11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dorati's MLP Bartok is Back, June 8, 2005
This review is from: Bartók: Orchestral Works - Antal Dorati (Audio CD)
Those familiar with my reviews on Amazon know of my great love for the Mercury Living Presence series. Equally great is my disgust that so many of these brilliant recordings have been deleted in the last few years! Thankfully, some of these legendary performances are resurfacing as SACD hybrids. However, they are unfortunately now being sold at full-price, despite a competing Living Stereo hybrid series on RCA/BMG being available at midline. In spite of the added expense, I hope this MLP reissue trend will continue, and maybe we'll even see a few items receiving their CD debut in this series.
These Bartok performances by the great Antal Dorati are nothing short of definitive, and have always been among my favorite MLP offerings. While three of these recordings continue to be available in their original CD incarnations -- the Violin Concerto with Menuhin, Miraculous Mandarin and Wooden Prince discs -- the remaining two discs of material have been out-of-print for some time. However, with this box set Dorati's classic Concerto for Orchestra, and Bluebeard's Castle albums are deservedly restored to the catalog. Even better is the fact that the 5CD box sets being reissued have been reasonably priced, however they are not SACD Hybrids. This set and three others (see my reviews) have a total cost cheaper than the original single issue CDs! Once again, Mercury Living Presence lives!
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3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Famous readings that have been surpassed in the decades since, June 20, 2009
This review is from: Bartók: Orchestral Works - Antal Dorati (Audio CD)
I've never thought of Antal Dorati as a great conductor, but he was certainly an accomplished one in Bartok's music. I hadn't heard any of these recordings in decades, but returning to them didn't exactly astonish me. Mercury Living Presence is a legendary label among audiophiles (more for the original LPs than for the digital transfers made from them), but in return for the airiness and detail of the sonics, I've always found the treble too bright, to the point of stinging the ear. Even so, Dorati's bargain Bartok set sounds quite good.
The real issue is interpretation and execution. The Minneapolis SO plays well, but in the intervening years we've gotten used to virtuoso ensembles in Bartok, led by the likes of Bernstein, Boulez, and Solti, just to name three whose Bartok is especially fine. As far as interpretation goes, Dorati's have been recommended repeatedly by British critics, but frankly I don't hear any great insight. Dorati has a natural feeling for the idiom, and I'm glad to hear Yehudi Menuhin in the Second Violin Cto., one of his specialties, as well as the two native Hungarian singers who perform in Bluebeard's Castle.
Yet Dorati tends to be rather mild in almost everything here, with some exceptions like the Dance Suite and Divertimento, where he brings real energy and alertness. In the large scale masterpieces like the Concerto for Orch., Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta, Bluebeard's Castle, the Second Violin Cto., and the Miraculous Mandarin, his readings don't rise to the highest level. In particular, Ivan Fischer and his Budapest Festival Orchestra have brought Bartok back home with more striking results and just as good sound. If you want an older generation of Hungarian conductors, Reiner and Fricsay outdo Dorati, too.
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