European Tour
Klaus Mäkelä Béla Bartók
Pyotr Tchaikovsky

In the fall of 1940, Béla Bartók (1881–1945)emigrated from Hungary to the United States with his wife Ditta, and settled in New York. He did not settle very well, and the following years were marked by serious health problems. Bartók had many acquaintances in the city, and was a sought-after lecturer, but was relatively unknown as a composer.

During a hospital stay, he was visited by the conductor Serge Koussevitzky, who ordered an orchestral work for the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The commission renewed his strength, and the premiere in 1944 was a huge success. Concerto for Orchestra became Bartók’s most popular orchestral work, inspired by folk music and with soloist tasks for many orchestral musicians

“The introduction is the seed of the entire symphony and undoubtedly the central theme. It is Fate, the fateful force that prevents the impulse to happiness (...) an invincible force that can never be defeated,” Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1841-1893) wrote in the winter of 1878.

The words describe his newly written Symphony No. 4 and is quoted from a letter to his close friend and supporter, Nadezhda von Meck. The year before, Tchaikovsky suffered from a severe breakdown, and the symphony he wrote later has been called his Fate Symphony.

If Fate could not be overcome, the composer found a way to endure it through music. This is how he describes his fourth and last movement: “If you find no reason for joy in yourself, then to others. Walk among people. (...) Rejoice over the jubilations of others. Living is still possible.”