Two factors combined to produce this concerto in 1926: Bartók's burgeoning career as a concert pianist, and the beginning of a period of intense occupation with the percussive, often savage, element of the keyboard which came to a peak ten years later in the two masterpieces Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta and the Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion. The concerto was first performed at the International Society for Contemporary Music Festival in Frankfurt in 1927, with the composer as soloist and Wilhelm Furtwängler conducting.

sources

A  Autograph score, Stichvorlage for E, in the archive of Universal Edition, Vienna

E,P  First edition score and parts, published by Universal Edition in 1927

M  Miniature score, with either Universal or Philharmonia covers, probably published at the same time

E, P and M differ from one another in certain respects (below); it has not yet been established which is more authoritative. But M suffers from one clear deficiency: the total absence of the long and detailed list, present on page 2 of E, of instructions to the percussion in numbered paragraphs, corresponding with small figures above those parts throughout the work.