László Borbély, Savaria Symphony Orchestra & János Kovács - Bartók: Concerto III for Piano and Orchestra (2023)

For a pianist, Béla Bartók’s piano concertos are a central reserve of power. These works are worth the almost forty years that were spent wearing down the piano chair. These works are essential building blocks of ‘pianism’.

To speak of Bartók, the composer (and thus this music), is an almost impossible undertaking. But why should I? People more qualified than me have already done it. What is the difficulty? Perhaps primarily because in his case, ‘great’, or ‘one of the greatest’, ‘greatest ever’,… categories all tend to dissipate. Bartók is a trademark. Hungarikum, if you like.

A trademark that feeds on his Hungarian roots, the fixed idea of the brotherhood of peoples and the silence of the universe. To play Bartók is ultimately to realise our own smallness. This is the superabundance that enhances an artist's day, again and again. It is this 'biblical' vision, so to speak, that always – and ever more forcefully and insistently – tears the first laborious step towards excellence…out of me. Playing Bartók is particularly difficult. Learning from him is a goldmine. To be grateful to him is a must. I owe a debt of gratitude to everyone who has stood by me in this endeavour. László Borbély

Tracklist
01. Bartók: Concerto III. for Piano and Orchestra, I. Allegretto
02. Bartók: Concerto III. for Piano and Orchestra, II. Adagio religioso
03. Bartók: Concerto III. for Piano and Orchestra, III. Allegro vivace