The violin consistently seems to have brought out of Bartók a special combination of lyrical intensity, brilliance and ingenuity. Partly this is because the instrument is so central to the folk music that Bartók adored. But Bartók also had the fortune to be closely associated with first-rate violinists: for the Hungarian virtuoso Yelly d’Aranyi he wrote his two violin-and-piano sonatas in 1921 and 1922, and for his other compatriot friends Jószef Szigeti and Zoltán Székely he composed the two violin Rhapsodies, again as a complementary pair, in 1928.