Musical Instruments

Concerto for Orchestra (Bartók)

The Concerto for Orchestra, Sz. 116, BB 123, is a five-movement orchestral work composed by Béla Bartók in 1943. It is one of his best-known, most popular, and most accessible works. The score is inscribed "15 August – 8 October 1943". It was premiered on December 1, 1944, at Symphony Hall, Boston, by the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Serge Koussevitzky. It was a great success and has been regularly performed since. Bartók revised the piece in February 1945. Bartók's is perhaps the best-known of a number of pieces with the apparently contradictory title "Concerto for Orchestra". This is in contrast to the conventional concerto form, which features a solo instrument with orchestral accompaniment. Bartók said he called the piece a concerto rather than a symphony because of the way each section of instruments is treated in a soloistic and virtuosic way.

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See also

• ▸Bombo legüero
• ▸Climate change in the Arctic
• ▸John Milton

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