Richard Todd responded to me:

>>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.

Much is to be said for the way Bartok played his own music...he did not
accentuate the dissonances...however I would love to have heard how he
played his own First Piano Concerto.  Ok, so I like my Bartok with more
bite, but indeed, at this point in my life, I wonder how I ever thought
of him as being a "modern."

Karl