佳佳唱片

蘇珊娜．馬爾契  指揮 赫爾辛基愛樂樂團 錄音地點 芬蘭赫爾辛基音樂中心

Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra / Susanna Malkki

Susanna Malkkiconducts Bartok'stwo colourful ballet scores

The Wooden Prince and The Miraculous Mandarin are – together with the earlier opera Bluebeard’s
Castle – the only stage works by BelaBartok. They stand apart from the more abstract and often more
explicitly folk-related character of the music that we primarily associate with the composer. They are
nevertheless major achievements that in different ways highlight Bartok’s imaginative use of the
modern orchestra.
Set in an enchanted forest, The Wooden Prince is based on a fairytale-like libretto featuring a prince
and princess. The two are subjected to various trials, but at the end of the ballet they are allowed
to come together and live – we assume – happily ever after. In stark contrast, The Miraculous
Mandarintakes place in an urban brothel where three robbers force a girl to seduce men so that
they can overpower and kill them. The subjectmatter and the erotic qualities of much of the
music caused a scandal at the première in 1926, and for a long time the score was primarily
performed in the shorter concert version heard on the present disc, the first from the team of the
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and Susanna Malkki, the orchestra’s chief conductor since 2016.
 

Bela Bartok (1881–1945)
1 – 13 ) The Wooden Prince, Op. 13 53'48
Dance-pantomime in one act
14 – 19 ) Concert Suite from ‘ The Miraculous Mandarin’ 18'26
Op. 19 (1924/1927)

T T: 73'07