From (ClassicalNotes)
By the time he wrote his Concerto for Orchestra Bartok was in bad shape physically, emotionally and professionally. Distressed over his beloved country's capitulation to the Nazis, he had emigrated to New York in 1940, leaving behind the royalties and colleagues who had provided his financial and professional support. (He sent his original manuscripts to Switzerland for safe-keeping.) His activity as a scholar, performer and composer seemed over - a brief stint arranging archival folk recordings at Columbia University ended without hope for extension, his few recitals had met with critical hostility and public indifference and he had written no new music for four years. Indeed, his Mikrokosmos, an eclectic collection of 153 piano pieces completed in 1939, seemed to summarize all he had experienced and suggested a swan-song. Always of tenuous health, he had been hospitalized, weighing a mere 87 pounds. Although destitute, he was intensely private and wary of even a hint of charity. He considered himself an exile in an alien land and ached to return home.
It was at this nadir of his life that two compatriots, violinist Josef Szigeti and conductor Fritz Reiner, seized upon the ideal vehicle for Bartok's recovery - arranging a commission for a major work for the Boston Symphony Orchestra. When its conductor Serge Koussevitzky arrived at the hospital with a substantial down payment, the effect was astounding. Bartok immediately rallied, left for an ASCAP retreat in upstate New York and within seven weeks finished the piece. (He orchestrated it that winter in Asheville, North Carolina.)
When given its world premiere by the Boston Symphony on December 1, 1944, the Concerto For Orchestra was an immediate critical and audience success. It drew attention to the neglected composer and his other work. More commissions arrived. New projects were started. But Bartok's health again failed and he died the next September, leaving the Concerto for Orchestra as his testament.
A really nice piece of "classical" music that covers a wide range of emotions.
Regards
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