Complete Solo Piano Music

by

Béla Bartók and György Sándor

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Once again, the underrated Vox Classics outclasses the Big Five with another superb and almost obscenely inexpensive box set -- this one bringing together their landmark survey of Béla Bartók's complete solo piano music by Bartók's most well known protégé György Sándor, recorded in 1963 and released as a series of multi-LP sets in the mid-1960s.

For some reason, the solo piano music of Bartók has been overshadowed by a clutch of indisputable masterpieces (including but not limited to Concerto for Orchestra, Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, Piano Concerto No. 2, Violin Concerto No. 2, Quartets Nos. 2 and 5, the Solo Violin Sonata and Bluebeard's Castle). Perhaps it's because so much of the Bartók's solo piano music is still regarded as "pedagogic" -- as in the case of the Mikrokosmos and For Children cycles. Perhaps it is because so many of the works consist of many short movements -- and in this respect Bartók can to an extent be compared with Edvard Grieg, whose masterly short piano works get the short shrift.

If you are predisposed to dismiss this repertoire based on those prejudices, allow social critic and comedian Bill Maher to speak for me: "Get over yourself!" Make no mistake: this set is filled with so much delightful music that if you have a serious interest in Bartók, or in great piano music, or are a student or teacher of the piano, you are doing yourself a major disservice by not clicking that "add to my shopping cart" button.

And keep this in mind: you'd pay about the same amount for a front-line single disc of Bartók's major solo works containing the most well known works (In the Woods, Allegro Barbaro, the Sonata and the Suite) -- but you'd miss out on some genuine delights.

Transfers are generally excellent, and the booklet includes an informative 11-page essay on the music by Harry Halbreich.