NDR Vokalensemble / Jerusalem Quartet

Béla Bartók distinguished between three different degrees of abstraction: the authentic raw material, slight adaptations such as the adoption of rhythmic structures or melodies and, as the final stage, the development of his own artistic style. Bartók described this last stage as a »progression towards a more transparent style. A style made of bones and muscles that sets itself apart from the heavy chordal style of late Romanticism. In other words, it dispenses with unnecessary ornamentation such as chord breaks and other figures; it is a rather simpler style«.

The NDR Vokalensemble presents these three categorisations of Bartók using Bartók’s own works: A Hungarian folk song ensemble performs old, unaltered tunes, the NDR Vokalensemble presents four-part arrangements and the renowned Jerusalem Quartet concludes with Bartók’s String Quartet No. 3, which Theodor Adorno admired in particular for its unfamiliar tonal colours and called it, »unquestionably the best of the Hungarian’s previous works«.