Bartok: The Miraculous Mandarin; Concerto for Orchestra

Bartok: The Miraculous Mandarin; Concerto for Orchestra

Ozawa’s performance of The Miraculous Mandarin perfectly captures the nightmarish, fevered intensity of Bartók’s masterpiece. Like the music, the performance goes to extremes – I’ve never heard the waltz taken quite so slowly, nor has the ending ever sounded quite so delirious. What a pity it’s spoilt by the wiry recorded sound. Kubelik’s rendition of the Concerto for Orchestra is less remarkable, but better recorded. Ivan Hewett

Our rating

4


COMPOSERS: Bartok
LABELS: DG Galleria
WORKS: The Miraculous Mandarin; Concerto for Orchestra
PERFORMER: Boston SO/Seiji Ozawa; Rafael Kubelik
CATALOGUE NO: 437 247-2 ADD (1977/74)

Ozawa’s performance of The Miraculous Mandarin perfectly captures the nightmarish, fevered intensity of Bartók’s masterpiece. Like the music, the performance goes to extremes – I’ve never heard the waltz taken quite so slowly, nor has the ending ever sounded quite so delirious. What a pity it’s spoilt by the wiry recorded sound. Kubelik’s rendition of the Concerto for Orchestra is less remarkable, but better recorded. Ivan Hewett





This website is owned and published by Our Media Ltd. www.ourmedia.co.uk
© Our Media 2025