Although Bartók's Violin Concerto No. 2 is generally regarded as one of her most challenging compositions, the Violin Concerto No. 1, which narrates the tale of the teenage composer's passionate - and ultimately tragic - love, receives far less attention.
The fact that the work's score was kept in its creator's drawer for almost fifty years is not a coincidence. Owing to the intimate nature of the composition, he only delivered the score to his buddy, the conductor of his orchestra, prior to his passing, so the audience could only hear it when neither the composer nor his muse were still alive.
Béla Bartók wrote his first violin concerto for Stefi Geyer, the celebrated violinist, who was 19 years old at the time – and it is about her and his warm, romantic feelings towards the fantastic girl.
From age ten to fourteen, Stefi Geyer was a pupil of Jenő Hubay at the Academy of Music, and his mentor even composed a violin concerto for her (Concerto all’antica), which she premiered in Budapest in 1908.
Bartók first met Stefi Geyer in May 1907, when they both performed at the inauguration of the new building of the Academy of Music in Király Street.
They bonded over shared musical interests, and when Bartók travelled to Transylvania to collect folk songs, they began to correspond vigorously.
In a letter dated September 1907, Bartók notated musical themes associated with the personality of Stefi Geyer – themes that were to become the main ‘characters’ in the Violin Concerto.
Like Bartók, Stefi Geyer travelled a lot during this period, and on one occasion she sent him a postcard of a rhinoceros with the inscription, ‘Greetings from Berlin Zoo.’
As the Violin Concerto meant for Stefi Geyer was taking shape, Bartók became more and more enamoured of her, and his confessional letters made his muse more and more uncomfortable.
In January 1908 Stefi Geyer turned down Bartók’s advances, plunging the composer into the most severe crisis of his emotional life.
After the ‘break-up,’ Stefi Geyer posted her last letter to Bartók on 25 March 1908, his birthday. In it, she suggests that Bartók turn to K(odály) for consolation.
Bartók did send the score of the Violin Concerto to his muse, who preserved it carefully, but stipulated in her will that it could only be performed after her death. The work had its premiere in Basel in 1958, two years after Stefi Geyer passed away, and thirteen years after the death of Bartók.
