String Quartet No. 2 (Bartók)

The String Quartet No. 2 by Béla Bartók was written between 1915 and October 1917 in Rákoskeresztúr in Hungary.

Bartok string quartet number 2, second movement, played by the Carmel Quartet.

The work is in three movements:

1. Moderato
2. Allegro molto capriccioso
3. Lento

In a letter to André Gertier, Bartók described the first movement as being in sonata form, the second as "a kind of rondo" and the third as "difficult to define" but possibly a sort of ternary form.

The work is influenced by Debussy. It was dedicated to the Waldbauer-Kerpely Quartet, and it was they who gave the piece its premiere on 3 March 1918 in Budapest. The work was first published in 1920 by Universal Edition.

References

• 'Bartók Quartet No. 2', lecture by Roger Parker, followed by a performance by the Badke Quartet, Gresham College, 4 December 2007 (available for download as MP3 or MP4, as well as a text document)

External links

• String Quartet No. 2: Free scores at the International Music Score Library Project
• Performance by the Borromeo String Quartet from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in MP3 format