Years ago I came across two albums on SACD, of piano works from the Hungarian composer Béla Bartók, played by Zoltán Kocsis. I think I listened to them in the shop, and decided to buy them for the clarity of the recording. These recordings were released from 1978 onwards, on the Philips label. On this record we find a younger Kocsis, when he was still at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in his native Budapest.
Even then he was already sharp in his rhythms. These performances stand out for their clarity of playing. It is why Kocsis is ideal for a composer like Bartók, who structures his music rhythmically as if it were jazz. Clarity is also needed for a composer that constantly changes his tunes. With Bartók the devil is in the details, and Kocsis delivers.
Later in his career, Kocsis also started conducting and composing. He composed three opera’s and a collection of chamber music. He also wrote the missing third act of Schoenberg’s opera Moses and Aaron.