Karl Miller wrote:

>For me these performances are indeed unique.  They were played more as
>though the music was "modern" than how we are used to hearing Bartok
>these days.

And that's exactly why the general musical public resisted Bartok so
mightily in those days.  Back then is was presented as Modern.  Now it's
usually presented as Music.  A significant number of listeners still
resist his music, partly because of its reputation and partly because
it is after all complex, demanding music.  But I'll not soon forget a
concert I attended a few months ago in which the Orion SQ played the
Fourth Quartet before an Ottawa audience of about four hundred, seemingly
all of whom were enraptured.  Why?  Because it was profound and beautiful
music?  It wasn't modern.

Richard Todd <[log in to unmask]>