Hungary's distinguished Bartók String
Quartet appeared in a special Saturday matinee concert and discussion at
the Library of Congress on May 27 at 2:00 p.m., presented by the Library's
Music Division in co-sponsorship with the Embassy of Hungary. Gábor Vásárhelyi,
legal successor of Bartók’s copyrights, and his wife, Ágnes, flew all
the way from Budapest to attend the performance.
Named for the composer Béla Bartók,
the Bartók Quartet has been called "clearly one of the great
quartets of the world" by The New York Times. Violinists Peter
Komlós and Géza Hargitai, violist Géza Németh, and cellist László
Mező are particularly admired as interpreters of Bartók's music. Their
program included Bartók's Quartet No. 5 (a work the Quartet
has performed over 700 times), commissioned in 1934 by the Coolidge
Foundation for the Library of Congress and now a centerpiece of the string
quartet repertoire. Considered an iconic figure of 20th century music, Béla
Bartók made a legendary Coolidge Auditorium concert appearance in April
1940 with violinist József Szigeti, a landmark event in the Library's
history.
Formed in 1957, the Bartók Quartet rose
to worldwide fame as winner of the 1959 International Haydn Competition in
Budapest. Later awards included the International Schumann Competition,
the 1981 Unesco Prize, the Bartók Prize at the 1986 International String
Quartet Competition, and the Kossuth Prize, Hungary's highest award, in
1970 and again in 1997. Approaching its fiftieth anniversary in 2007, the
Bartók Quartet has performed more than 4,500 concerts throughout the
world, with frequent appearances at such major festivals as Tanglewood,
Spoleto, Salzburg, Edinburgh, and Aix-en-Provence.
The May 27 program began with Mozart's Quartet
in G major, K. 387. Following the performance, the members of the
quartet participated in a question and answer session with the audience.
The Library of Congress made a special viewing of its Bartók artifacts
and hand-written originals following the concert. In a separate
behind-the-scenes showing the original, hand-written score of Bartók's
Concerto was displayed.
The Bartók Quartet (Péter Komlós and Géza Hargitay
violin, Géza Németh viola, László Mező cello) on stage at the
Coolidge Auditorium
Gábor Vásárhelyi and his wife Ágnes with members of
the Bartók Quartet observing the manuscript of the 5th quartet and other
Bartók artifacts from the archives of the Library of Congress
Hand-written score of Bartók's Concerto, commissioned
by the late Serge Koussevitzky
