Bartok: Complete Solo Piano Music [8 CDs special price]

Zoltán Kocsis performs the complete solo piano music of his fellow Hungarian, Béla Bartók. Completed in 2001, these critically acclaimed, definitive performances are the benchmark against which all others are considered.

"Kocsis penetrates to the very centre or soul of this music" The Penguin Guide to CDs

"To those who've despaired of piecing together Zoltan Kocsis' unprecedented solo Bartók cycle from various deleted single-disc releases, take heart. Here it is, all eight discs, housed in a slim-line, budget-priced boxed set, with terrific annotations to boot. From the simplest Mikrokosmos to the most taxing moments in the Etudes, Sonata, and Out of Doors suite, Kocsis realizes Bartók's intentions with extraordinary specificity in regard to pianism per se and score-reading. He takes the composer's exacting timings and metronome markings on faith, yet he also gives serious consideration to variant readings based on Bartók's own recorded performances. Most of all, Kocsis' Read more thoroughly internalized command of Bartók's speech-like syntax brings out the music's lyrical underside that many percussive Bartók players either ignore or don't know exists. Mezzo-soprano Marta Lukin admirably helps out in the Mikrokosmos selections for which the composer suggests a vocal line, while Karoly Mocsari joins in on the six that require a second piano." (10/10 ClassicsToday)