Even before his String Quartet no. 3 appeared in print in 1929, Bartók was already working on a fourth in the summer of 1928. This five-movement work is arranged symmetrically around a highly expressive middle movement dominated by the cello, and calls for various playing techniques such as pizzicato glissandi and the famous “Bartók pizzicato” in which the string is snapped audibly against the fingerboard. Premiered to great success in London in February 1929, it was published in late 1929/early 1930 - however with so many errors that a revised edition of the score was issued already in 1932.
In their edition, László Somfai and Zsombor Németh have also consulted Bartók’s letters for interesting details about performing the work. These are given as footnotes in this Urtext edition. In addition, the “Notes on performance practice”, which are already obligatory in Henle’s Bartók editions, provide information on performing the Bartók pizzicato and on many other issues.
Item prices quoted on our website do not include delivery. All delivery charges are calculated by order value.
Deliveries to the United Kingdom
All deliveries within the UK are sent by Royal Mail First Class Post or 24-Hour Parcelforce dependent on weight. Please see our notes on Delivery Times below for more information.
Deliveries to Europe & The Rest of the World
If you would like to place an order but you live outside the United Kingdom, please email us at sales@scorestore.co.uk with your requirements and we'll do our best to help you.
Delivery Times
We aim to dispatch every order within 24 hours excluding weekends.
However, we have learned from experience not to make promises regarding delivery. We aim simply to provide you with a reliable service at a reasonable cost. To keep our prices competitive we do not keep huge stocks of any particular item. No matter how good our stock control, there will occasionally be times when a particular item is not immediately available.
Sometimes this will be due to overwhelming demand, and sometimes it will be due to circumstances beyond our control, such as the item having gone to reprint or out of print. You should be aware that your payment is taken automatically online at the time you place your order. In the circumstances outlined above, we will do our best to contact you and inform you of any anticipated delays. You may cancel your order at any time if you are not happy to wait.
Although we make every effort to ship your order according to these guidelines, we will not be held responsible for any loss or damage caused by delayed delivery.
Stock information:
Regularly updated stock information is now available to view online at ScoreStore. This information can, on occasion, be incorrect due to delays of up to 12 hours in updating. Our system will also allow you to order more items than we have in stock at any one time. If you require urgent delivery of a large order, please contact us to confirm current stock levels. Our Freephone number is 0800 072 0354 and we are in the office 9-5, Monday to Friday.
If you wish to cancel your order prior to dispatch, please email us at sales@scorestore.co.uk. We will terminate the transaction and refund any payments already made relating to your order. Once an order has been dispatched, we will accept returns where they meet the following conditions:
In the event that your item is faulty you may return it to us within thirty days and we will refund the cost of the item and reimburse the cost of returning the item to us.
If our error has led to an item has been mistakenly supplied to you and it is unopened and in as-new condition, you may return it to us within thirty days and we will refund the cost of the item and reimburse the cost of returning the item to us.
If you have decided that you do not wish to keep an item that has been correctly supplied, you may return it to us unopened in as-new condition within thirty days. In this case we will refund the cost of the item and you will be responsible for the cost of returning the item to us. You may not return items that we have ordered specially for you unless they are faulty or supplied in error.
If you wish to return an item to us, please email sales@scorestore.co.uk for instructions. We will not accept unsolicited returns arriving at our warehouse.