Bartok Romanian Dances & Violin Sonatas - Kurt Nikkanen
Bela Bartok (1881 - 1945) was a Hungarian composer and ethnomusicologist who traveled widely, making wax cylinder recordings of hundreds of songs and melodies from various folk traditions around the region.
He was working as the Romantic era melted into the modern era in orchestral music (what do you call a modern era when it’s not modern anymore?). There’s some of the same personal auteur-type statement in the music, but he blended in newer jazz influences as well as a massive knowledge of eastern European folk melodies.
