Customer Reviews

Concerto for Orchestra / Dance Suite

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

 

 

This album is one of the top artistic issues edited by pearl ; this outstanding label has recovered for the immortality three legendary performances.

The Concerto for Orchestra with Reiner and the Pittsburgh Symphony is a reference pattern with all the previous or next releases . The approach given for Reiner is simply epic . The last movement is unbeatable . I do not understand why the Chicago Symphony is more appreciated . The bitterness and the strong character of this hard to play work is carefully conducted ; the accents , the dramatic plot , the clear elegiac atmosphere of the Second Movement , the astonishing lyric flight and above all the sparkling of the whole ensemble ; those tuttis and thundering sforzandi has no parallel in the story . The other two recordings which move near in spirit would be the Boston Symphony conduceted by Koussevitszki and the Fricsay Berlin Symphony in the early fifties .

But believe me after you have listened the vertiginous and energetic climax of the Grand Finale I doubt you want to listen another version.

Besides this monumental recording you have the historical premiere given on April1 946 by Gyorgy Sandor , Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra . Sublime from start to finish .

The incandescent rapture and monumental pianism of Sandor plus the heavy weight string section of this Orchestra make the rest .

And there is more : The Portrait Op. 5 for Violin and Orchestra SZ 37 with Joseph Szigeti , to my mind the best violinist of the XX Century with Constant Lambert and the Philarmonia Orchestra in a overwhelming raeding of this work .

Consider this album with an underestimated value .

Historic treasures of first rate .

I nearly rated this only four stars; but since my only real quarrel was with one movement of one of the pieces, I felt that would be unfairly draconian.

There is much to like in Andrew Davis' reading of the Concerto for Orchestra; such a wealth of detail WORKS here that I've never heard any other conductor do: when the tempo picks up in the Introduzione, and there's a brief interruption of the new tempo while the horns have a unison perfect-fourth figure, Davis DOES NOT milk this, and the effect is an arresting tenuto rather than an exaggerated curtain-line, when we've only just got started ... the best clarinet reading in the Giuoco delle coppie that I remember hearing ... the Shostakovich parody which "interottos" the Intermezzo is taken at a deliciously deliberate pace which is far more mocking than the general "whip-it" consensus ... and the Finale dances and bubbles without being an insensate race to the final double-bar.

But there is a moment of mush in the strings during the Elegia which I cannot in good conscience overlook. It doesn't ruin the performance, or this recording, for me; but it cannot be called the "best," either ... like a year in which First Prize is not awarded ....

The performance here by the Helsinki Strings of the Divertimento is brilliant, and brings out the beauty and elation of this masterwork for the string orchestra.

The Dance Suite is to Bartók's oeuvre what the Slavonic Dances are to Dvorák's; well-made, ebullient dance-music ... not "serious art," perhaps, but far finer art than a great deal of laboriously "serious art" ....

The Music for Strings, Percussion & Celesta needs no praise from me; it is in many respects Bartók's signature work, and enduringly unique. Utterly inimitable, so that it is an unforgiving Nemesis to its imitators; a piece which Bartók alone could have written.

The other pieces complement the disc brilliantly, without being in any negative sense "filler": the suite from the ballet "The Wooden Prince" and an arrangement for cello of the First Rhapsody.

Maybe this set is not the final word; but it is an excellent starting-point.

One of my favorite composer is Bartók. I like old recordings and I bought this CD in expectation of something special. Unfortunately I don't like it. The first movement of the piano concerto maybe OK but the second and third are not for my taste. Mr. Sándor slows down when I would like faster tempos and speeds up when I expected slower tempos. The melodies are strange, he skips some beautiful moments. The Concerto less wrong but nothing special. Tempos are rather slow but in this case it is boring not beautiful. The last movement is fresh but nothing more. So I don't like this CD but I think it is a matter of taste.

The transfer is acceptable considering its age but dynamics are extremely compressed. It is great that hiss almost completely filtered without too much influence to the sonority.