'The work is closest related to the 'Kossuth Symphony' inasmuch as it melds the Magyar style, represented by verbunkos melodies, with the idiom of Wagner and Richard Strauss. It features, however, a few details that prefigure the sonority of his later works, and it reveals the composer's penchant for variation, attraction to monothematic arrangement and symmetrical formation. Moreover, the large form encompassing the five movements outlines the very typical Bartókian bridge form.'
(HCD 32505 Bartók New Series Vol. 5, Virág Büky)