Bela Bartok had a breakthrough moment in his early 20s, when he heard a peasant woman singing folk songs. From that point on, he collected, recorded (on an Edison phonograph) and notated hundreds of songs from small villages in rural Hungary and Romania. His work preserving the music of those cultures had a profound influence on his own compositions.
Conductor Marin Alsop discusses Bartok and the profound influence the Hungarian composer has had on her career.
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