Bartók: The Miraculous Mandarin; Hungarian Peasant Songs; Rumanian Folk Dances
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List Price:
$16.98
Hungary Hotels Travel Price: $16.98
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Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Philips
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Average Customer Rating: 
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0028945443027
Label: Philips
Manufacturer: Philips
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Philips
Release Date: 1998-10-20
Studio: Philips
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: You Must Hear This Music
Comment: It's hard to describe this music without sounding tacky, but one of the descriptives that comes to mind for it is: Acerbic.
Bartok's music may not be an "immediate" as other composers, but there is no denying after one or two familiarizing listens -- his music really flexes powerfully. It's also kinda creepy. After all the orchestral tension, who would have predicted the rising wail of a chorus in the Miraculous Mandarin, brief as it may be? Bartok's music is full of surprises. Probably the most enjoyable on this CD is the Miraculous Mandarin. Obviously that's the meat. And it presents some of the finest orchestral playing I've heard in a long time. All the performers are in their element, and Bartok's music can shine clearly without the marring of bad playing or bad interpretational decisions. The other particularly enjoyable work is the Romanian Folk Dances.
All this music is good, and the performances are at the very top. You can't--and shouldn't--miss out on this.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A less horrific Miraculous Mandarin, along with many energetic dances
Comment: This CD contains a set of short Hungarian songs, but everything else is about the dance. Bartok was not just a collector of folk songs with Kodaly but an expert in dance traditions throughout the Balkans. He extended his curiosity into the Arab world of North Africa, as one can hear in the popular Dance Suite. Here we get 16 lesser-known dance collections from Romania, Transylvania, and Hungary, Mostly quite brief, they build from a fascinating palette of rhythms, each more exotically syncopated than the last. Fischer and his Budapest orchestra perform them with complete ease and native flavor.
Even without the fillers, however, the main work is superbly done. The Miraculous Mandarin ballet has been called Bartok's response to Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. But superficial resemblances aside in terms of motor rhythms and dissonant harmonies, the Mandarin is a more shocking, horrific scenario, featuring sexual craving, torture, despair, and a suicide by hanging. Most condcutors set out to maximize the shock value of this often barbaric-sounding music, but Fischer is comparatively less aggressive. He loosens the tension a notch, letting the rhythms become more lilting--even comic in their macabre way--and asking the woodwinds to sing as much as screech. As a result, we don't feel quite so assaulted, and for me that led to more enjoyment. He is aided by exceptionally clear, natural sonics from Philips that convey the music with wonderful impact.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Savage Mandarin, Delightful Dances
Comment: I bought this recording based on hearings of some of Fischer's other recordings, primarily for the Miraculous Mandarin. I was not disappointed, but I was delightfully surprised at how much I enjoyed the other works which I had not heard previously. The recording quality and playing are first-rate, and Fischer's interpretation of the music is superb, easily the equal of Boulez and Dorati. I would recommend this version of the Mandarin as my first choice for someone seeking a recording of it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Definitive "Miraculous Mandarin" and Other Great Bartok
Comment: Having just heard this recording in its entirety, I'm not surprised that Ivan Fischer is a sought after guest conductor for some of the world's great orchestras, such as the New York Philharmonic. Here he conducts Bartok with much warmth and compassion. I thought Abbado's version of "Miraculous Mandarin" was superb until I heard Fischer's. Although the Budapest Festival Orchestra's level of playing isn't as refined as either the London Symphony Orchestra's or Berlin Philharmonic's, they perform Bartok's music with tremendous energy and compassion. It's a pleasure hearing rarely performed Bartok in conjunction with the entire score of "Miraculous Mandarin". If you want a first-rate introduction to Bartok's orchestral music, you should definitely acquire this fine CD.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Some Rarely Recorded Bartok and a Great Mandarin
Comment: Ivan Fischer is a Bartok expert in the tradition of Sir Georg Solti, Fritz Reiner and Antal Dorati. Like the former conductors, he has insights into the music of his countrymen that give his performances the force of authority. The recording of the Miraculous Mandarin was the initial offering by Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra and has been followed up with other equally significant recordings of Bartok and Kodaly. With this recording, Fischer has given us some Bartok that is not recorded with much frequency, particularly the Hungarian Peasant Songs and the Dances of Transylvania. These short orchestral works were inspired from Bartok's folk song collecting trips. They are central to Bartok's development as a composer, and we are lucky that so many of these short pieces have been collected here. The recording of the Miraculous Mandarin is superbly done, bringing out the hard edge of this ballet about a group of thugs who force a woman to lure their victims to them. Bartok found the scenario for this work printed in a magazine. The music has a hard edge to it, a gritty depiction of the events of the ballet. Bartok makes effective use of the orchestra in the hesitation of the girl, at first, to seduce men to be robbed. The mandarin's appearance, his pursuit of the girl and his eerie death are given force by the dissonant themes Bartok juxtaposes. Ivan Fischer gives the score a great reading that will be almost impossible to beat. Even if you already have a copy of the Miraculous Mandarin you will also want to own this one.
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