Andreas Bach - Béla Bartók: Piano Works (2004)

The solo piano music of Béla Bartók is sometimes compared to that of Schoenberg, but Bartók's works are more emotionally accessible to listeners, particularly when they are played as Andreas Bach does on this album. While a great importance is placed on the percussiveness of Bartók's music, Bach instead focuses on the harmonies and the temperaments of these works. He does not ignore those more primitive aspects of the music, but rather than being sharply aggressive, Bach uses more of a forceful follow-through to control the sound. The famous Allegro Barbaro is an excellent example of this. Many play it for its shock value, whereas Bach brings out the contrasting moods, using rubato here and there to draw attention to mood changes. The most aggressive Bach gets is in the third movement of the Suite, Op. 14, where there is an extra knocking sound resulting from the strength he is using. At the opposite extreme, Bach is especially effective in evoking the different nighttime sounds in the "Klänge der Nacht" of the Out of Doors suite. The opening Rhapsodie is full of Lisztian showiness, but Bach avoids the bravura. The Etudes become technical challenges rich with personality. To Bach, it's the harmonies -- their tensions, their complements, their give-and-take -- that define these works. Articulation is used to add dimension to those harmonies and create living sound worlds.