Customer Reviews

Béla Bartók: The Wooden Prince / Cantata Profana - John Aler / John Tomlinson / Chicago Symphony Orchestra & Chorus / Pierre Boulez

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is, with no doubt, one of the better recordings Boulez has done of Bartók's music, as far as I know. I have all his new Bartók recordings for DG, in which we can find jewels like the Piano Concertos or the Four Pieces. I know too his old recording of the Wooden Prince for CBS and this is even much more better, and the old one was really great too.

Boulez conducting is clear in all the pieces, specially in the Wooden Prince and the orchestral playing is really breathtaking, something outstanding, ideal for Bartók's music, in which they have a long-term relation, as you can listen in his previous recordings with Reiner, Abbado or Solti.

The Cantata Profana is marvellous too, singers, chorus and orchestra give them best to build a marvellous tale, full of colour and mistery, as the Cantata is a hermetic piece in fact. I've listened this work in Solti's hands and of course it could be a bit more idiomatic and folk, more hungarian, but even so, Boulez's version is marvellous, specially from the technical point of view.

The recording is amazing, I think this CD was Grammy for the technical recording, there's no doubt about the recording quality, it's clear, well-balanced, great range of dynamics, very well recorded all the orchestral sections...

In my opinion a CD which is a must be for all Bartók's lovers. Nowadays this CD it's out of DG's catalogue, so don't miss this oportunity.

Yeh, yeh, Boulez is unemotional and cold. Yeh, right. Anyone who listens to these stunning, uplifting, enlightening recordings and continues to repeat all the labels that are heaped on poor Pierre needs to use their ears and minds a little bit more. One of the most immaculate, moving, near-perfect Bartok recordings ever made. If this is cold and unemotional, emotional might be too much for me.

Boulez's new version of Bartok's Wooden Prince and Cantata Profana for DG is unique for the emotional directness of the performances. Though this comment applies more to the ballet than the more angular cantata, I have been really moved by Boulez's interpretation and the CSO's playing. With The Wooden Prince, Boulez seems like a great musical storyteller, an attribute not normally applied to him; the plot of the wonderful ballet emerges with an incredible directness and remarkable drama. The moments which most touch me are in the fourth dance, when the Prince is in total despair, and at the end of the piece, when the Princess begs for forgiveness with new humility. For once, this music packs the same emotional punch as the composer's opera Bluebeard's Castle (originally intended as a companion piece to the ballet). I love this disk and would recommend it to anyone.

This disc is easily one of my very favorite discs in my 500-or-so CD collection. Some of my friends in the Chicago Symphony mentioned that when Boulez first conducted them, most of them hated him because he was stuffy, academic, and annoying. However, every one of them says that as he has come back to Chicago to conduct from time to time recently, he is one of the most beloved and respected conductors they now play under. They cite his recently acquired sense of humor and the undeniabile superiority of his musicianship. In any event, on this disc one can certainly discern that the entire orchestra is very happy to have him up front: they all play their best here. (I am always amused when I listen to this recording, however, at one slightly late tympani beat.)

I truly claim that when it comes on performing Bartok, Boulez is the best. "Cantata Profana" is one of my favorite music by Bartok, and the performance is excellent. Compared to Solti's recording, it was a bit more exciting, but less melancholy. But the performance is very fine: the orchestra, the choir, and the two singers, a bit finer than Solti's, even though he's a very excellent conductor himself.

"The Wooden Prince" is pretty fine too, even though this is the only recording I heard so far. But Boulez is good enough.

If you want Bartok, I believe that you should buy Boulez, from Grammophon. There's a collection of Bartok's music conducted by Boulez.

"Cantata Profana" has always been one of my favorite Bartok works, however I was unsatisfied with the rather wimpy Robert Shaw/Atlanta Symphony recording in English that I had (the English never sounded or felt right to me--it was awkward and artificial). This recording with Boulez and Chicago is much more raw and visceral in sound--and it's in Hungarian! The soloists are much better in this recording, the tempos are bolder, and the overall emotional force of this masterwork conducted by Boulez is quite striking. This recording is also the first recording I have heard of "The Wooden Prince"--reminds me of a cross between Stravinsky's "Petrushka" and Debussy's "La Mer". Again here the Chicago Symphony under Boulez plays exquisitely and passionately.

Pierre Boulez, as the good wine seems to improve through the years and enhancing exponentially in what Bartok concerns. This work is another additional sample of his magisterial enhancement through the years. The particular emphasis in the architectonic lines and the astonishing handle of the dark dissonances, confers him a well deserved seat of honor. This Wooden Prince is one of the best you can get in the market, as well as Cantata Profana, that you may easily consider the best version ever recorded to date.

A golden album. Absolutely recommended.

Long before I started appreciating Stravinsky, Bartok was my favorite 20th century composer, mostly on the strength of his piano concerti and his Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta, plus his adaptation of Hungarian folk music (being 1/2 Hungarian helped a lot here). So, it's surprising it took me so long to discover these works, but what a discovery they are, especially in the hands of the preeminant conductor of modern music, Maestro Boulez. I am not a great fan of ballet performances, but this music (as with Stravinsky's 'The Rites of Spring') really make me interested in seeing this 'Ballet pantomine' performed. This is also easily more interesting than some of Bartok's other works, such as the first piano concerto.