Search - Tanglewood Festival Chorus :: Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra; The Miraculous Mandarin, complete ballet

This CD contains two works that illustrate the two very different sides to Bartok's musical personality. The ballet The Miraculous Mandarin (1926) is a work that arrived on the scene
with the impact of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring. It tells the story of a wealthy mandarin who is lured into a brothel, where a girl dances provocatively for him. He throws himself at the girl who runs off, chased by the mandarin. He in turn, is chased by the thugs and pimps
who stab, strangle and hang him, stealing his purse and money in the process. His battered body refuses to die, and begins to emit a strange blue-green light. The girl finally
allows him to hold her, whereupon his wounds bleed, and he is able to die.
The Concerto for Orchestra dates from 20 years later, when Bartok was living in exile in the USA to escape the Nazis. The work was commissioned by Serge Koussevitzky, conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. At this time Bartok was suffering from the leukemia that would kill him two years later in 1945. The work is very accessible, and in the five movements each section of the orchestra is given an opportunity to shine. The spirit of folk music is
never far away, possibly a nostalgic reference to Bartok's youth, and his homeland.