44 Duos for Two Violins (with music by Ligeti and Kurtag)

"These performances are exemplary, hitting exactly the right tome of folk-like melancholy or exuberance (and sometimes both)."
***** Five Stars (BBC Music Magazine) June 2002

"Forty-four pieces for two violins, written as a teaching aid, hardly sounds like a recipe for a thrilling CD. But these tiny pieces, most of which come in under two minutes, are pocket masterpieces. The sound is astonishingly warm and the music is beautifully played by the outstanding soloists András Keller and János Pilz. Also included are two excellent, but very different, pieces by the Hungarian composers György Ligeti and György Kurtág, "Ballade and Dance" and "Ligatura"."
Ivan Hewett, The Times

Bartók's 44 Duos, rich in folk melodies, are augmented by two pieces by Ligeti and Kurtág, in an all-Hungarian programme. Jewelled miniatures of 20th century music, performed by András Keller and János Pilz - violinists of Hungary's renowned Keller Quartet, and outstanding musicians steeped in the Bartókian tradition. These are beautiful, touching, dazzling performances.

Bartók's "44 Duos for Violin" - like his Mikrokosmos for piano - are pieces that transcend their original pedagogic intention to stand by themselves as perfectly poised works. (Every violin student should own this album, but it is also music for a much wider public.) All but two of the duos are based on folk music, of many sources.

Here, Hanns Eisler's judgement is relevant: "Had Bartók written nothing but his arrangements of Romanian, Slovakian and Hungarian peasant songs and dances, he would nonetheless number among the great masters in the history of music. He is highly original and highly popular at the same time."

If you like Béla Bartók 44 Duos for Two Violins then you'd probably like the following:

Keller Quartet, György Kurtág, Musik für Streichinstrumente
Keller Quartet, Johann Sebastian Bach, Die Kunst der Fuge
Kim Kashkashian, Bartók/Eötvös/ Kurtág
György Kurtág, Játékok