Bartók’s piano music "For
Children" may have been written
in a simple way that enables children
to play it but simple things are often
all the better for being so and these
pieces are perfect examples of just
that. They are also wonderful demonstrations
of Bartók’s amazing ability to
write for the piano and his artful yet
artless way with the folk tunes that
he wove into the very fabric of his
music. Here we have both Hungarian and
Slovak tunes; Romanian being his other
great love.
I can’t help thinking
of Satie and Janáček
when listening to these pieces as all
three composers’ piano works are true
examples of “less is more”. Their simplicity
is beguiling, the economy of writing
astonishing. Anyone who has ever travelled
to Hungary and Slovakia and sat in a
traditional restaurant where
a gypsy band regales the customers with
folk melodies on violins, cello and
cimbalom will immediately recognise
the essential idiom at work here. Bartók
captures the kernel in each case and
gently moulds it into a workable piece
without distortion or over-elaboration.
No folk musician would feel that his
heritage or his art had been let down
or misappropriated.
I can’t single out
any single piece from the twenty-nine
on this disc – I can say I never tired
of them after at least six hearings.
Given Jenö Jandó’s ubiquitous
presence in the Naxos catalogue it is
a wonder that his music-making here
is so distinctive. The pianism is certainly
aided by the lively acoustic of the
Phoenix Studio in Budapest.
Yes, these pieces are
"for children" and as notes
on the page should prove easy enough
to play. But any child who can capture
the essence of these works and master
the pauses and where the emphasis should
be placed can be said to be a pianist
of note in the making.
Steve Arloff
Jenö Jandó (piano) 
