Bartok First Violin Concerto

[Elizabeth Volpé Bligh]

We just finished performing Bartok’s First Violin Concerto with the VSO. It has two harp parts. Some of the writing is very chromatic, and there are passages with lots of jumping when it is important to be watching the conductor. Luckily, some of these areas are doubled, so the part can be split between the two players at those spots. At the very end, the harps have to sync up with the rubato violin part, so in order to watch the conductor, we turned the awkward fingered passage into glissandi and it worked perfectly. I also wrote out a re-spelled enharmonic version of the chromatic passages, to avoid needing three feet. Has anyone else played this part and did they find any errata? Our parts were completely new, so no “breadcrumbs” to follow.

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

The composer’s son, Peter Bartok, was heavily involved in revising the part for the second Violin Concerto, and he might value your markings for this one.

[Elizabeth Volpé Bligh]

There was one obvious misprint 3 bars before 29 in the first harp part. There is a B# that should not be in the chord, and the F# is missing in the lowest space in the treble clef.

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

I imagine Clint is familiar with this part and any corrections.

[Author]

Posts