The Suite, Op. 14,  is a piece for solo piano written by Béla Bartók. It was written in February 1916, published in 1918, and debuted by the composer on April 21, 1919, in Budapest.

 

In the first movement he employs the Lydian mode (essentially an F-Major scale with a

B-natural instead of a B-flat) and a whole tone scale. With reference to this same movement the late Bartók Scholar.

 

The second movement, a highly driven Scherzo propelled by ongoing staccatos, pays homage to the Second Viennese School (Schoenberg, Berg and Webern) with the appearance of a 12-tone row.

 

Even more than in the Allegro the hammered sonorities and largely linear textures demonstrate the 20th century’s reinvention of the piano as a percussion instrument.

 

The quiet concluding Sostenuto is “a sustained, sensitive piece in a hesitant rhythm.”

Inward and mildly dissonant.