Customer Reviews

Béla Bartók: The Miraculous Mandarin, Op. 19 (Sz73) / Four Orchestral Pieces, Op. 12 (Sz51) / 3 Village Scenes, (Sz 79)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Pierre Boulez achieved a honor place in this decade (1972) when decided to record these memorable versions with the vibrant and expansive sound of the New York Philharmonic.

His incisive approach is part of the bitter dissonance contained in all these works. Special attention deserves the 4 Orchestral pieces (I still don't know about any other version capable to match with this one) ; The Miraculous Mandarin is just one step behind the unsurpassable version of Antal Dorati in the Sixties ( Mercury 434 362-2) that includes besides, Divertimento, sonata for two pianos and Percussion with BBC/LSD) .

To my view, one of his top five achievements of his musical career.

I give this CD three stars because, depending on your musical tastes, it can be considered really good (5 stars) or really bad (1 star), and the two scores average out to three.

When I first came across the title 'The Miraculous Mandarin', I thought it was going to be something like a musical version of 'The Seven Faces of Dr Lao', with lots of nice musical Chinoiserie including pentatonic melodies accompanied by celesta and glockenspiel and the rest of it. Well, not exactly. It was supposed instead to be a pantomime about this Chinaman who got mugged by three crooks working together with a girl who was to bait him into their trap, except he ended up longing so greatly for her that he refused to die even when hanged, stabbed and so on, which was what made him 'miraculous'. Only when she allowed him to embrace her one last time did he finally die. Ah, I thought, so it was a tragic, Oriental-flavored LOVE story then?

Still wrong. The Chinaman was intended to be a turbo-charged sex maniac, not a Chow Yun-Fatt (yup, very complimentary to us Chinese ;)). There is nothing beautiful and romantic at all in this piece of music -- and for that matter nothing Oriental either. It's all terror and savagery. In fact this 30-minute work would be a worthy cousin, if not senior indeed, of Stravinsky's 'Rite of Spring' (another misleadingly romantic title). In particular, the musical depiction of the sex act between the hero and the heroine prior to the muggers' attacks is terrifyingly graphic. It sounds almost like a bunch of belly dancers gone berserk. Using it in a porn movie would not be entirely inappropriate in my opinion. Also noteworthy is the use of the wordless chorus to depict the eerie bluish-green glow emitted by the Chinaman's corpse as he stared at the girl.

I've listened to some other works by Bartok and, no offense intended, I want to imagine that most of the time he only likes to compose music for gory horror and suspense movies. Most of the '4 Orchestral Pieces' (also in this CD) certainly give me this impression. The one rare exception is his 'Hungarian Sketches' (not found in this CD).

All things said, if you like loud, dissonant, violent and savage music like Stravinsky's 'Rite of Spring', then this CD is for you. But if you have a weak heart or feel that music should be soothing and uplifting, then stay away from this CD. Far, far away. Try Bach or Pachelbel instead. (Wimp! :D)