Béla Bartók

This is the opening work in the final volume of Mikrokosmos. Because this is a set of progressively challenging works, Free Variations, No. 140 out of 153, is fully at concert-level, offering many hurdles for the student who takes it on, or even for the professional who programs it. There are several "variations" works in Mikrokosmos, but only two others by title, Variations, No. 87, and Variations on a Folk Tune (No. 112). Free Variations is obviously the most challenging of these, but also, with its shifts in rhythm, tempo, and mood, the most colorful.

This work is another one of those motoric, tour-de-force pieces by Bartók, having in its outer sections the kind of manic drive one encounters in Prokofiev's Toccata. The main theme is vehement and percussive in its savage manner. Its most interesting variation occurs in the brief, slow middle section, where it takes on a serene, otherworldly character. The work closes with a return of the frantic music from the opening. Lasting about a minute and a quarter, this is a masterful composition of virtuoso caliber.