B?la Bart?k: The Miraculous Mandarin / Music for Strings, Percussion & Celesta - Chicago Symphony Orchestra & Chorus / Pierre Boulez
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Free Music Notes for B?la Bart?k: The Miraculous Mandarin / Music for Strings, Percussion & Celesta - Chicago Symphony Orchestra & Chorus / Pierre Boulez
Free Music Review: ONE OF BARTOK'S MASTERPIECES.
Hit: 5 Stars
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.)
Free Music Review: Darkly Beautiful
Hit: 5 Stars
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.
Free Music Review: Boulez and Bartok, a great combination
Hit: 5 Stars
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).
Free Music Review: A Disk For People Who Dislike Music
Hit: 1 Stars
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.Free Music Review: Essential Bartok
Hit: 5 Stars
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.
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