Didrik Schiele: >Well then I think Bartok a wonderful composer, and I would love to hear >which other peoples favourite works by him are, and how he represents "the >new road" vs. "the old road" in music history and stands in general in a >forum like this one. I think Bartok a wonderful composer as well. (Schoenberg once, without irony, called him "the second greatest living composer"). My favorite works tend to be the less accomodating ones: the 6 string quartets; Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta; the first and second piano concertos; the piano sonata; Cantata profana. I don't know what you mean by new road vs. old road, but in general I believe newness or modernism in itself isn't all that important, any more than aesthetic traditionalism or reaction is. I haven't asked all the other members of this list, but a while back there was a discussion on Bartok's string quartets. You might check the list archives at www.classical.net and enter a search on "Bartok." Steve Schwartz