Bartók was born on , in the small Hungarian town of Nagyszentmiklós (now in neighbouring Romania). The early death of his father, a talented amateur pianist and cellist, obliged his mother, another fine pianist, to support the family through teaching. Throughout the 1890s, she repeatedly uprooted the family in pursuit of ever better piano teachers for her precociously talented son. Despite long bouts of poor health and suffering from a skin rash possibly due to the adverse effects of...