BARTOK, BELA (1881-1945) - The greatest musician ever produced by Hungary, Bartok was not only a composer but also an excellent pianist and a thorough student of folk music. His folksong research had a penetrating influence on his music, yet so too did his reverence for composers of the past, especially Beethoven and Bach, and his awareness of the musical present. All this gave rise to a very original and perfectly homogenous style. Hungarian in tone but universal in its expressive power.

[Source: Oxford Companion to Music]