FREE UK SHIPPING OVER £35!

Bartok - Bluebeard’s Castle / Berg - 3 fragments from Wozzeck              | Brilliant Classics 9092

Bartok - Bluebeard’s Castle / Berg - 3 fragments from Wozzeck

New Item

Label: Brilliant Classics

Cat No: 9092

Barcode: 5029365909228

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Genre: Opera

Release Date: 26th October 2009

This product has now been deleted. Information is for reference only.

Contents

Artists

Mihaly Szekely
Olga Szonyi
Helga Pilarczyk
London Symphony Orchestra

Conductor

Antal Dorati

Works

Bartok, Bela

Bluebeard's Castle, op.11 Sz48

Berg, Alban

Wozzeck Fragments (3)

Artists

Mihaly Szekely
Olga Szonyi
Helga Pilarczyk
London Symphony Orchestra

Conductor

Antal Dorati

About

Bartók showed little interest in opera, until the libretto for Bluebeard’s Castle by Béla Balázs arrived on his desk. Something about the character of Bluebeard, and his intense loneliness, appealed to him. When Bartók completed the work in 1911 it was banned by the Hungarian Commision of Fine Arts. It wasn’t until 1918 that the Italian conductor Egisto Tango disinterred the score and realised its worth. The work was then performed in Berlin in German, and in Hungarian in Florence. Kodály described the work as the ‘Hungarian Pelléas’, and the dual between Romantic and impressionistic influences certainly links the two works.

Berg’s Wozzeck was premiered in 1925 conducted by Erich Kleiber, then banned by the Nazis as decadent in the 1930s. Since then, it has become recognised as one of the masterpieces of 20th-century opera. Structured as a normal opera, but without arias and recitatives, the second act is in effect a four movement symphony. The opera also has significant symphonic interludes. Berg made a concert suite from material from the opera in 1924, and it met with instant success.

Cast:
Bartok - Bluebeard’s Castle
- Mihály Székely: Bluebeard
- Olga Szönyi: Judith

Berg - Three Fragments from Wozzeck
- Helga Pilarczyk: Marie

Error on this page? Let us know here

Need more information on this product? Click here