Béla Bartók was a musical prodigy whose astonishing creativity found inspiration from folk music, which he injected into his modern, vigorous and innovative personal language. Although his Violin Concerto No.2 was composed right before the Second World War, there was no sign of anxiety of impending doom. Rather, soaring melodies and gentle cantabile look back to the composer’s youthful years. His Concerto for Orchestra is a large-scale work that uses Hungarian folk tunes as melodic motifs, with colorful transformations that are truly appealing.