Bartok: Bluebeard's Castle Orchestral & Concertos LSO Live

Bartok: Bluebeard's Castle

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LS 0685

Bartok: Bluebeard's Castle

Label Catalogue Number:
LSO0685

Running Time: 58:46

Release Date: September 2009
Originally recorded in 2009

Composer
Béla Bartók

Solo mezzo-soprano
Elena Zhidkova

Solo bass baritone
Willard White

Orchestra
London Symphony Orchestra

Conductor
Valery Gergiev

Producer
James Mallinson

Venue
Barbican Centre, London

Genre:
Orchestral & Concertos

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BÉLA BARTÓK

Bluebeard's Castle

(1911, rev 1912, 1918 and 1921)

Prologue and introduction

15:22

First Door: Bluebeard's Torture Chamber

4:19

Second Door: The Armoury

4:16

Third Door: The Treasury

2:14

Fourth Door: The Garden

4:31

Fifth Door: Bluebeard's Vast and Beautiful Kingdom

6:05

Sixth Door: The Lake of Tears

13:30

Seventh Door: Bluebeard's Wives

8:29

TT:: 58:53

Solo: Elena Zhidkova mezzo-soprano

Solo: Willard White bass baritone

Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra

Conductor: Valery Gergiev

27 & 29 January 2009 (recorded live)

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Reviews

I had not heard Gergiev apply his magic to Bartok before, and the results are stunning. Everything is perfection" "The SIngers are superbly directed; both supply rich, potent voices that produce highly dramatic portrayals without ever sacrificing beauty of tone. White is one of the outstanding bass-baritones of this era, and he has never demonstrated it more vividly, unleashing huge waves of perfectly controlled tone. I am less familiar with Zhidkova; her shining mezzo illuminates the performance. They invest their roles with sympathetic personalities; seldom have Bluebeard and his Judith seemed so believable, so real."

"The recorded sound is amazingly sucessful in balancing voices and orchestra; neither is ever slighted, and there are many moments where details of the accompaniment are clarified as never before."

James H North

Fanfare - January/February 2010

All the restless qualities of the underlying and shadowy string themes are sketched in an appropriately unsettling way. Vitally for this score, the woodwind figures add their eerie colours and decorative dissonance to great effect, the clarinet making a particularly telling contribution – wonderful playing Orchestral textures are remarkably clear and Bartók’s highly individual percussive effects make their full impact. Gergiev is most considerate to his singers, even at the most grandiose and loud moments.

ClassicalSource.com

Gergiev’s Bluebeard passes beyond shattering into a realm even more deeply disturbing"
Disc of the Month

Opera Magazine

“Bartok’s only opera is a dark and intense work, involving only two characters. Bluebeard’s young bride persuades him to open seven doors in his castle in order to let light into the grim interior. Behind each she finds increasingly disturbing sights, until behind the final door she discovers Bluebeard’s former wives and learns her fate.”
*** Opera Choice of the Month ***

BBC Music Magazine

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