‘Allegro barbaro’, composed in 1911, is one of Béla Bartók's most famous and frequently performed solo piano pieces. The composition is typical of Bartók's style, utilizing folk elements and combining Hungarian and Romanian scales; Hungarian peasant music is based on the pentatonic scale, while Romanian music is largely chromatic.

‘Allegro barbaro’ is a frequent choice of students to orchestrate. The title is a jab at Bartók's critics who called him a 'barbarian'.

Dutch arranger Andreas va...