BARTOK, 2nd. Violin Concerto & Concerto for Orchestra

Bartok and some modern classical music is like yoghurt, the first few times you might dislike it but a couple of months or years later you wake up craving it. His music is complex, strange and dissonantly beautiful and you may have to listen to him a few times before he takes, but once he does he forever appeals to those with jaded palates and terminal ennui. His music can cheer you up when you are sad because it is so beautifully depressing you feel immediately relatively better by comparison. After Bartok other even more dissonant classical pieces may become enjoyable.

When my son Jim was about three he became interested in the artwork on the Concerto for Orchestra’s album cover and the sound of the name "Bartok". One day we were in a record store with a married friend who had decided not to have children. Jim pointed to the album and said, “Look daddy there’s Bartok”. My friend was so taken by this precociousness he decided to have children, and did.

Fortunately these two pieces have memorable performances captured on outstanding recordings. If you haven't yet listened to Bartok you might listen to this Turtle Island SQ album first as it is a kind of a bridge between popular music and dissonant classical.

Fritz Reiner inspired the commissioning of the Concerto for Orchestra which Bartok wrote when he knew he was dying and living in neglect and poverty. Reiner was the first to record it and this 1955 recording is still a masterpiece.

Listen to the first two minutes of the Violin Concerto No. 2 and if you are a Bartok person you will be hooked forever. This is the legendary Menuhin EMI recording from the mid 60's also with outstanding technical sonics. I can still vividly remember the first time I heard this recording because the first few bars struck me with great force.

If you "enjoy" the VC 2 and Concerto for Orchestra you will probably listen through his Music for Strings, percussion and Celesta  they are good pieces for times you want to place your consciousness elsewhere else. You will know when you are ready for them, and when you, are nothing else will suffice. 

Here is Bartok's biography.