Two romantic entanglements and an important artistic friendship – these important and inspirational relationships in the life of Béla Bartók come to life in this programme performed by a truly elite group of instrumentalists and, not incidentally, conducted by Kristóf Baráti and Barnabás Kelemen. Although the love for the beautiful and tremendously talented Stefi Geyer that long burned passionately in Bartók’s soul would remain forever unrequited, the feelings it generated did not prove unproductive, even if it would take half a century for the world to encounter the violin concerto, his first, that they drove him to write in 1907/08. His Rhapsody No. 2, originally composed for violin and piano in 1928 and arranged shortly thereafter to incorporate an orchestra, owes much to the friendly esteem Bartók held for his younger fellow musician and chamber partner Zoltán Székely. The Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra, on the other hand, was written specifically to present a representative and impactful concert piece that Bartók and his second wife, the pianist Ditta Pásztory, could perform together in America.