Béla Bartók - Concerto for Orchestra; Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta (Seiji Ozawa)

Information

Composer: Béla Bartók

• Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, Sz 106
• Concerto for Orchestra, Sz 116

Saito Kinen Orchestra

Seiji Ozawa, conductor

Date: 2005

Label: Philips

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Review

This 2005 hybrid SACD of Béla Bartók's Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, Sz. 106, and the Concerto for Orchestra, Sz. 116, is remarkable for its up-close multichannel recording and glorious sonorities, but it is truly extraordinary for its stunning musicality and powerful depth of expression. Seiji Ozawa and the Saito Kinen Orchestra are in rare form in both works, and this famously exacting conductor draws out vividly detailed performances that can be compared in all fairness with the legendary renditions by Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In this terrific live recording of Music, one is reminded at every bar of all the meticulous details and magical timbres Reiner achieved in his 1958 RCA recording; and Ozawa's pacing and articulation in the Concerto for Orchestra are quite similar to Reiner's 1955 recording. But more importantly, what both Reiner and Ozawa produced in their respective recordings -- overlooking the 50 years of recording advances between them -- is a special kind of vitality that transcends technique, and a freshness that feels authentic and faithful to Bartók's idiom. In Reiner's case, his close personal friendship with the composer accounts for his inspired interpretations and exceptional precision. In Ozawa's, perhaps only a lifetime of conducting the modern repertoire and familiarity with Bartók's work can explain the nearly ideal quality of these performances; but that is sufficient. So if one needs classic readings of these pieces, Reiner's are to be preferred; but Ozawa's disc is such a close contender, it is a more than reasonable second choice. Audiophiles, though, will enjoy this package more, because it has incredibly lifelike surround sound.

— Blair Sanderson

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Béla Bartók (25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist and ethnomusicologist who is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century. As an ethnomusicologist, his fieldwork with the composer Zoltán Kodály formed the basis for all later research in the field. Bartók employed folk themes and rhythms into his own music, achieving a style that was nationalistic and deeply personal. His notable works include the opera Bluebeard's Castle (1911), 6 string quartets (1908–39), the Mikrokosmos piano set, Concerto for Orchestra (1943), and 3 piano concertos (1926, 1931 & 1945).

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Seiji Ozawa (September 1, 1935 – February 6, 2024) was a Japanese conductor noted for his performances of 19th-century Western symphonic works. He was a student of Charles Munch, Pierre Monteux and Herbert von Karajan, and was assistant to Leonard Bernstein. Ozawa was music director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (1965–1969), the San Francisco Symphony (1970–1976), the Boston Symphony Orchestra (1973–2002), and principal conductor of the Vienna State Opera (2002–2010). In Japan, he founded the Saito Kinen Orchestra in 1984, their festival in 1992, and the Tokyo Opera Nomori in 2005.

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