Bartk: String Quartet No. 4

• Composer: Bla Bartk (1881-1945)
• Editor: Lszl Somfai
• Instrumentation: String Quartet (Violin I, Violin II, Viola, Cello)
• Work: String Quartet No. 4, Sz. 91, BB 95
• Binding:
• ISMN: 9790201814247
• Size: 9.3 x 12.2 inches
• Pages: None
• Urtext / Critical Edition

Description

Even before his String Quartet No. 3 appeared in print in 1929, Bartk was already working on a fourth in the summer of 1928. This five-movement work is arranged symmetrically around a highly expressive middle movement dominated by the cello, and calls for various playing techniques such as pizzicato glissandi and the famous “Bartk pizzicato” in which the string is snapped audibly against the fingerboard. Premiered to great success in London in February 1929, it was published in late 1929/early 1930 – however with so many errors that a revised edition of the score was issued already in 1932.In their edition, Lszl Somfai and Zsombor Nmeth have also consulted Bartk’s letters for interesting details about performing the work. These are given as footnotes in this Urtext edition. in addition, the “Notes on performance practice”, which are already obligatory in Henle’s Bartk editions, provide information on performing the Bartk pizzicato and on many other issues.