Divertimento, Sz. 113

In August 1939, at the invitation of conductor Paul Sacher, Bartok wrote this Divertimento for the Basler Kammerorchester in about two weeks in a chalet in Saanen, Switzerland. The title promises ease; the date says otherwise. The outer movements play concerto grosso games, solo group against full strings, with the grit of Hungarian dance rhythm; the central Molto adagio is one of his unsettling "night musics." Premiered in Basel in June 1940, it was among the last works Bartok completed before emigrating to America.