For Children is a collection of piano pieces based on Hungarian folk songs and were composed in 1908 by Bela Bartok. It was originally in four volumes, but the composer revised the collection in 1945 and republished under two volumes. Most of these pieces are from traditional Hungarian music that Bartok himself recorded in the field and transcribed but it has been questioned whether some of the songs were actually authentic or recorded accurately. It is of little matter to the listener since these simple elegant pieces, 79 in all, are quite lovely. Their simplicity is due mainly to the fact that these were meant to be played by children but they still hold up in the capable adult hands of pianist Chris Breemer. Almost all of these pieces are no longer than a minute long. Book 1 & 2 are presented in their entirety. Those who may have been put off with Bartok’s dissonance in his more famous works may find these simple gems to their liking.

The works are available in 192kbps MP3. You can download each track separately or all pieces in one mp3 track for each book.

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