Dénes Várjon & Concerto Budapest • 2.2

At this concert of András Keller and the Concerto Budapest, Dénes Várjon will play the solo in two youthful pieces by Bartók, whose chief inspirations were Liszt and Richard Strauss. The Rhapsody was in the repertoire of Bartók the pianist for a relatively long time, even when his compositional style had far departed from the mood of the turn of the century. This was in part the reason why, at the end of 1925, he decided to write a piano concerto that would better reflect his compositional philosophy. The Scherzo was unknown to Bartók scholars for a long time, with its score discovered only more than half a century after its composition. It immediately became clear it featured many of the elements of Bartók’s mature style. He himself must have been aware of the forward-looking nature of the piece, which was why he did not consent to mediocre performances.