Deryk Barker wrote:

>Not being a big fan I wouldn't know but wasn't it the 3rd piano concerto he
>was working on - and was within 17 bars of finishing - when he died?

Regarding the 3rd Piano concerto, Deryk is right, of course.

Bartok was able to finish the Viola concerto before his death, but the
score was only written as a "particell" - I don't know how do you name
this in English or even in French - so that his pupil Tibor Serly had to
complete, with big humility (too big, according to some commentators -
his orchestration is very light indeed), the entire orchestration.

However, I remember that some commentators have also pointed out the
lack of proportion in duration and even in quality between the two first
movements and the third movement.  I can agree that this last movement
looks a bit weaker and too short - like the strange last movement of
Prokofiev's 4th Piano concerto.  Hadn't he died so soon, no doubt that
Bartok would have written a stronger and more impressive piece.

Fans of this concerto are certainly aware that there is a cello
transcription, I once heard (and recorded) with Janos Starker and Leonard
Slatkin.

Final thought:  I had also heard of sketches for a 7th Quartet, but I
wonder if they were consistent enough for publication or even public
performance.

Simon Corley
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