New England Conservatory alumni Tessa Lark and Yannick Rafalimanana perform Bela Bartok’s Romanian Folk Dances. Recorded December 5, 2013 in NEC’s Jordan Hall. ABOUT NEW ENGLAND CONSERVATORY A cultural icon that will mark its 150th anniversary in 2017, New England Conservatory (NEC) is recognized worldwide as a leader among music schools.
Bartók-Serly: Mikrokosmos Suite Bartók: Dance Suite Bartók: The Miraculous Mandarin, Suite
New Symphony Orchestra of London Tibor Serly and Franco Autori, conductors
Béla Bartók heard his complete work, The Miraculous Mandarin; a pantomime with music, performed only once in his life. With one exception, all further public performances were banned on account of the stage action (a woman and a man embrace each other). The concert suite, prepared by the composer, contains somewhat over half of the complete score. The Dance Suite was Béla Bartók’s contribution to a festive concert celebrating the 50th anniversary of the unification of Pest, Buda and Óbuda into one city, Budapest, in 1923. Tibor Serly created the Mikrokosmos Suite using seven pieces from the piano series of the same title and one folk song Bartók had earlier set to piano. On this record he conducts this work as well as The Miraculous Mandarin Suite, Franco Autori conducts the Dance Suite.
BR #1301
Bartók: The Wooden Prince New Symphony Orchestra of London, Walter Susskind, conductor
Music of the complete ballet to the libretto of Béla Balázs, with English translation of the complete libretto and notes.
BR #1308
Bartók: Cantata Profana Richard Lewis, tenor; Marko Rothmüller, baritone; The New Symphony Orchestra of London and chorus; Walter Susskind, conductor
Bartók: Four Slovak Folk Songs and eight songs from “27 Choruses’’
The Concert Choir, Margaret Hillis, conductor
Bartók: Viola Concerto
William Primrose viola; The New Symphony Orchestra of London, Tibor Serly, conductor
Béla Bartók’s Cantata Profana, based on a Roumanian ballad about the enchantment of nine boys taught nothing but to hunt for stags. Consequently they turn into stags themselves, never to return to man’s imperfect world. Both the Slovak folk songs arranged for chorus, as well as the eight choruses include references deploring idle existence. The latter group are originally written by Bartók. The Viola Concerto, left in the form of first sketches when the composer died, is recorded here by the artist for whom the concerto was written; the orchestra is conducted by Tibor Serly, the composer’s friend, who did the first realization of the work from the sketches.
BR #1309
Bartók: Bluebeard’s Castle Judith Hellwig, soprano; Endre Koreh, bass, The New Symphony Orchestra of London, Walter Susskind, conductor
Opera in one act to the libretto of Béla Balázs, with English translation of the complete libretto and notes.
BR #1310
Bartók: String Quartet No. 3 Alban Berg: String Quartet, Opus 3 Alfredo Casella: 5 Pieces for String Quartet Igor Stravinsky: 3 Pieces for String Quartet
The New Music String Quartet
The Bartók and Stravinsky were the first LP record made by this fine quartet, and produced on this label. Recording was done under primitive conditions in a New York apartment, recorded originally on 16 inch discs. The Berg and Casella were recorded on tape in a school building in Peterborough, New Hampshire, while the school was closed for the summer, under superior acoustic conditions.
BR #1906
Beethoven: String Quartets, Opus 14, No. 1 and Opus 59, No. 3 The New Music String Quartet
The Opus 14, No. 1 is better known as a piano sonata and is not even regarded as one of Beethoven’s quartets. He made the arrangement, partly to show that only the composer himself could tackle such a task, as so much needed to be altered for the new medium. Beethoven started to use the newly invented device called “metronome” in specifying tempi for his works. His tempo for the last movement of the Opus 59, No. 3 has been consistently suspected to be erroneous and is nearly always played much slower. Here the New Music Quartet performs the work at the directed tempo, just in case Beethoven did not make a mistake.
BR #1909
Liszt: Variations on the Prelude by J. S. Bach, “Weinen, Klagen…” Liszt: Weihnachtsbaum, excerpts Bartók: Three Rondos; Sonatina; 8 pieces from For Children
Ilona Kabos, piano
All these works were recorded in New York’s Town Hall and the Liszt pieces were criticised when first released (mid 1950’s) as “the best piano record I have heard, bar none” (Edward Tatnall Canby, Saturday Review).