Bartók's Scherzo for Piano and Orchestra

Extract

For the last programme of their 1904–5 season, on 15th March, 1905, the Budapest Philharmonic Society had announced the first performance of a new Scherzo for piano and orchestra by Bartók, in which the composer was to have played the solo part (as well as Liszt's Totentanz) with István Kerner conducting. Owing to the difficulties of the orchestral part, or rather to the inadequate rehearsal time allowed, and the resistance of the orchestral players, the work could not be learnt, and an earlier Scherzo by Bartok, for orchestra alone (a movement from a Symphony composed in 1902) was substituted, which Kerner had originally conducted at a concert of music by Academy students on 29th February, 1904.