The String Quartet No. 6 in D minor, Sz. 114, BB 119, was the final string quartet Hungarian composer Béla Bartók wrote before his death in 1945.
The composition of the piece came at a very tumultuous time in the composer's life. With the outbreak of World War II and his mother's illness, Bartók returned to Budapest, where the quartet was finished in November. After his mother's death, Bartók decided to leave with his family for the United States. Additionally, he began experiencing pain in his right shoulder, which have been speculated as being early signs of the blood disorder that would eventually take his life. Due to the war, communication between Bartók and Székely was difficult, and the quartet was not premiered until 20 January 1941, when the Kolisch Quartet, to whom the work is dedicated, gave its premiere at the Town Hall in New York City.
The quartet represents a departure from his previous two quartets, with a four movement scheme rather than the five movements of the previous two.
Background
The string quartet was begun in August 1939 in Saanen, Switzerland, where Bartók was a guest of his patron, the conductor Paul Sacher. Shortly after he completed the Divertimento for String Orchestra on the 17th, he started on a commission for his friend, the violinist Zoltán Székely. Székely was acting as intermediary for the New Hungarian Quartet, who had given the Budapest premiere of the String Quartet No. 5. In addition to the state of the world being tumultuous so too was the composer's life. In December 1939, after the completion of the quartet, Bartók learned of his mother's death. Bartók then decided to leave with his family for the United States. Additionally, his own health began to fail. It begins each movement of the quartet, but with variations in texture and harmony. ]]
thumb|Theme of the second tonal group, movement I, tonality: F. This structure may reflect the influence of Gustav Mahler, for it resembles the beginning of Gustav Mahler's [[Symphony No. 10 (Mahler)|Tenth Symphony with an introduction with a viola solo that is highly chromatic. The quartet was premiered on January 20, 1941 in New York City. In the year before the premier, Bartók had permanently moved to the United States with his wife. Financially unstable and with the couple's piano duet concerts receiving unfavorable reviews, Bartók began work in ethnomusicology in addition to concert tours in the United States. In the last year or so of his life, he made some sketches hypothesized to be the slow movement of a never completed seventh quartet.
Discography
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!Year
!Performers
!Label
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|1950
|Juilliard String Quartet
|Sony Classical - 19439831102
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|1963
|Juilliard String Quartet
|Sony Classical - 5062312
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|1988
|Emerson Quartet
| Deutsche Grammophon
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|1997
|Takács Quartet
|Decca
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