artfully and ingeniously underscores with an accompaniment and develops it into a perfect piano composition. The melody always plays the leading role and keeps its original form. In almost all works it appears at least twice: The first time he presents it with a simple, restrained and more conventional accompaniment, the second time the accompaniment is more elaborate and unconventional in terms of harmony, rhythm and articulation. Particularly fascinating to me is that he then manages to give the melody more depth by using unexpected harmonic twists, while at the same time leading the piece to a worthy and original conclusion - and all this within just a few bars! It is as if Bartók wants to show that there is more to the simplicity than it appears. This sophistication often leads the listener to believe that she/he is hearing something completely new. In fact, only the context in which the melody is embedded has changed, not the melody itself! It is only in the longer, more complex pieces towards the end of the two volumes that he sometimes varies the pitch, rhythm, tempo, articulation or adds additional motives. By the way: In contrast to Schumann there are very few repetition signs. Bartók’s compositional technique always aims at the continuous development. Only in two pieces (Volume 1, No. 21 and Volume 2, No. 13) does he have the whole piece played through twice.

Bartók's pieces for children are a wonderful enrichment of the genre. As different as the musical and compositional styles of Schumann and Bartók's cycles are, there are also some similarities between them: In both cycles, the tension build up from piece to piece and lead the player to wonderfully elaborated compositions at the end of the cycles, which are quasi a "freestyle" and climax. The whole cycle with its 79 pieces poses an enormous learning curve for the piano beginner. Especially the Swineherd Dance (Volume I, No. 40) and the Rhapsody (Volume II, Nos. 36-37, the piece consists of two pieces that Bartók merged into one) form wonderful and difficult highlights and can be considered as little "showpieces".

credits

released December 22, 2023

Cover-Art by Manuela Buechler, AI Design, Switzerland.

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about

Robert von Heeren Essenbach, Germany

Robert von Heeren, 1964, studied for eight years (1983-1991) classical music with classical guitar and piano at the Berufsfachschule für Musik in Plattling and the Richard Strauss Konservatorium Munich in Bavaria, Germany. In 1990 he passed the 1st state examination as a state-certified music teacher and as best of his class. ... more

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