1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This CD is an ideal introduction to Bartok's piano music., April 11, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Bartok Solo Piano Works Volume 1 (Audio CD)
Review from AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE March/April 1999
This set (Bartok's Solo Piano Works, Volumes 1, 2 and 3) would make an ideal introduction to Bartok's piano music.
The music speaks for itself, as if Ms de Toth were loathe to run any interference. In the wistful 'Street of Istvand', for example, or in the rugged yet oddly seductive sailor song 'In the Harbor of Nagyvarad', her no-nonsense surefootedness gives ample voice to Bartok's nostalgic melancholia.
Indeed, in these works, part of the 42 Hungarian Folk Songs for Children, she fathoms each as a kind of apposite gestuary of hemiolas and unnerving hesitations, and as the stuff of musical speech.
Capturing the essentially trochaic inflections of Hungarian speech with the knowing temperament of a native (Ms de Toth is full blood Hungarian), she lays out the keyboard songs with the patrician air of an old storyteller at a family gathering.
Take particular note of her attractive readings of the 14 Bagatelles: these she portrays with a kind of arid simplicity that enhances their now playful, now lonely ethos.
In her exhaustive survey of his complete piano works (these are the first three out of seven CDs), June de Toth proves herself a smart, solid, and reliable pianist. YOUNG
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
