Classical Music Playlist, August 15, 2024
Béla Bartók and wife Ditta Pásztory-Bartók
Béla Bartók was a superb pianist and his first and last compositions in life were both for his instrument: a waltz he wrote at age 9, and his Piano Concerto No. 3 as he was dying in New York City as a gift for his pianist wife to perform to help support herself after he was gone. In fact, he passed before he completed the last 17 measures, which were completed by a friend and former student. (But at the end of the incomplete score, he did write “The End.”) Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 3 is today’s Midday Masterpiece.