Carnegie Hall

Filled with the exotic melodies and rhythms of his native Hungary, the music of Béla Bartók (1881–1945) may seem worlds away from New York. Nevertheless, Bartók himself has an important connection to the city and to Carnegie Hall.

Bartók first visited New York in 1927, and he made his US debut at Carnegie Hall on December 22, performing his Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra in its New York premiere with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Willem Mengelberg. Bartók gave the US premiere of his First Piano Concerto at the Hall just two months later—on February 13, 1928—with Fritz Reiner conducting the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. John Barbirolli and the New York Philharmonic gave the US premiere of Bartók’s Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta—among his most important works—at Carnegie Hall on October 28, 1937.

In October 1940, Bartók and his wife, Ditta Pásztory (1903–1982)—an accomplished pianist who studied with Bartók at the Royal Academy of Music—left Hungary, fleeing the onslaught of war in Europe, and moved to New York. They settled first on 73rd Road in Forest Hills, Queens, and moved a few months later to Riverdale in the Bronx (where their house at 3242 Cambridge Avenue still stands). Homesick and financially pressed, Bartók battled ill health, and eventually succumbed to leukemia five years later.

In 1943, Bartók returned to Carnegie Hall on January 21 and January 22 for what turned out to be his last public performances when he and Ditta appeared with Fritz Reiner and the New York Philharmonic for the US premiere of Bartók’s Concerto for Two Pianos and Percussion. Bartók spent the brief remainder of his life just two blocks from Carnegie Hall, moving to 309 West 57th Street in 1944. On September 26, 1945, he died at West Side Hospital.

Although he continued to work until just days before his death, Bartók left two works unfinished: a concerto for viola, and a piano concerto (his third) for Ditta. While he never progressed beyond sketches for the Viola Concerto, only a few minor details remained incomplete in the piano concerto, and these were easily filled in by his former student Tibor Serly (1901–1978). On February 26, 1946, Eugene Ormandy and The Philadelphia Orchestra presented the New York premiere of the Third Piano Concerto at Carnegie Hall, with Bartók’s friend György Sándor (1912–2005) as soloist. Serly subsequently prepared for performance and publication the more fragmentary Viola Concerto, which received its Carnegie Hall premiere on January 19, 1952, with soloist William Primrose and the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ernest Ansermet.

Other works by Bartók that received important premieres at Carnegie Hall include the following:

• Two Pictures, Op. 10 (US Premiere), with the National Symphony Orchestra (New York) conducted by Edgard Varèse: April 11, 1919
• Contrasts (World Premiere of an incomplete version—the second movement had not yet been completed) with violinist Joseph Szigeti, clarinetist Benny Goodman, and pianist Endre Petri: January 9, 1939
• Sonata for Solo Violin (World Premiere) with Yehudi Menuhin: November 26, 1944
• Concerto for Orchestra (New York Premiere) with the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Serge Koussevitsky: January 10, 1945
• Cantata profana (US Premiere) with tenor William Moonan, baritone Benjamin DeLoache, the Robert Shaw Chorale, and the RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra conducted by Robert Shaw: January 6, 1952

Photography courtesy of the Carnegie Hall Rose Archives.