Bartók The Wooden Prince
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Iván Fischer, Béla Bartók
Label: Philips
Magazine Review Date: 12/1997
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 68
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 454 429-2PH
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| (The) Wooden Prince |
Béla Bartók, Composer
Béla Bartók, Composer Budapest Festival Orchestra Iván Fischer, Composer |
| Dance Suite |
Béla Bartók, Composer
Béla Bartók, Composer Budapest Festival Orchestra Iván Fischer, Composer |
Author: John Steane
Bartok’s ‘dance pantomime’ The Wooden Prince is a fascinating score: fascinating for its resonances of his other two stage works (Bluebeard’s Castle and The Miraculous Mandarin), and for its differences from them, for example, its humour and its happy ending. But although it was originally intended as the other half of a double bill with the already completed Bluebeard, it sounds like an earlier piece. And with hindsight, it is difficult to imagine The Wooden Prince without, say, Strauss’s Salome and Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder. Fischer acknowledges the antecedents, but one is perhaps less conscious of them, partly because of the particular sound of his orchestra, and partly his chosen tempos (swifter than Boulez in Chicago and Jarvi). His flowing introduction hovers on the threshold of audibility (Bartok’s markings are all ppp), and offers less opportunity than Boulez to appreciate what Bartok does with the opening of Das Rheingold. The object of affection in the drama (the Princess), as in The Miraculous Mandarin, is a sinuous clarinet (initially). She’s rather more playful at Fischer’s faster tempo; rather less inclined, you may feel, to launch into a “Dance of the Seven Veils”. Again, the saxophones in “The Dance of the Waves” don’t say “Hello, I’m a ritzy bit of scoring”, but seem a discreet component of some wonderfully diaphanous orchestration.
The gawky dance at the centre of the piece (the Princess and the Wooden Prince) is a delight – not too heavy or grotesque, but deliciously pointed and halting, with some surprising moments of delicacy and beauty. But I missed Boulez’s intensity in the real Prince’s outburst of despair as the Princess and the Wooden Prince dance off together. And there isn’t such a sharp profile for all that clatters woodenly in this dance, or indeed all that glitters and shimmers in the ensuing forest scene.
It could be said Boulez and Chicago offer the more arresting and conventionally alluring option. Indeed, the Chicago textures are richer and relayed in a sonic spectacular (DG also offer a useful tracking-linked synopsis). But that would be to reckon without the humour, the litheness and grace of movement and the actual sound of the Hungarian orchestra, in particular their bright, astringent woodwinds (I should add that there is not a crude or raucous sound in earshot). In some respects the lean sound and the precision of the playing put you in mind of Solti’s LSO Bartok recordings, but without his lethal brass, and, in the Dance Suite, with a precision of character and balance as well as ensemble. Of course it helps if you know – and enjoy – the footwork.'
The gawky dance at the centre of the piece (the Princess and the Wooden Prince) is a delight – not too heavy or grotesque, but deliciously pointed and halting, with some surprising moments of delicacy and beauty. But I missed Boulez’s intensity in the real Prince’s outburst of despair as the Princess and the Wooden Prince dance off together. And there isn’t such a sharp profile for all that clatters woodenly in this dance, or indeed all that glitters and shimmers in the ensuing forest scene.
It could be said Boulez and Chicago offer the more arresting and conventionally alluring option. Indeed, the Chicago textures are richer and relayed in a sonic spectacular (DG also offer a useful tracking-linked synopsis). But that would be to reckon without the humour, the litheness and grace of movement and the actual sound of the Hungarian orchestra, in particular their bright, astringent woodwinds (I should add that there is not a crude or raucous sound in earshot). In some respects the lean sound and the precision of the playing put you in mind of Solti’s LSO Bartok recordings, but without his lethal brass, and, in the Dance Suite, with a precision of character and balance as well as ensemble. Of course it helps if you know – and enjoy – the footwork.'
Bartók The Wooden Prince
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