Walter Susskind, the conductor on this album, was a Czech-born British conductor who fled to Britain in 1939 when Germany invaded Prague.
Composition History
The libretto for Bartók's "Cantata Profana" was created from two Romanian Colinde, which are ballads sung during the Christmas season, collected by Bartók in Transylvania in 1914.
Composition History
Bartók's "Cantata Profana" was completed in 1930 and premiered in London in 1934 by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Wireless Chorus.
Compositional Technique
Bartók's "Bluebeard's Castle" is noted for giving birth to a specific Hungarian parlando, or operatic prosody, with a natural intonation throughout the work.
Compositional Technique
Bartók's "Cantata Profana" is structured in an ABA form, illustrating his use of palindrome or arch form, with the first movement describing the hunt, the second the magical transformation, and the third recapitulating the story.
Recording & Production
This album features two works by Béla Bartók: his opera "Bluebeard's Castle" and "Cantata Profana", both recorded in London's Kingsway Hall in June 1953.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Bartók's opera "Bluebeard's Castle" is described as a 'mystery play' or 'ballad adapted to the stage', where the orchestra plays the main role in portraying the drama of the soul.
