Béla Bartók Essentials

Treading his own path with single-minded determination, Bartók helped define a modern musical language with works like his opera Bluebeard's Castle, his Concerto for Orchestra, three piano concertos, and two violin concertos. His six-string quartets are perhaps the greatest cycle since Beethoven's. A superb pianist, he wrote numerous small works for the instrument (often with an educational purpose). He taught many generations of musicians, and his music has become central to the modern repertoire through its groundbreaking embrace of fierce rhythmic language and pungent Hungarian flavors.