Bartók’s Farewell: Piano Concerto No. 3

Béla Bartók’s Third Piano Concerto has a poignant history and comes from a place of warmth and sadness in the composer’s life. A gift to his wife, a pianist, the work was not written with a demonstration of pianistic skill in mind, but rather, an expression of being. The piano seems to co-exist with the orchestra, rather than take the lead the way a typical solo instrument would.

Bartók developed a musical language that was uniquely his own, but it is hard to deny American influences in this piece. He had been living in New York City for five years when he wrote it, and American sounds—both from American contemporaries and even Jazz—may have found their way into the score. This is the last complete work by Bartók, finished in 1945, a few days before his death. 

The first movement opens with the main theme played by the piano—a distinctly Bartók “folkish” sound. The music is stable, but not overtly confident. The second movement is a romantic gesture of love to his wife, Ditta—at least on the surface it appears as such. The unusual chorale-like style of the piano part has an expressive presence, but it is ruminating on the past. The third and final movement is most affirmative, reclaiming Bartók’s harmonic edge. The conclusion, though content, is sorrowfully adorned with the words “the end” in Hungarian, written on the score after the very last note. Completely aware of his declining health, Bartók composed a concerto with finality on a whole different level. The music is self-aware and resigned to the fact of its inevitable ending.

The NJSO will perform this unique work November 2–5, with Conrad Tao at the piano. Complete with Beethoven’s Overture to Coriolan and legendary Fifth Symphony, this is a concert program not to be missed.