Thursday, March 21st
the other night
I heard the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, with pianist Yefim Bronfman, perform this piece. In The Human Stain Phillip Roth wrote of Bronfman: “Then Bronfman appears. Bronfman the brontosaur! Mr. Fortissimo. Enter Bronfman to play Prokofiev at such a pace and with such bravado as to knock my morbidity clear out of the ring.” Isn’t that what we want from music, one of the things, anyway—to have our “morbidity” “knock[ed] . . . clear out of the ring,” if only for a while, until it creeps back in?
Bela Bartok (1881-1945), Piano Concerto No. 2; Orchestra Della Svizzera Italiana (Zoltan Pesko, cond.), Zoltan Kocsis, piano; live, 1995
1st Movement
2nd Movement (A)
2nd Movement (B)
3rd Movement
**********
music clip of the day 