“the melodies are . . . an embodiment of an artistic perfection of the highest order; in fact, they are models of the way in which a musical idea can be expressed with utmost perfection in terms of brevity of form and simplicity of means.” The selection of pieces on this CD gives an excellent survey of Bartók’s piano works directly drawing its inspiration from folk music. Hungarian, Slovak, and Romanian songs and instrumental pieces are used in these compositions which show all the variety from simple folk song arrangements to complex modernistic pieces. Both genuine folk melodies and their clever imitations are included and the employment of folk tune as a “motto” is also represented. Andreas Bach combines what rarely converges in other pianists: he is a very thoughtful, careful musician who confronts the works respectfully and takes possession of them very thoroughly. Joachim Kaiser Andreas Bach is without doubt one of the outstanding pianists of our time. Lars Vogt It is not possible to play Bartók’s music in a more Hungarian way than that heard from the German pianist Andreas Bach. Muzsikás