Béla Bartók's Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, composed in summer 1937 on a commission from Paul Sacher and premièred in Basel in January 1938, is incontestably one of the supreme creations of modern music. This publication, with introductory essays by Felix Meyer, Robert W. Wason, Lászlo Vikárius, and Wolfgang Rathert, presents two major handwritten sources for this work from the holdings of the Paul Sacher Foundation: the draft score, which offers a fascinating glimpse into the sonata's genesis, and a whiteprint of the fair copy, which contains additions from Bartók and differs substantially from the definitive version at the end of the development section in movement 1. The volume also contains, on an enclosed CD, the radio recording of 1940, with Bartók and his wife Ditta Pásztory on the piano parts, as well as a new recording of the sonata in its original form, played by the Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo with percussionists Matthias Würsch and Christian Dierstein. In writing and sound, the volume leads readers to a closer acquaintance with Bartók's masterpiece and invites them to deepen their understanding of his compositional method, his revisions of the musical text, and his pianistic artistry.

Vorwort/PrefaceEssaysF. Meyer, Zur Entstehung und zu den Quellen der Sonate für zwei Klaviere und Schlagzeug - R. W. Wason, Tonales Denken auf dem Prüfstand. Bartóks Revision des ersten Satzes - L. Vikárius, Meisterhaftes Klavierspiel unter widrigen Umständen. Die CBS-Radioaufnahme vom November 1940 - W. Rathert, Das Rohe und das Geordnete. Zur kompositorischen Rezeption der Sonate für zwei Klaviere und SchlagzeugDocumentsEssaysF. Meyer, The Genesis and Sources of the Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion - R. W. Wason, Tonal Structure and Bartók’s Revision of the First Movement - L. Vikárius, Masterly Pianism, Adverse Conditions: The CBS Radio Recording of November 1940 - W. Rathert, The Raw and the Organized: The Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion and Its Compositional ReceptionFacsimilesThe Draft Score - Paul Sacher’s Annotated Full Score CopyAppendixOriginal Layers Before Pasteovers DiscographyCD1940 CBS radio recording by Béla Bartók and Ditta Pásztory, piano, with Henry J. Baker and Edward J. Rubsam, percussion - New recording by the Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo, with Matthias Würsch and Christian Dierstein, percussion