The Wooden Prince and The Miraculous Mandarin are - together with the earlier opera Bluebeard's Castle - the only stage works by Béla Bartók. They stand apart from the more abstract and often more explicitly folk-related character of the music that we primarily associate with the composer. They are nevertheless major achievements that in different ways highlight Bartók's imaginative use of the modern orchestra. Set in an enchanted forest, The Wooden Prince is based on a fairytale-like libretto featuring a prince and princess. The two are subjected to various trials, but at the end of the ballet they are allowed to come together and live - we assume - happily ever after. In stark contrast, The Miraculous Mandarin takes place in an urban brothel where three robbers force a girl to seduce men so that they can overpower and kill them. The subject-matter and the erotic qualities of much of the music caused a scandal at the première in 1926, and for a long time the score was primarily performed in the shorter concert version heard on the present release, the first from the team of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and Susanna Mälkki, the orchestra's chief conductor since 2016.
1 A FÁBÓL Faragott Királyfi (The Wooden Prince), Op. 13, BB 74
2 Opening - - 04:40
3 First Dance: Dance of the Princess in the Forest - - 02:20
4 The Prince Falls in Love - - 02:09
5 Towards the Castle of the Princess - Second Dance: Dance of the Trees - - 04:52
6 The Prince Continues on His Way - Third Dance: Dance of the Waves - - 04:00
7 The Prince Has An Idea - - 04:39
8 The Princess Is Curious - Fourth Dance: Dance of the Princess with the Wooden Prince - - 07:56
9 The Prince Despairs - - 05:51
10 The Prince Is Restored - - 03:45
11 Return of the Princess - Fifth Dance: The Princess Prods and Encourages the Wooden Prince to Dance - - 03:03
12 Collapse of the Wooden Prince - Sixth Dance: With An Alluring Dance, the Princess Tries to Appeal to the Prince - - 01:41
13 Seventh Dance: The Despair of the Princess - - 04:50
14 The Happy End - 04:02
15 A Csodálatos Mandarin (The Miraculous Mandarin Suite), Op. 19, BB 82 (Concert Version)
16 Introduction - the Three Tramps and the Girl - 02:38
17 First Decoy Game: The Old Rake - 03:42
18 Second Decoy Game: The Young Boy - 03:09
19 Third Decoy Game: The Mandarin Appears - 02:26
20 The Girl Begins to Dance for the Mandarin - 04:10
21 The Mandarin Chases the Girl - 02:21
The Wooden Prince and The Miraculous Mandarin are - together with the earlier opera Bluebeard's Castle - the only stage works by Béla Bartók. They stand apart from the more abstract and often more explicitly folk-related character of the music that we primarily associate with the composer. They are nevertheless major achievements that in different ways highlight Bartók's imaginative use of the modern orchestra. Set in an enchanted forest, The Wooden Prince is based on a fairytale-like libretto featuring a prince and princess. The two are subjected to various trials, but at the end of the ballet they are allowed to come together and live - we assume - happily ever after. In stark contrast, The Miraculous Mandarin takes place in an urban brothel where three robbers force a girl to seduce men so that they can overpower and kill them. The subject-matter and the erotic qualities of much of the music caused a scandal at the première in 1926, and for a long time the score was primarily performed in the shorter concert version heard on the present release, the first from the team of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and Susanna Mälkki, the orchestra's chief conductor since 2016.
