Csaba Erdelyi
      Viola Concerti

* Bartok: Viola Concerto (ed. Erdelyi)
* Berlioz: Harold en Italie

Csaba Erdelyi (viola)
New Zealand Symphony Orchestra/Mark Taddei
Concordance CCD03 Total time: 61:24

Summary for the Busy Executive: Revelation.

Bartok wrote his last three orchestral works - the Concerto for Orchestra,
Piano Concerto No.  3, and the Viola Concerto - under the death sentence
of cancer.  The Concerto for Orchestra and the Viola Concerto, at least,
were commissioned: the first by Koussevitzky, the second by Scottish
violist William Primrose.  Bartok completed the Concerto for Orchestra.
He then worked hard on the third piano concerto, since he wanted to leave
a vehicle for his pianist wife to earn a living. In the meantime, Primrose,
who had paid Bartok the princely sum of $1000, began to worry about the
work's completion and asked after it.  Bartok replied cryptically: the
work was "composed"; all he needed to do was the "mechanical task" of
writing it out.  The composer also went over his sketches with his friend,
Hungarian-American composer Tibor Serly.  He died shortly thereafter.
Primrose - to his credit - didn't ask for his money back.

It turns out that Bartok had left over a dozen manuscript pages of
the concerto, as well as sketches and notes.  The task for completing
the concerto fell to Serly, who (like Suessmayer with Mozart) had the
never-to-be-repeated advantage of consulting the composer himself.
Until recently, this version alone has been performed.

Unfortunately, Serly, although a fine composer in his own right, was no
Bartok, in several senses.  The main one is that his own style was really
nothing like Bartok's.  It resembled more Kodaly's, his teacher.  Over
decades, the Serly completion has seldom convinced me.  It always took
a rare great player to put it over, and even then it came across as the
weakest mature piece Bartok ever wrote.  It certainly doesn't sound like
the other concerti.  However, there are so few viola concerti - especially
by major composers - that virtuosi seemed driven to perform it anyway.

Erdelyi apparently felt the same way.  Unlike other violists, he did
something about it.  He studied a photocopy of the score for decades
As well as other works by Bartok and Bartok's written remarks about
his vision of the piece.  It has paid off in ways that certainly exceed
my expectations.  For the first time, I feel like Bartok is actually in
the room.  The differences between Erdelyi and Serly become very quickly
apparent.  However, they differ mainly in the degree of focus and of the
realization of Bartok's sound-world.  Perhaps I should say that Erdelyi's
realization fits my image of Bartok's music more snugly than Serly's.
Bartok 's sound is filled with pain.  The accents go through you.  Even
in the brightly-colored moments, the colors are so bright, they hurt,
like emerging from a gloomy room into sunlight.  The contrasts are stark:
dark-and-brooding leads to sudden explosions of energy.  One also gets
the sense of an unflinching gaze upon the argument at hand, a relentless,
inexorable movement from here to there.  Serly gives us something far
more mellifluous and light-minded, without edges.

This recording replaces my previous two best recordings - Daniel
Benyamini and Barenboim, and Yo-Yo Ma (on something called the alto
violin, a "vertical viola") with Zinman.  Erdelyi, a virtuoso certainly
up to the technical demands of the piece, and he plays with intensity
and fire.  If I prefer Paul Silverthorne's playing, I must remind myself
that he hasn't recorded this version, and that Erdelyi isn't exactly
chopped liver.  Taddei's New Zealand Symphony Orchestra has the piece
down, with attacks crisp as fresh lettuce.  Soloist and orchestra achieve
wonderful clarity and fine ensemble.

The "filler" - and it seems strange to designate it this way - is Berlioz's
Harold en Italie.  It's an odd thing to put with the Bartok, and I would
have gone with something like Hindemith's "Schwanendreher," but what the
heck?  The account is good, but not special, and I wouldn't recommend
it if the Berlioz is what you really want.  Nevertheless, the CD is
essential for Bartok fans.

One little note: You may have to wait a while before this version
generally replaces the Serly.  The version is forbidden in most of the
world, except for Australia and New Zealand, the only two countries that
didn't sign the extension of copyright from 50 to 75 years following the
author's death.  At this point, in my opinion, the only people who win
anything from this decision are publishers who've had, after all, at
least fifty years to make money from the bones of a dead man.  Scholars,
students, and music lovers worldwide lose.

Steve Schwartz