Béla Bartók ~ 20 hungarian folksongs, BB 98

By the time Bartók had adapted these 20 songs, he had thoroughly mastered the folk-music genre, both in his arrangements and original compositions (where he often imitated folk styles or used folk themes). These works are generally considered among his finest folk arrangements. The collection consists of four unequal groups: Sad Songs (Nos. 1-4), Dancing Songs (Nos. 5-8), Diverse Songs (Nos. 9-15) and New-Style Songs (Nos. 16-20). The first group lives up to its collective title with moods that range from the desolate and utterly despairing to the merely melancholy. The most profound of these is the first, “In Prison,“ the lengthiest song in the entire set, and undoubtedly the bleakest. The ensuing “Old Lament“ has a Stravinskian character in its drier, almost emotionally neutral manner. “The Fugitive,“ No. 3, returns nearly to the black moods and abject miseries of “In Prison“ and “Herdsman’s Song“ has a sad but lovely manner and deft atmospheric keyboard writing in its dark tremolos. The Dancing Songs prese