Universal has been scouring their prodigious back catalogue for a few years now – putting together a wide ranging series of bargain priced sets based on classic recordings, artists and composers. As one of the most important of 20th-century composers, the Hungarian Béla Bartók (1881-1945) has only become known to mainstream Western audiences since the commission of the late virtuosic Concerto for Orchestra, written for the Boston Symphony and Serge Koussevitzky. That work raised his profile and ensured the popularity of his unique, often percussive and proto-primtive style, one based on his serious collection of middle European folktunes. Works such as the highly idiomatic cycle of six string quartets were then taken up along with modern jazz by the Beats of the late 1950s and these still sound uniquely modern.

Fortunately Universal with its roster of fine labels (Decca, DG and Philips) have done very well by Bartók over the years and this set is complete, unlike the earlier release on Hungaroton, with some works being recorded specifically for this project. The pianistic duties are often delegated to Zoltán Kocsis (his highly acclaimed cycles of works for both solo and concertante works from the 1990s), whilst a fellow Hungarian, conductor...