Bartók - String Quartet No. 4 - Mov. 5/5

BÉLA BARTÓK (1881-1945) String Quartet No. 4 5. Allegro molto Performed by the Vermeer Quartet *The String Quartet No. 4 was written from July to September, 1927 in Budapest. This work, like the String Quartet No. 5, and several other pieces by Bartók, is in a so-called “arch“ structure - the first movement is thematically related to the last, and the second to the fourth with the third movement standing alone. Also, the outer four movements feature rhythmic sforzandos that cyclically tie them together in terms of climatic areas. The playing time for the movements are [generally] 5, 2, 5, 2, 5 minutes respectively, a display of the mathematical logic behind this quartet. The quartet employs a similar harmonic language to that of the String Quartet No. 3, and as with that work, it has been suggested that Bartók was influenced in his writing by Alban Berg’s Lyric Suite (1926) which he had heard in 1927. The quartet employs a numb