Complete Edition Critical Report

Bla Bartk’s six string quartets, written between 1908 and 1940, are among the milestones of this genre in the 20th century. With the edition of these works in the Bartk Complete Edition, the great Bartk scholar Lszl Somfai presents, together with Zsombor Nmeth, the results of a lifelong preoccupation with the quartets. In addition to the composer’s autographs, manuscripts, first editions and hand copies, his correspondence with friends, publishers and professional musicians is meticulously examined in regard to important information on the edition and understanding of the works. The numerous footnotes to the musical text, edited here for the first time in a scholarly manner, provide interesting information on performance or transmission variants of the works. In addition to the introduction, which deals with the genesis, tradition, early performances and reception of the works, the extensive chapter Notation and Performance provides well-founded information on all practical questions of performance, ranging from tempo variations to the special Bartk pizzicato.