The piece he wrote, Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, would be recognized as one of his greatest masterpieces. BartГіk set to work on the commission during his annual summer vacation in Switzerland with his family. SacherвЂ™s commission for a major new work was thus especially welcome.

The Great Depression, combined with the increasingly disturbing political climate in Europe, posed significant challenges to his career as a pianist and composer, as right-wing governments increasingly censured modernism in the arts (indeed, BartГіk would stop performing in Nazi Germany altogether the following year). This regular work was supplemented by giving piano lessons to select private students and occasional performances as a piano soloist. To celebrate the ensembleвЂ™s tenth anniversary, Sacher commissioned a new work from one of the dayвЂ™s most cutting-edge composers: BГ©la BartГіk.Д«y 1936, the 55-year-old composer was unaccustomed to earning much from his compositions his primary source of income was a post he had secured at the Budapest Academy of Sciences that allowed him to pursue his interest in ethnomusicology (specifically the folk music of his native Hungary and surrounding lands). In 1926, Sacher had founded the Basle Chamber Orchestra, an ensemble dedicated to performing both new works and neglected music from the pre-classical era. Finding himself now one of the richest men in the world, Sacher poured his wealth into one of his greatest passions: new music. In 1934, the Swiss conductor Paul Sacher married Maja Stehlin, the widow who had inherited the Roche pharmaceutical fortune.

Action strings composition