Béla Bartók’s six volumes of Mikrokosmos are treasures of piano teaching with universal value, the composer’s educational purpose—seeking to win students over to his innovations with technical and stylistic aspects—reaching by steps to the highest artistic level. Folk-music keys and scales, polyphony, colour and articulation are integrated into music infused with Bartók’s uniquely characterful rhythms and deeply expressive lyricism. Intimately connected with Bartók’s musical and social landscape and long renowned as an educator and flag-bearer of Hungarian culture, Lajos Kertész’s performing style and piano sonority has been likened to that of Bartók himself, making the significance of these recordings inestimable.