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

Information

Composer: Béla Bartók

• Suite No. 1, Sz. 31 (Original 1905 Version)
• Concerto for Orchestra, Sz. 116

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Thomas Dausgaard, conductor

Date: 2019

Label: Onyx

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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

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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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Thomas Dausgaard (born 4 July 1963 in Copenhagen) is a Danish conductor. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music in Copenhagen, with Norman Del Mar at the Royal College of Music in London, and in masterclasses with Franco Ferrara, Leonard Bernstein and Hiroyuki Iwaki. Dausgaard was chief conductor of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra (1997–2019), the Danish National Symphony Orchestra (2004–2011), the Seattle Symphony (2019–2022), and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (2016–2022). He has recently been appointed as Principal Guest Conductor of the RTVE Symphony Orchestra.

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