Marin Alsop, the conductor on this recording, has been Principal Conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra since 2002 and is Music Director of the Baltimore Symphony.
Composition History
Béla Bartók, a leading Hungarian modernist composer, began writing his ballet The Wooden Prince in 1914, following his opera Bluebeard's Castle.
Recording & Production
This recording of The Wooden Prince was made in The Concert Hall, Lighthouse, Poole, UK, on May 9th and 10th, 2007.
Compositional Technique
The ballet's opening has been compared to Wagner's Das Rheingold for its use of a near pulseless, triadic sound that gradually builds in orchestral registers.
Composition History
The original story for The Wooden Prince was written by Béla Balázs, a literary acquaintance of Bartók who also wrote the libretto for Bluebeard's Castle.
Notable Performances
The Wooden Prince premiered at the Royal Opera House on May 12, 1917, under Italian conductor Egisto Tango, after delays due to wartime unrest.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Bartók described The Wooden Prince as 'a kind of elaborate symphonic music, a symphonic poem to be danced to,' emphasizing its musical depth.
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