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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 17, No. 10. June 10, 1953

Bartok Divertimento

Bartok Divertimento

Bartok can be a man of great humour, the malicious type of humorist who sticks pins Into balloons and pulls chairs away from under the unsuspecting This divertimento is marked by many such surprises.

The Vaughan-Williams earlier in the evening had conditioned the audience to strange harmonies so the first movement of Bartok was quite acceptable

The beautiful, slow second movement almost stunned its audience Scarcely rising above a whisper violins and violas truce out a delicate structure. These torturous unhurried contemplations produce a most exasperating tension. Then with slow deliberation Bartok heaps ascending trills onto his work. They pile up and up until a huge, desperate (wise chord dramatically knocks the bottom out of his elegant arrangement. The sudden snap in the tension produced an audible gasp of relief. Some one in the gallery dropped and rolled a bottle under the seats, a chair broke and H.P. was heard to spill his Jaffas on the floor. After this triumph Bartok set the fiddles to renew their ominous weaving.

A vigorous, clattering third movement got under way studded with unholy discords and pushed along with tempetuous cross rhythms. Suspended between two such barbaric passages dangled a ridiculous Weiner Waltz played pizzicato. Its incongruity was greeted by muffled sniggers.

This is the kind of music humourless people write indignant letters to the "Listener' 'about. Fortunately the Town Hall audience appreciated Mr. B.'s jokes. Perhaps the amazing [unclear: surprise] of the evening was the competent playing of this most difficult piece after it was announced that the orchestra had seen the score for Just on one week.