Bartók: Four Orchestral Pieces & Music for Strings, Percussion & Celesta

Featuring

Edward Gardner
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Béla Bartók

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Composition History

Bartók created the concert suite from The Miraculous Mandarin by cutting the last third of the ballet after it was banned and not staged again during his lifetime.

Composer Biography

Bartók withdrew from musical life in Budapest in 1912, resigning himself to compose "for my writing-desk only" due to his music being misunderstood or ignored.

Composer's Artistic Vision

The Miraculous Mandarin explores the antagonism between unaffected nature (the mandarin) and corrupted modernity (the gang), with the young woman as mediator.

Compositional Technique

Bartók's Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta is scored for two string orchestras, placed on opposite sides of the platform to create a dialogue of sound and form.

Critical Reception

Bartók's ballet The Miraculous Mandarin was banned immediately after its 1926 premiere in Cologne due to its controversial subject matter.

Composition History

Bartók's Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta was commissioned by the Swiss patron-conductor Paul Sacher to mark the tenth anniversary of his Basle Chamber Orchestra.

Compositional Technique

The first movement of Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta builds to a climax on E flat, the tritone opposite of its initial A, before retracing its steps back to A.