BARTÓK, Béla
b Nagyszentmiklos, Hungary (now Romania), 25 March 1881
d New York, 26 September 1945, aged sixty-four

His father, director of an agricultural college and a good amateur pianist, died when Bartok was seven. His mother, a schoolteacher, guided his early career. In 1892 the family moved to Pozsony, and there Bartok met Dohnanyi, succeeding him as organist in the Gymnasium Chapel. In 1898 he went to the Budapest Academy of Music, taking a teaching post there from 1907 to 1934. From 1922 he appeared as a concert pianist with great success in Sahburg and London, and paid his first visit to the USA in 1927. He married twice, each time to a young pupil. In 1940 he returned to the USA and stayed there for the rest of his life. He was dogged by ill-health, and the disintegration of his horn eland from World War I onwards affected him mentally and physically.
1902 (21)
Scherzo for orchestra
1903 (22)
Kossuth, tone poem
Violin Sonata
1904 (23)
Rhapsody, for piano and orchestra
Burlesca, for orchestra
Piano Quintet
1905 (24)
Suite No 1, for orchestra
Suite No 2, for orchestra (1905 7, revised 1943)
1907 (26)
Hungarian Folksongs for piano
1908 (27)
Portraits, for orchestra (1907-8)
Violin Concerto No 1
String Quartet No 1 in A minor
1909 (28)
For Children, for piano
1910 (29)
Folk Dirges, for piano
Deux Images, for orchestra
1911 (30)
Duke Bluebeard's Castle, opera
Allegro barbaro, for piano
Three Burlesques for piano
1912 (31)
Four Pieces for Orchestra
1914 (33)
Fifteen Hungarian Peasant Songs (1914-17)
The Wooden Prince, ballet (1914-16)
1915 (34)
Roumanian Folk Dances for Piano
Twenty Roumanian Christmas Songs for Piano
String Quartet No 2 in A minor (1915-17)
1916 (35)
Suite for piano
1918-19 (37)
The Miraculous Mandarin, ballet
1920 (39)
Eight Improvisations on Peasant Songs
1921 (40)
Violin Sonata No 1 (Atonal)
1922 (41)
Violin Sonata No 2
1923 (42)
Dance Suite for Orchestra
1924 (43)
Five Village Scenes (Slovak folk songs), for female voices and piano
1926 (45)
Piano Concerto No 1
Cantata Profana, for tenor and baritone soli, mixed chorus and
orchestra
Piano Sonata
Nine Little Pieces for piano
Out of Doors, suite for piano
Three Village Scenes, for chorus and orchestra
Mikrokosmos, Books I-VI, 150 small pieces for piano, arranged in order of technical difficulty (1926-37)
1927 (46)
String Quartet No 3
1928 (47)
Rhapsody No 1 and No 2, for violin and orchestra
Rhapsody No 1, for cello and piano
String Quartet No 4
1930-1 (49)
Piano Concerto No 2
1931 (50)
Forty-four Duos for two violins
1934 (53)
String Quartet No 5
1936 (55)
Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta
Petite Suite, for piano
1938 (57)
Violin Concerto No 2
Sonata for two pianos and percussion
Contrasts, trio for clarinet, violin and piano, the violinist using two
instruments, one of normal tuning, the other tuned: G flat, D, A, Eb
1939 (58)
Divertimento for Strings
String Quartet No 6
1941 (60)
Concerto for two pianos and percussion (also orchestra)
1943 (62)
Concerto for Orchestra
1944 (63)
Sonata for unaccompanied violin
1945 (64)
Piano Concerto No 3
Viola Concerto