COMPOSERS: Bartok
LABELS: RCA Living Stereo
WORKS: Concerto for Orchestra; Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta; Hungarian Sketches
PERFORMER: Chicago SO/Fritz Reiner
CATALOGUE NO: 09026 61504 2 ADD (1955/1958)
‘Authentic’ performance of 20th-century music may sound eccentric, but early recordings are a boon. The lives of Reiner and Bartók intertwined professionally and privately for nearly half a century. These performances with the orchestra that Reiner built into a world-class machine, simply dazzle. The Concerto positively fizzes with particularly exceptional brass, especially trumpet, while the strings in the Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta are passionate and full-throated.
Annette Morreau