Bartok's Piano Sonata (1926), Sz. 80 is a definitive manifesto of the piano-as-percussion, stripping away Romantic sentimentality in favor of raw, motoric power and "barbaric" rhythmic vitality. Composed during his prolific "piano year," the work is a masterclass in jagged dissonance and folk-inspired irregular meters, demanding a pianist with both immense physical stamina and structural precision. From the relentless, hammering chords of the opening Allegro moderato to the stark, ritualistic weight of the second movement and the frenetic, rondo-driven finale, the Sonata stands as a lean, muscular monument to 20th-century modernism that pushes the acoustic limits of the concert grand.
This edition is a reissue of music originally published by Universal Edition, Vienna.
