String Quartet No. 2 (Bartók)
The
String Quartet No. 2 by
Béla Bartók was written between 1915 and October 1917 in
Rákoskeresztúr in
Hungary.
The work is in three movements:
- Moderato
- Allegro molto capriccioso
- Lento
In a letter to André Gertier, Bartók described the first movement as being in
sonata form, the second as "a kind of
rondo" and the third as "difficult to define" but possibly a sort of
ternary form.
The work is dedicated to the Waldbauer-Kerpely Quartet, and it was they who gave the piece its premiere on March 3, 1918 in Budapest. The work was first published in 1920 by Universal Edition.