Ambivalent America
B. Martinů, G. Enescu, and B. Bartók in the United States
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
Totalitarian systems in Europe forced numerous artists into exile. The East Central European composers Bohuslav Martinů, George Enescu, and Béla Bartók went to the United States. Only there did Martinů became a composer of symphonies. His aesthetics corresponded with the main stream of American musical views. Enescu was held in considerable esteem in the United States, and two of his later works accommodated public taste. Bartók’s masterpiece “Concerto for Orchestra” is a prime example of how the exile experience influenced artistic creation.
(Osteuropa 1/2011, pp. 167–190)