175 Concerto for Orchestra

The Concerto for Orchestra was completed just months before Bartok died of leukemia. It is his one of his best-known works, though in it he adopts a style that is less dissonant and modern than he had been known for in previous works. Please listen to the discussion of the piece at this NPR site. The two commentators spend a good deal of time talking about the movement we have on our playlist, the fourth movement titled “Interrupted Intermezzo.” One claim made in the audio discussion is that Bartok is parodying a piece by another one of our composers, Shostakovich. As you can see from the wikipedia article on the piece, that view is not universally held.