Customer Reviews

Béla Bartók: The Miraculous Mandarin / Music for Strings, Percussion & Celesta - Chicago Symphony Orchestra & Chorus / Pierre Boulez

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

 

 

A live recording with Istvan Kertesz and the Chicago Symphony introduced me to The Miraculous Mandarin by Bela Bartok. Unfortunately, that recording was only the suite and not the whole ballet. I recently received this recording of the complete ballet with Pierre Boulez and the CSO as a gift. The two recordings are extremely different. Listening to the Boulez version, I get the impression that I am hearing the story second hand; It is like Boulez is telling me a fairy tale. Kertesz on the other hand gives me the feeling that I am living the story. I think that it is close to the most fantastic recording of anything that I have ever heard. I like listening to both versions very much. Which one I listen to depends on my mood.

In terms of sound and recordng quality, I have a minor problem with this recording. I do not find the recording incredibly clear. It sort of sounds like looking through a pair of glasses with some smudged greesy fingerprints on them. This is a minor point though and it does not take very much away from the performance.

If you are interested in the Kertesz recording, it is available on a 12 CD set from the CSO store.

I think I'm kind of an idiot about classical music, so I can only make basic comments here. Music for Percussion, Strings, and Celesta is one of Bartok's greatest works, and as such is one of the greatest works in all of Western music. Despite the ostensible eminence the celesta is given in the title of the piece, the dominant keyboard instrument is piano, which is part of the percussion ensemble that serves as the anchor for two string sections. The piece is an amazing exploration of opposites, especially its use of chromatic and diatonic elements. The first movement is a chromatic fugue for strings, and Bartok's use of changing meters gives it a watery effect. From the first movement you can already tell it is one of Bartok's best compositions, simply because every note is so exceptionally placed and the flow is so natural. The second movement is an exhilarating allegro, a tight mesh of melodic themes manipulated with rhythmic and metric variation. The third movement is intensely chromatic "night music" with obscure tonality and fragmentary melodies. Best of all, the fourth movement, where diatonic considerations come to the fore and it is the most varied in rhythm, melody, and pitch, but still structurally sublime. Throughout the piece, the key subjects are changed into new subjects, which undergo their own changes, and eventually morphing back into previous themes. This is done with such uncanny perfection that the music really feels like it takes you places. I know that sounds cheesy. I won't discuss _The Miraculous Mandarin_, though it is very good as well.

Get this if you want to hear a divine performance of one of the musical universe's greatest treasures. (Sorry for the CAPS above, I know it's annoying.)

On this disc are two of Bartok's greatest works. The first, The Miraculous Mandarin, is one of his most violent and suggestive. It is very vivid music, painting a palpably clear orchestral picture of the sex and violence of Lengyel's scenario. This is Bartok at his best; blaring brass, screaming strings, pounding percussion. There are also many moments of extreme delicacy; the clarinet solo of the young woman seducing male passers-by, or the moment when the Mandarin's body begins to glow, heightened by a low, wordless chorus. The vivid orchestral storytelling of Mandarin is offset by one of Bartok's most abstract pieces, Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta. This is another Bartok masterpiece. Pierre Boulez conducts Bartok's music very well, and this is no exception. Due to the great quality of the playing, conducting, recording and the music itself, and the fact that there are so few complete Mandarins on the market, I would suggest you pick this one up as soon as possible.

I can add little except to agree with a previous reviewer's comment, "In terms of sound and recordng quality, I have a minor problem with this recording. I do not find the recording incredibly clear. It sort of sounds like looking through a pair of glasses with some smudged greesy fingerprints on them."

The recording sounds 'flat' to me, as though it was recorded at a considerable distance.

In response to one of the reviews posted here, I must disagree with the statement that Boulez's conducting makes these works "cynical, pedantic and profoundly ugly." But then, I've never heard the Leonard Bernstein version of The Miraculous Mandarin, so he may have a point (please note sarcasm).

These pieces are conducted in a very unromantic style that suits these works well in particular, and Bartok's entire output in general. There's nothing conventionally "pretty" at all about these works. But they are both truly beautiful, in a profoundly dark sense. The Miraculous Mandarin depicts the violence and the desperation of the story it is based upon, while the Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta is possibly the greatest orchestral work of the twentieth-century. Vivaldi this is not.

Last time, I reviewed "Cantata Profana" and "The Wooden Prince", recorded by the same conductor with the same orchestra, from the same recording company. I heard several Bartok CDs conducted by Boulez, and "The Miraculous Mandarin" is one of my favorite Bartok music. I claim that Boulez is excellent when it comes on composers during the impression period and the 20th century, such as Bartok, rather than Romantic composers. The orchestra, sounds excellent, seductive, and impressive. "The Miraculous Mandarin" is indeed a impressive performance, expecially the brass.

"Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta" sounds very good too.

I believe that you should buy this CD if you want Bartok. Boulez, I assure you, is truly excellent.

...Music for Strings Percussion and Celesta is one of the best pieces of the 20th century, if not of the whole history of music. And this is the best performances I've heard of it. Absolutely worth getting just for that piece.

No one handle Bartok better in our time like Boulez (Fischer and Salonen runners up).

"Music for strings, percussion and celesta" is one of last centures greatest work and Boulez and Orchestra do this fantastic. The "The miraculous mandarin" is a bonus and also one of Bartoks greatest. Great sound too.

Buy this version and you have a (two) masterpiece (s).

Another great gangsta rap album from the B-Dogg! Has great rappin' about crack, cops, and some gangstas and a ho robbin' people in tha hood. Enjoy these amazing rap songs--especially if you like yo gangsta rap played by a string quartet, and you prefer it don't have any of them annoying tonal compositions.

Maestro Boulez has a fantastic ear, good technique, and a formidable intellect. He has one slight impediment to conducting: he doesn't care for music very much. Or at least not music that embodies thought and feeling. Music for Strings is one of the most sublime testaments in Western music. The shattering climax of the first movement couldn't make Bartok's meaning plainer. But you'll never learn that from this perverse rendition. Boulez deliberately ignores the forceful accents, smoothing over them because he finds strong accents sentimental and stupid. The result is cynical, pedantic, and profoundly ugly. And the less said of this decidedly less than Miraculous Mandarin, the better. Any recording by a conductor who sympathizes with this music is preferable.