Search - Bela Bartok, Dezso Ranki :: Bartók: Mikrokosmos; For Children

This recording will probably never be surpassed ...

L. Tamas | Moraga, California USA | 03/15/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I am a serious amateur pianist and fan for many years of the piano music of Bela Bartok. Bartok changed the tone and rhythmic world of classical music just as the 20th century began, and music has never looked back. But one thing about his music - as "modern" as it got, it always had depth and soul.



Most people know Bartok from his most famous and popular works, which were on a grand scale - his Concerto for Orchestra; Dance Suite; and the opera Bluebeard's Castle. Pianists consider his Piano Concertos as some of the most difficult pieces ever written for piano (and violinists the same way about his Violin Concertos). But to those of us who have played his music at a challenging level, it is his Mikrokosmos collection of small pieces that ultimately contain the essence of his musicality.



Mikrokosmos was a labor of love for Bartok, meant not only to teach his young son to play the piano, but probably also to pass on his musical soul. Among these musical miniatures one can find so many examples utilized more fully in his larger works, it would be hard to know where to start.



On a deeper level, this music strives for purity and clarity, something like the Preludes and Fugues of Bartok's favorite composer - Bach. Stripped of all ornament and excess, they are not "miniatures" as much as "essences." Like the Preludes and Fugues, they are relatively eaasy to play - but extraordinarily difficult to play well.



Only a pianist of extraordinary insight and sincerity can bring these pieces to life. Dezso Ranki is such an extraordinary pianist - someone who has nothing left to prove as a technical genius, but who has reached the level of maturity that he can make these little gems of pieces shine.



I highly recommend these recordings, and doubt they will ever be matched by any other pianist. Listen to these little pieces with a calm and open mind, the way you would listen to the wind. You will soon find in them the microcosm of the world that Bartok had in mind."

Awesome Playing

L. Tamas | 11/28/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"By listening to this CD, I can feel the pianist's dedication and commitment to playing Bartok. Ranki is a first rate artist who has a superb technique and he understands the idiom of the composer very well. The sound of the CD is excellent and the playing is fluent, rhythmical and well controlled.

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