Mystery, Legacy, and Musical Intrigue

Bartók’s final composition is a haunting and powerful statement from a composer grappling with illness, displacement, and mortality. But what makes the Viola Concerto so intriguing isn’t just the music, it’s the story behind its creation, completion, and the ongoing debates about its authenticity.

The story begins in 1944, when renowned Scottish violist William Primrose approached Bartók to write a viola concerto. At the time, Primrose was at the height of his career and eager to expand the limited solo repertoire for the viola. Bartók, though increasingly frail due to leukemia (still undiagnosed at the time), accepted the commission.

Despite his deteriorating health, Bartók was still composing prolifically. He had just completed his Concerto for Orchestra and was working on his Third Piano Concerto. The Viola Concerto was meant to follow. Bartók worked on the piece through the summer of 1945, but he died before he could complete it.

What he left behind was a set of sketches. Some were relatively complete, others were barely legible or confusingly cryptic. The task of reconstructing the concerto fell to Hungarian-American composer Tibor Serly, a student and close associate of Bartók.

Serly spent more than a year deciphering Bartók’s notes, piecing the score together into a playable form. The result was premiered in 1949 by Primrose with the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra. Decades later, Peter Bartok (the composer’s son) described Serly’s work as “a superhuman task, considering that my father did not write his sketches for someone else to work from: they were his own jottings for himself”.

But not everyone agreed with Serly’s decisions.

The Serly version quickly became the standard, but many musicologists and performers questioned whether it truly represented Bartók’s intentions. Some criticised Serly’s orchestration choices while others argued that the completed work was too heavily influenced by Serly’s own compositional voice and not faithful to Bartók’s vision.

These doubts led to alternate reconstructions in later decades. Notably, Peter Bartók and musicologist Nelson Dellamaggiore published a revised version in 1995 based on a more detailed study of the original sketches. Still, the Serly version remains the most widely performed.

The nature of Bartók’s final days and the condition of the manuscript have inspired a few conspiracy theories over the years. One theory suggests Bartók initially conceived the concerto for violin or cello. Another suggests that Bartók might have left the piece incomplete not merely due to death but out of dissatisfaction or second thoughts. There is no definitive evidence for these theories, but they highlight how emotionally charged and open to interpretation the concerto has been since its premiere.

Despite all the questions surrounding its authenticity, Bartók’s Viola Concerto remains a deeply moving work and a testament to artistic resilience in the face of death. It’s a musical mystery that continues to challenge scholars, captivate violists, and move audiences with every note.

WASO’s Principal Viola, Daniel Schmitt, performs Bartók’s Viola Concerto at Asher Fisch Conducts Dvořák 9.

10 & 11 October 7.30pm
Winthrop Hall, UWA