Bartók: String Quartet no. 5 (Set of Parts)The longest and at the same time most complex of Bartks six string quartets was composed in the summer of 1934 as a well paid commission for the renowned Elisabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation in Washington. Bartk wrote it in a few weeks in Budapest. The substantially reworked autograph shows us how hard he laboured on the elaborate five movement form. In the run up to the premiere, he clarified numerous questions concerning the execution including