András Schiff on the pianist Béla Bartók
Béla Bartók's recordings of his own works are incredibly valuable. They reveal the qualities of his playing as noted by his contemporaries – an infallible sense of rhythm coupled with a "wonderful suppleness" and an "unbelievable sense of timbre and tone quality" (Andor Földes). They demonstrate the freedom of his parlando and rubato playing and illuminate those aspects that are essential for the interpretation of his music but are not written into the score.
