Bartók’s music is a highly individual blend of elements distilled from the music of the composers whom he admired the most. They included Liszt, Richard Strauss, Debussy, and Stravinsky. A major influence throughout his creative life was the folk-music of his native country Hungary. This provided the material for many of his compositions, especially works written for the piano. For instance his Fifteen Hungarian Peasant Songs and Three Hungarian Folksongs from Csík, both included here, derive directly from his experiences of recording folk-music in the field with an Edison phonograph. Bartók’s melodic fertility and rhythmic vitality, which partly derive from this experience, have ensured universal popularity for his music in general, and especially that for piano.