The concert, part of Carnegie Halls?s Perspective series, was called ?The Routes and Roots of Bartók? and celebrated Bartók both as a collector of folk music and a composer who used this music in his own works.
?Muzsikas afforded a glimpse of what Bartok heard on his tours of the countryside; Mr. Schiff showed how he transformed it,? the critic Allan Kozinn wrote in the piece. ?Mr. Schiff and Muzsikas shared the stage but performed separately, in a sort of folk-classical dialogue,? he added.
The critic said Muzikas?s interposition of some original folk songs between Bartók?s settings was ?illuminating? and he concluded that Bartók had not ?tamed? the folk pieces.
?The piano settings clarify the melodies and give them a modernist harmonic cloak, but the earthy wildness that a village string band would give them was sacrificed in the transaction,? Kozinn said.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI) / NYTimes
