Enrico Onofri discovered Bartók’s pedagogical piece 44 Duets for two cellos while he was studying in Italy under Hungarian master violinist Sándor Végh. Onofri took his time to prepare his project and looked for the ideal partner. When he met Lina Tur Bonet, then, he knew he had found her. Both violinists come from a baroque background and they both love Bartók.
Bartók composed the piece in 1931 following the suggestion of a German professor who needed a cycle for two violins without accompaniment. The initial agreement called for the rearrangement of his “For Children” played on the piano. But Bartók’s inspiration led him to a more ambitious project. With his friend Zoltán Kodály at his side, he traveled to remote regions of Eastern Europe, where he collected music and popular songs. Bartók created a network of modes that gives students the opportunity to have fun learning while focusing on progressive and irregular rhythmic parts, double strings, syncopation and percussive effects. The piece is a catalogue of changing atmospheres that seduces musicians far beyond their initial pedagogical aspect.
Enrico Onofri and Lina Tur Bonet thought of the duos as a unique 45-minute cycle and exploration of Bartók’s world. They use highly reverberant acoustics and show their “historically informed” abilities to play precise articulations as well as each note’s dynamics. On this recording, they used strings from the early 1900’s mixing bare gut (A and B), metal-wound gut (G), and steel (E), a mixture which creates a pure and precise sound. © François Hudry/Qobuz