Béla Bartók was a Hungarian composer, pianist and musical folklorist. In the 1920s and 1930s he toured in many countries of Europe and the USA as a pianist, having made a visit to the USSR in 1929. He lived in the USA from 1940 until his death. His compositions incorporate archaic elements of folk music combined with sharply innovative compositional techniques. Among his compositions are the opera “Bluebeard’s Castle” (staged in 1918), ballets: “The Wooden Prince” (staged in 1917 in Budapest) and “The Miraculous Mandarin” (staged in 1926 in Cologne); “Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta” (1936), “Concerto for Orchestra” (1943), concertos for various instruments: three for piano (1926, 1931, 1945), two for violin (1908, 1938), as well as works for chamber ensembles: Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion (1937), six string quartets (1908-1939) and other works; compositions for piano (“Allegro Barbaro”, 1911; Piano Sonata, 1926; the large cycle of pieces for children “Mikrocosmos,” 1937. He wrote down over 30 thousand songs of various nations, as well as numerous essays about musical folklore.
