Bartok: The Wooden Prince & The Miraculous Mandarin Suite / Malkki, Helsinki Philharmonic

$15.99
Label
BIS
Release Date
June 7, 2019
Format
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    Featuring ⌄
    • COMPOSER
      BARTOK, BELA
    • ORCHESTRA / ENSEMBLE
      Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra
    • PERFORMER
      Malkki
    Product Details ⌄
    • RELEASE DATE
      June 07, 2019
    • UPC
      7318599923284
    • CATALOG NUMBER
      BIS-2328
    • LABEL
      BIS
    • NUMBER OF DISCS
      1
    • GENRE
      Classical
    Works ⌄

    1. Opening -

      Composer: Béla Bartók

      Ensemble: Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra

      Conductor: Susanna Mälkki

    2. First Dance: Dance of the Princess in the forest -

      Composer: Béla Bartók

      Ensemble: Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra

      Conductor: Susanna Mälkki

    3. The Prince falls in love -

      Composer: Béla Bartók

      Ensemble: Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra

      Conductor: Susanna Mälkki

    4. Towards the castle of the Princess - Second Dance: Dance of the trees -

      Composer: Béla Bartók

      Ensemble: Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra

      Conductor: Susanna Mälkki

    5. The Prince continues on his way - Third Dance: Dance of the waves -

      Composer: Béla Bartók

      Ensemble: Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra

      Conductor: Susanna Mälkki

    6. The Prince has an idea -

      Composer: Béla Bartók

      Ensemble: Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra

      Conductor: Susanna Mälkki

    7. The Princess is curious - Fourth Dance: Dance of the Princess with the Wooden Prince -

      Composer: Béla Bartók

      Ensemble: Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra

      Conductor: Susanna Mälkki

    8. The Prince despairs -

      Composer: Béla Bartók

      Ensemble: Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra

      Conductor: Susanna Mälkki

    9. The Prince is restored -

      Composer: Béla Bartók

      Ensemble: Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra

      Conductor: Susanna Mälkki

    10. Return of the Princess - Fifth Dance: The Princess prods and encourages the Wooden Prince to dance -

      Composer: Béla Bartók

      Ensemble: Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra

      Conductor: Susanna Mälkki

    11. Collapse of the Wooden Prince - Sixth Dance: With an alluring dance, the Princess tries to appeal to the Prince -

      Composer: Béla Bartók

      Ensemble: Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra

      Conductor: Susanna Mälkki

    12. Seventh Dance: The despair of the Princess -

      Composer: Béla Bartók

      Ensemble: Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra

      Conductor: Susanna Mälkki

    13. The Happy End

      Composer: Béla Bartók

      Ensemble: Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra

      Conductor: Susanna Mälkki

    14. Introduction - The three tramps and the girl

      Composer: Béla Bartók

      Ensemble: Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra

      Conductor: Susanna Mälkki

    15. First decoy game: the old rake

      Composer: Béla Bartók

      Ensemble: Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra

      Conductor: Susanna Mälkki

    16. Second decoy game: the young boy

      Composer: Béla Bartók

      Ensemble: Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra

      Conductor: Susanna Mälkki

    17. Third decoy game: The Mandarin appears

      Composer: Béla Bartók

      Ensemble: Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra

      Conductor: Susanna Mälkki

    18. The girl begins to dance for the Mandarin

      Composer: Béla Bartók

      Ensemble: Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra

      Conductor: Susanna Mälkki

    19. The Mandarin chases the girl

      Composer: Béla Bartók

      Ensemble: Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra

      Conductor: Susanna Mälkki


The Wooden Prince and The Miraculous Mandarin are – together with the earlier opera Bluebeard’s Castle – the only stage works by Béla Bartók. They stand apart from the more abstract and often more explicitly folk-related character of the music that we primarily associate with the composer. They are nevertheless major achievements that in different ways highlight Bartók’s imaginative use of the modern orchestra. Set in an enchanted forest, The Wooden Prince is based on a fairytale-like libretto featuring a prince and princess. The two are subjected to various trials, but at the end of the ballet they are allowed to come together and live – we assume – happily ever after. In stark contrast, The Miraculous Mandarin takes place in an urban brothel where three robbers force a girl to seduce men so that they can overpower and kill them. The subject-matter and the erotic qualities of much of the music caused a scandal at the première in 1926, and for a long time the score was primarily performed in the shorter concert version heard on the present release, the first from the team of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and Susanna Mälkki, the orchestra’s chief conductor since 2016.

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REVIEWS:

Mälkki elicits brilliant, rhythmically disciplined playing from the Helsinki Philharmonic; and although her depiction of urban din in the opening minutes lacks the raucous ferocity of Dorati’s justly famous mid-1950s account (and whose doesn’t?), her careful attention to dynamic gradations lays bare a wealth of textural and colouristic detail.

– Gramophone

Naturally, a complex score such as The Wooden Prince requires an orchestra capable of extreme virtuosity, and the Helsinki Philharmonic provide this to the full under their newly appointed principal conductor. She guides them in a performance of expressive sweep and, where required, tenderness. The SACD recording, as is so often the case with BIS, is state of the art.

Stylistically, The Miraculous Mandarin occupies a much harsher, at times grating sound world, there being no hint of the former's misty impressionism. In 1927, shortly after the sole Cologne performance, Bartók published an orchestral suite comprising the first six stages of the work, and that is what we have here. The orchestra respond here with considerable virtuosity under Susanna Mälkki’s direction, and the recording copes admirably with Bartok’s glaring, lurid orchestration of the dissonant music.

– MusicWeb International