Under the microscope

Musical Times, Autumn 2001 by Drakeford, Richard

WHEREAS the Cambridge companion aims at a comprehensive if sometimes cursory survey of virtually all Barok's compositions, Bartok perspectives is more haphazard seeming, based as it is upon papers read at a couple of Bartok conferences held in 1995. Readers who are sufficiently motivated may find it an interesting supplement to the Cambridge volume, or (if their existing expertise already makes Cambridge seem too elementary) a sophisticated alternative for the knowledgable enthusiast.

Cambridge/England and Oxford/New York share some scholarly contributors. Thus Carl Leafstedt has space to go into detail over the numerous revisions the composer made to his original 1911 Bluebeard's castle. (The opera did not take its final form until 1918; by which time The wooden prince had been successfully staged. It is particularly fascinating to have, in short score, Bartok's original `anti-dramatic' ending. Perhaps someone in this original-version friendly age will put on a performance. In further pursuit of the music for piano Victoria Fischer (in a section of the book rather ineptly titled `Orientation toward pedagogy' - was it for this Oxford University Press's music books division travelled to New York?) writes a detailed account of the Fourteen bagatelles of 1908, which she regards as sowing `the seeds of practically all that was to follow in his compositional style'. Meanwhile Malcolm Gillies, who in the Cambridge volume dealt with the composer's American years, here makes two contrasted contributions, the first analysing some aspects of Bartok's notational practices in works written between 1918 and 1922. He is also entrusted with the task of rounding of this whole sequence of Bartok perspectives. Once more we are involved with `Reception history', and his essay's title involves a pun; the `Canonization of Bela Bartok' referring both to the 'canon' of his oeuvre, in addition to any perceived musical sainthood.

Of the authors unique to this OUP anthology, Elliott Antokoletz waxes expansively in his account of the Cantata profana, whereas Rachel Beccles Willson (in a general chapter on vocal music for CUP) seems a touch `cribbed, cabinned and confined'. The composer's son Peter Bartok tackles the question of mistakes in printed editions, not to mention the whole vexed matter of the Viola Concerto, of which Peter Bart6k and Nelson Dellamaggiore have produced a fresh score, presumably hoping to replace the well-known Tibor Serly version. This is the kind of work which justifies musical scholarship. A new edition of an important work brings obvious practical benefits. The final chapter I would single out is unexpected and imaginative, justifying itself not for any practical reason but simply because it is interesting. Taking a cue, perhaps, from the presence in Prague in 1925 of both Bartok and Janacek, James Porter goes on to argue for the `Correspondances' between two brilliant late works, Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra and Janacek's Sinfonietta. His arguments are persuasive, not only because the two men knew some at least of each other's works. They also shared a passion for folk music. Perhaps, then, the 'correspondances' Porter finds should not surprise the reader. His bold final sentence is worth quoting in full. `Above all, both works demonstrate the potential of folk music elements, in imaginative transformations of narrative style, to rejuvenate a Western fine art tradition and transcend the crisis of modernism.' The book which contains that splendid essay is rather uneven in quality, and the subjects pursued will not be of interest to all readers. But enthusiastic Bartokians will want, at the very least, to get hold of a library copy Cambridge meanwhile, by producing a paperback, seem to have a clearer grasp of practical economics.