MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Bartok: The Piano Concertos

"this is a splendid release that is self-commending."
-MusicWeb march 2005

"20th-century music history cannot be recounted without mentioning the works of Bartók", insists Pierre Boulez. "They define the 20th century." This central role played by Bartók is revealed through the stylistic breadth in his works that Boulez habitually puts on display: "The French composer pays homage to the Hungarian composer's universal spirit, and that means that the impressionism born of Bartók's fateful encounter with Debussy and the unrelenting toughness of his Stravinskian rhythms flow together to create a portrait of astonishing unity", asserted the daily Tagesspiegel in reviewing a Boulez conducting engagement in Berlin. Universal spirit can even be found within a single CD, the new release featuring Bartók's three piano concertos, with three great pianists and three of the world's great orchestras: Krystian Zimerman and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Leif-Ove Andsnes and the Berliner Philharmoniker, Hélène Grimaud and the London Symphony Orchestra.