Bartók composed his third piano concerto in the summer and early autumn of 1945, in what were to be the final weeks of his life. He intended it for his wife, Ditta, to perform, which partly explains why it is so different in character from the abrasive Second Concerto. The first movement is in traditional sonata form and begins with the strings evoking the awakening of nature (its E major tonality perhaps a reference to Wagner’s own forest music). The piano joins in with a melody that betrays verbunk influence. Interesting, this popular recruiting dance disgusted the young Bartók, who felt it was a perversion of true Hungarian folk music. But in later years, he returned to it (for example in the 1938 Violin Concerto), incorporating it into his universal musical language. The four note opening idea (which incidentally is used as a call signal for Hungary’s Bartók Radio music channel) is heard repeatedly throughout the movement in different versions, in both pentatonic form and in various inversions.

The slow movement bears a title unique in Bartók’s oeuvre: Adagio religioso. This is evidently a homage to the extraordinary “religious” slow movement of Beethoven’s A minor quartet Op. 132, which Beethoven prefaced as “A hymn of thanks to the Almighty from a patient recovered from illness in the Lydian mode.” After the imitational orchestral introduction, the piano contributes a chorale like melody, with simple harmonies. Imitation and chorale then follow – something we find in the Beethoven. We have every reason to understand this music as a personal confession: in the summer of 1945, as he worked alongside Lake Saranac, Bartók began to believe he had recovered from his lengthy illness (diagnosed as leukaemia) of the previous two years. The central section of the slow movement is an example of Bartók’s night music, furnished with literal “quotes” from the birdsong that Bartók had meticulously notated during his lakeside stay. It is interesting to note that even the chorale melody heard at the beginning is nothing other than a slowed inversion of one of the bird themes.

The final movement is a spirited rondo in 3/8 time, which even incorporates a playful fugue. The concerto is suffused with joy, and there is so sense of the impending tragedy which befell the composer before he finally completed the work. He was unable to complete the full score. His 17 year old son Péter took down his instructions for the percussion part, but the final 17 bars remained unorchestrated. These were completed posthumously by his friend Tibor Serly. Six months after Bartók’s death on February 8th 1946, the work was premiered by pianist György Sándor was a great success. For many years, Bartók’s wife Ditta Pasztory would not play it, because of the painful memories she associated with it.