Bart?k: Concerto for Orchestra; Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta; Hungarian Sketches
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CD Details
Brand: RCAComposer: Bela Bartok
Conductor: Fritz Reiner
Orchestra: Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 1993-08-10
Music Label: RCA
Soundtracks:
- Concerto for Orchestra, Sz. 116, BB 127: Introduzione: Andante non troppo; Allegro vivace
- Concerto for Orchestra, Sz. 116, BB 127: Giuoco delle coppie: Allegretto scherzando
- Concerto for Orchestra, Sz. 116, BB 127: Elegia: Andante non troppo
- Concerto for Orchestra, Sz. 116, BB 127: Intermezzo interrotto: Allegretto
- Concerto for Orchestra, Sz. 116, BB 127: Finale: Pesante; Presto
- Music for Strings, Percussion & Celesta, Sz. 106, BB 114: Andante tranquillo
- Music for Strings, Percussion & Celesta, Sz. 106, BB 114: Allegro
- Music for Strings, Percussion & Celesta, Sz. 106, BB 114: Adagio
- Music for Strings, Percussion & Celesta, Sz. 106, BB 114: Allegro molto
- Hungarian Sketches (Magyar k?pek), for orchestra, Sz. 97, BB 103: An Evening in the Village
- Hungarian Sketches (Magyar k?pek), for orchestra, Sz. 97, BB 103: Bear Dance
- Hungarian Sketches (Magyar k?pek), for orchestra, Sz. 97, BB 103: Melody
- Hungarian Sketches (Magyar k?pek), for orchestra, Sz. 97, BB 103: Slighty Tipsy
- Hungarian Sketches (Magyar k?pek), for orchestra, Sz. 97, BB 103: Swineherd's Dance
Music reviews of Bart?k: Concerto for Orchestra; Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta; Hungarian Sketches
Music Review: Be Honest: Do You Really Like Bartok?
Rating: 3 Stars
I am a passionate lover of Bartok's art. He is within the handful of my favorite 20th century artists of any medium. I have many Bartok recordings covering the entire span of his career and I have many Bartok scores. I have spent years studying his music with a score at the piano. I am 60 years old and I have been studying Bartok in this manner since I was 15 years old. Bartok's music is like oxygen for me.
I have owned this Reiner recording on vinyl for many years and I couldn't even guess how many times I have listened to it with score in hand. And after all these years, I still don't like Reiner's intepretation. I think there are at least four other interpretations that are clearly superior to it. And Reiner's is not even close to Dorati's or Fricsay's.
Before you boo or laugh or shake your head, please ask yourself if you have really listened to the Dorati or Fricsay recordings. And if you really listened, how were you listening, what were you listening for and what were you listening with? I mean what attitudes and knowledge did you bring to the listening session. And do you really like Bartok on the whole? Are you judging this recording under consideration here as someone who loves Bartok, or as someone who loves some Bartok, or someone who only likes some Bartok, or someone who doesn't really care that much for Bartok in general? Where are you coming from? I have talked to many people over the years about this recording and I have found that most of the people who are crazy about it are not crazy about Bartok in general or modern classical in general. That says a great deal.
So let me tell you why I don't like this Reiner recording (particularly of the Concerto for Orchestra).
Reiner makes the Chicago Symphony sing wonderfully, but it doesn't have as much to do with the reality of Bartok's score as it does with the reality of Reiner's taste.
I have been through this score many times and I can tell you that this composition has an essentially HETEROGENEOUS and not a HOMOGENEOUS nature. It is esssentially GRITTY and not SMOOTH. But you would never know that from Reiner's recording. If this is the only recording of this composition you are familiar with then I guarantee you that there are things in the score that you would be amazed to discover because the Reiner recording blends them into the general sound-flow he creates so deeply that they virtually disappear. He creates a smooth, because watered-down, soup out of what was originally a thick, chunky, spicy, gormet goulash. But don't let the levity in my analogy mislead you. I know this composition is profoundly serious and even partly tragic in nature. I am just trying to make a technical point before we even get to the deeper considerations. There are important sections in both the dark and pinnacle 3rd movement and the tragedy-resolving 5th movement in which Bartok utilizes a highly original sort of scintillating-swarm technique of composition which includes, but is not restricted to, some of the famous "night music" and which are clearly audible in the Dorati recording but are difficult to discern or inaudble in the Reiner recording. This is simply inexcusable. It is just an imposition of Reiner the conductor on Bartok the artist.
When I follow with the score as I listen to the Dorati or Fricsay recordings, it makes joyous sense to me. When I do the same with the Reiner recording, it is only frustrating and bewildering and annoying.
You who are crazy about this recording, be honest: Do you really love Bartok? How many Bartok recordings do you have? Do you love THE MIRACULOUS MANDARIN and the VIOLIN SONATA No.1 and SONATA FOR SOLO VIOLIN and the SONATA FOR PIANO and the STRING QUARTETS? I doubt it.
Be honest: Isn't the real reason why you like this recording so much is that IT DOESN'T SOUND LIKE BARTOK or because this is, or is part of, your introduction to Bartok and you like the way the orchestra sounds?
If you are really interested in Bartok then listen to Dorati's THE MIRACULOUS MANDARIN and the VIOLIN SONATA No.1 played by David Oistrakh and Sviatoslav Richter and the SONATA FOR PIANO played by GYORGY SANDOR and the SONATA FOR SOLO VIOLIN played by Yehudi Menuhin. Then listen to the Reiner CONCERTO FOR ORCHESTRA again and then listen to the Dorati and Fricsay recordings and you will understand why the Dorati and Fricsay recordings are superior.
And finally, if Reiner was such a Bartok master then why are there no recordings of the other major Bartok works by Reiner? I think it's because in reality Reiner wasn't that crazy about Bartok's music. Reiner's musical God was Mozart, by Reiner's own admission, and I think this helps explain Reiner's way of conducting Bartok.
I am willing to debate/discuss any of this with anyone who cares to, with the proviso that we keep it civil.
Description of Bart?k: Concerto for Orchestra; Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta; Hungarian Sketches
Since its release on LP in the mid-1950s, Fritz Reiner's rendition of the Concerto for Orchestra has stood as the standard against which all other recordings of the work are measured. Even after all these years, the recording remains just as convincing and authoritative. Reiner's superb control of his orchestra and of Bart?k's rhythms and textures is still unsurpassed, even by dozens of subsequent conductors in the digital age. Likewise, the Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta shows just what an incredible ensemble the Chicago Symphony was under Reiner's direction. This umpteenth reissue, in RCA's Living Stereo series, promises to be the one to have, its sonics noticeably improved over the earlier CD release in 1989. --David VernierGeneral CDs
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