Bartók: Orchestral Works Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra & Susanna Mälkki

• Béla Bartók (1881 - 1945): Music for Strings, Percussion & Celesta, Sz. 106:
• 1 Bartók: Music for Strings, Percussion & Celesta, Sz. 106: I. Andante tranquillo 07:47
• 2 Bartók: Music for Strings, Percussion & Celesta, Sz. 106: II. Allegro 07:28
• 3 Bartók: Music for Strings, Percussion & Celesta, Sz. 106: III. Adagio 07:26
• 4 Bartók: Music for Strings, Percussion & Celesta, Sz. 106: IV. Allegro molto 07:05
• Concerto for Orchestra, Sz. 116:
• 5 Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra, Sz. 116: I. Introduzione 09:44
• 6 Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra, Sz. 116: II. Presentando le coppie 06:32
• 7 Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra, Sz. 116: III. Elegia 07:27
• 8 Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra, Sz. 116: IV. Intermezzo interrotto 04:21
• 9 Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra, Sz. 116: V. Finale 09:52
• Total Runtime 01:07:42

Info for Bartók: Orchestral Works

On two highly praised discs, Susanna Mälkki and her players in the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra have released recordings of Béla Bartók’s three scores for the stage – The Miraculous Mandarin, The Wooden Prince and Bluebeard’s Castle, all written before 1918. The team now takes on two of his late orchestral masterpieces. Composed in 1936 for the Basel Chamber Orchestra, Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta is one of the purest examples of Bartók’s mature style, with its synthesis of folk music, classicism and modernism. One immediately striking feature is the unusual instrumentation: two string orchestras seated on opposite sides of the stage, with percussion and keyboard instruments in the middle and towards the back.

In 1940, during the Second World War, Bartók emigrated to the U.S.A., where he initially found it difficult to compose. In 1943 he received a prestigious commission from the Boston Symphony Orchestra, however, and in less than eight weeks he composed the Concerto for Orchestra. In it he worked with contrasts between different sections of the orchestra, and the soloistic treatment of these groupings was his reason for calling the work a concerto rather than a symphony.

Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra
Susanna Mälkki, conductor

No biography found.

Booklet for Bartók: Orchestral Works