Bartók: The Wooden Prince

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…a fine, colourful and insightful account. — BBC Music Magazine, April 2008 More…

Release Date: 3rd Mar 2008
Catalogue No: 8570534
Label: Naxos
Length: 53 minutes

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Bartók: A fabol faragott kiralyfi (The Wooden Prince), Op. 13, BB 74

Work length53:30

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Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
Marin Alsop
Recorded: 9-10 May 2007
Recording Venue: The Concert Hall, Lighthouse, Poole, UK

Opening

Track length4:17

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First Dance: Dance of the Princess in the Forest

Track length2:46

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The Prince Meets the Fairy and Sees the Princess

Track length2:24

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Second Dance: Dance of the Trees

Track length5:07

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The Fairy Enchants the Stream - Third Dance: Dance of the Waves

Track length4:10

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The Prince Builds a Wooden Prince

Track length4:29

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The Princess Spies the Wooden Prince

Track length2:22

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Fourth Dance: Dance of the Princess with the Wooden Prince

Track length5:43

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The Prince is in Despair - The Fairy Comforts Him

Track length5:17

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Great Apotheosis

Track length3:25

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Fifth Dance: The Princess Prods and Encourages the Wooden Prince to Dance

Track length2:56

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Sixth Dance: With an Alluring Dance, the Princess Tries to Appeal to the Prince

Track length1:39

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Seventh Dance: Alarmed, the Princess Hurries After the Prince, but the Forest Keeps Her Back

Track length4:59

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The Prince and Princess Embrace - Long Kiss - Slow Curtain

Track length3:56

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Though outwardly sunny in its subject matter, The Wooden Prince has a mystical side that may explain Bartók’s attraction to the story.

Reviews

April 2008

…a fine, colourful and insightful account.

2010

Bartók's tonally effulgent second stage work suits the warm, texture-sensitive conducting style of Marin Alsop, who coaxes some stylish solos from her accomplished Bournemouth players. Three minutes into the teasing 'Dance of the Princess and the Wooden Prince' and you'll hear nicely pointed woodwinds set within an ambient, realistically balanced sound frame.
The solo clarinet in the 'Dance of the Princess in the Forest' is also very characterful: Alsop's feel for the ballet's romantic narrative – basically about love overcoming a series of obstacles – is at its most productive where the line is slow and expressive, for example the 'The Prince in Despair' and the final embrace, both of which have an almost filmic quality to them. Another good sampling-point, more an illustration of the score's humour this time, is the droll bassoon solo at the start of the fifth dance where the Princess 'prods and encourages the Wooden Prince to dance'.
Alsop's most recent rival is Zoltán Kocsis with the Hungarian National Philharmonic (see above), an unforgettable performance and a distinguished production that tops all rivals in at least two specific episodes: 'The Fairy Enchanting the stream' and the tangy dance where 'The Princess Spies the Wooden Prince', the score's most Hungarian-sounding music. Here the Bournemouth performance is rather low on energy and 'bite', at least initially. But then you'd expect a Hungarian band to latch onto the national element.
All in all, Alsop and her orchestra do justice to Bartók's most overtly romantic large-scale score; it's a performance that will surely appeal beyond the ranks of Bartók devotees to balletomanes generally, not to mention lovers of finde siècle musical excess. Good notes too, by Carl Leafstedt.

May 2008

Alsop and her orchestra do justice to Bartók's most overtly romantic large-scale score; it's a performance that will surely appeal beyond the ranks of Bartók devotees to balletomanes generally.

Bartók: The Wooden Prince

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