Another Kocsis recording of Bartók, like I have written about more these last couple of weeks. This is a little compilation of solo works, starting with a peculiar piece: the Allegro barbaro. Bartók composed it first in 1911, but didn’t premiere it until 1921. Until that time it could be heard in several performances by the composer himself, every time in slightly different versions: at the time he didn’t write it down. It is usually the published version from 1918 that is used.
The name of the piece might be a pun towards critics that called Bartók a barbarian. His music was deemed barbaric because it was using peasant melodies and rough, violent outbursts in both rhythm and dynamics. Especially in his early 30s, Bartók shook the music world of Budapest and Vienna. By writing this short piece, he took up the moniker as a badge of honour. The modernists loved him for it, conservative romantics judged him even more as an uncouth radical.