Bartok: Viola Concerto, Sz. 128/Boosey

Category: Viola and Piano Reduction ** Composer: Bartok, Bela ** Title: Viola Concerto, Op. Posth, Sz. 128 ** Revised by: Nelson Dellamaggiore and Peter Bartok (October, 2003) ** Publisher: Boosey & Hawkes Edition ** Difficulty: ASTA grade 6.

Bela Bartok's Viola Concerto is one of the standard pieces of the professional repertoire. Bartok did not complete the composition when he wrote it in 1945--though the solo part was largely finished, most of the orchestration of the solo part was left uncompleted at the time of his death. Hence, a great deal of controversy has surrounded the piece since Peter Serly reconstructed it and edited it for publication in 1949. There are several versions of the concerto available, the two most well-regarded being the original Serly edition and the Peter Bartok/Paul Neubauer edition. The editions feature two different approaches to reconstruction: the Serly edition extrapolates from Bartok's compositional style in his other late works in order to fill out the orchestral part and the editorial markings (including tempos), the Neubauer edition works almost exclusively from Bartok's manuscripts of the piece, reflecting the piece in its first form, rather than extrapolating Bartok's compositional process.