Bartók World Competition and Festival – Grand final A Zeneakadémia saját szervezésű programja

The competition programme of the Grand Final features two violin concertos by Bartók as well as violin works by Beethoven, Brahms and Tchaikovsky: podium-placed competitors have to choose from among these pieces. Of course, as Concert Magazine goes to press there is no way of knowing who the lucky ones will be (or rather we should say, not lucky but best) performing in the company of the Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by János Kovács and showing what they can do with this type of concerto requiring a full symphony orchestra; yet we are able to say with total confidence that at this level there will not be great differences between winners in the quality of violin play, and that we will be able to bask in the skills of truly mature artists. The concertos in the programme of the final set the bar very high in themselves; after all, at the world premiere of Bartók’s ‘great’ violin concerto in Amsterdam in 1939, Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Willem Mengelberg accompanied Zoltán Székely, a close friend of Bartók, his regular chamber partner and perhaps the most significant representative of the authentic Bartók style of violin playing.