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Thursday, January 16, 2020

Béla Bartók - Orchestral Works, Vol. 1 (Thomas Dausgaard)


Information

Composer: Béla Bartók
  • (01) Suite No. 1, Sz. 31 (Original 1905 Version)
  • (06) Concerto for Orchestra, Sz. 116

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Thomas Dausgaard, conductor

Date: 2019
Label: Onyx Classics
http://onyxclassics.com/cddetail.php?CatalogueNumber=ONYX4210

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Review

The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under chief conductor Thomas Dausgaard launch a series coupling contrasting works by Bartók, this first instalment presenting the ever-popular late Concerto for Orchestra alongside the First Suite from four decades earlier. Commonalities include allusions to Hungarian folk styles (overt in the suite, utterly assimilated in the concerto), five-movement form and an innate mastery of orchestration, the explicitly Straussian accent of the early work absorbed and obliterated by the fully mature style of the late one.

The First Suite is in fact a heftier work than its title might suggest, decked in orchestral colours that wouldn’t shame Hollywood. The BBC Scottish play it for all its worth, apparently in the first recording of the unrevised (uncut) version; woodwinds are especially characterful in their impersonations of indigenous Hungarian instruments. The bristling Nachtmusik of the second movement finds its echo in the central panel of the Concerto, where again the woodwinds play starring roles, albeit alongside all the other sections and voices within the orchestra.

Dausgaard pays acute attention to Bartók’s markings, accentuating the seriousness of the Concerto’s opening movement and the cheekiness of the Giuoco delle coppie, with its parade of instrumental duets. The Elegia builds to a notable peak of unease, while in the Intermezzo interrotto Dausgaard is careful not to overindulge the string chorale or the brass’s slurs on Shostakovich’s character. Only the finale perhaps hangs fire: two echt Hungarian versions I recommended in the Gramophone Collection in April 2010 (listed below) shave 20 or more seconds from Dausgard’s time and distil a greater edge-of-seat thrill from music which after all benefits from actually sounding difficult. Nevertheless, Dausgaard’s care with both works pays off and augurs well for subsequent volumes.

-- David Threasher, Gramophone

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Béla Bartók (March 25, 1881 – September 26, 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist and an ethnomusicologist. Bartók is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Liszt are regarded as Hungary's greatest composers. Through his collection and analytical study of folk music, he was one of the founders of comparative musicology, which later became ethnomusicology. Bartók's music reflects two trends that dramatically changed the sound of music in the 20th century: the breakdown of the diatonic system of harmony, and the revival of nationalism as a source for musical inspiration.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%A9la_Bart%C3%B3k

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Thomas Dausgaard (born 4 July 1963 in Copenhagen) is a Danish conductor. Dausgaard has been Principal Conductor of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra since 1997, and chief conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra since 2016. He was also Principal Conductor of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra from 2004 to 2011, and will become music director of the Seattle Symphony in 2019-2020 season. Dausgaard has recorded several recordings of Danish and other Scandinavian music for Chandos and Dacapo labels, including works by Per Nørgård, Rued Langgaard and Franz Berwald.

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