Bartók
Duke Bluebeard’s Castle
Rinat Shaham (mezzo-soprano), Gábor Bretz (bass-baritone); Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra/Karina Canellakis
Pentatone PTC 5187 225 60:28 mins
Clip: Bartók – Duke Bluebeard's Castle: Seventh Door
A great performance of Bluebeard’s Castle banishes cultural speculation about Bartók’s only music drama. As Judith demands each of the castle’s seven doors be opened who ponders if this is Symbolism or Expressionism, a dark folk tale or a Freudian fairy story? It’s about blood-spilling power and human disappointment – the passing of all things. And a man and his new young wife.
- Six pieces of classical music inspired by fairytales...
- Bluebeard's Castle... the dark fascination of Bartók's psychodrama
Gábor Bretz as Bluebeard and Rinat Shaham, his Judith, are magnificent. Bretz a lyric bass-baritone, who in the Prologue seems to yearn that things may be different this time, begs for the sunshine as Judith opens the Fourth Door into his garden. Shaham never wheedles or pleads, she is simply unable to curtail her curiosity. Both take vocal risks: he is almost lyrical when we hear the lake of tears while she opts for soft singing when the mighty fifth door crashes open. Both are magnificent in the final Duet.
Karina Canellakis conducts the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic as if her life depended on it, understanding the aching angularity of Bartók’s score and exploring every musical shiver and chordal creak. Climaxes are perfectly placed and there’s an admirable attention to detail – the anxious ostinato for strings in the Prologue and the unsettling drum beat that heralds the opening of the Sixth Door. Chilling. Christopher Cook
