Béla Bartók - Orchestral Works, Vol. 3 (Thomas Dausgaard)

Information

Composer: Béla Bartók

• The Wooden Prince, Sz. 60 (Final Version)
• Divertimento for Strings, Sz. 113
• Romanian Folk Dances, Sz. 68

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Thomas Dausgaard, conductor

Date: 2024

Label: Onyx

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Review

Bartok was never fully content with The Wooden Prince and this final revision marks an end to his tinkering. It is significant, I think, that all his trimming has to do with music explicitly related to stage business suggesting that he saw its future as a concert piece as opposed to a ballet. For sure, this is yet another extraordinary essay in orchestral black magic – the folksy made fantastical – but the pathos at its heart (as with Miraculous Mandarin) fuels a deeper drama.

A recent recording from the WDR Symphony Orchestra under Christian Macelaru seduced my ear afresh but the Onyx engineering here (which is not to diminish this performance under Thomas Dausgaard) wins the day. Dausgaard relishes the highly ‘visual’ impressionism conjuring with ‘The Dance of the Trees’, for instance, a graceful ballet in itself, from gentle rustling to blustery buffeting. Nature in turmoil. The ‘Dance of the Waves’ is redolent of Bluebeard’s ‘Lake of Tears’ and the con legno effects sketching the puppet prince are a key feature towards his moving and acting with the requisite swagger. All marvellously realised – with great sensitivity and flair – by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

But it is the dark heart of the piece probing as it does the psychology of reality versus imitation that clearly fires Dausgaard. ‘The Prince Despairs’ is as impassioned and heart-rending as ‘The Fairy’s Comforting of the Prince’ is ravishing. You come away surer in the certainty not just of Bartok’s orchestral mastery but more importantly his big-heartedness.

Divertimento has, of course, been core repertoire for the best part of a century and one still marvels at Bartok’s passionate emulation of the concerto grosso form with its expressive textural interplay between tutti and soloistic elements. This is at heart folksy baroque with dramatic undercurrents. Indeed the drama is writ larger than the form might suggest with the furtive middle movement and its darkening colours surely relating to the proximity of World War II. Dausgaard and the strings of the BBC Scottish give a terrifically vital and searching performance. And there is charm and a slightly wicked irony in that cheeky pizzicato passage towards the close of the finale.

The pay-off of the disc – Romanian Folk Dances – does precisely what it says on the tin: this is folk dancing pure and simple (inasmuch as Bartok is ever pure and simple). But along with the charm and brevity there is a wistfulness too. There is always subtext with Bartok.

— Edward Seckerson

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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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