20th-Century Portraits: Falla, Bartók & Stravinsky

Maazel secures astonishing orchestral brilliance and panache, but with a dislikeable, hard-edged relentlessness. Bartok's rarely heard Two Pictures emerge best. — BBC Music Magazine, February 2015, 3 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 28th Jul 2014
Catalogue No: ELQ4808477
Label: Eloquence

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Falla: El Amor Brujo

Grace Bumbry (mezzo-soprano)
Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra
Lorin Maazel

Falla: Danza del Corregidor (from El Sombrero de tres picos)

Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra
Lorin Maazel

Stravinsky: The Firebird Suite

Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra
Lorin Maazel

Stravinsky: Le Chant du Rossignol

1919 version
Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra
Lorin Maazel

Bartók: Two Pictures, (Op.10) Sz. 46

First International Release on CD
Berliner Philharmoniker
Lorin Maazel

Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra, BB 123, Sz.116

First International Release on CD
Berliner Philharmoniker
Lorin Maazel

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Some of Lorin Maazel’s first recordings were made for Deutsche Grammophon and he was merely 27 and this collection presents vivid performances of three great 20th-century ballet scores, all infused with the folk rhythms of their respective composers’ native lands – Falla’s Andalusia and Stravinsky’s Russia. Both composers also exploited the most sophisticated orchestral textures available to the late Romantics, creating virtuoso showpieces of kaleidoscopic variety. They are interpreted here by the young Maazel and his Berlin radio orchestra, in recordings whose orchestral splendor astounds the ear today just as the original releases dazzled critics and the public decades ago. ‘To achieve this level of fluency – to say nothing of the sheer élan and idiomatic awareness in the Berlin orchestra’s playing – Maazel clearly rehearsed the music with astonishing vigour and conducted it inspiringly. Even to our ears now, the way he confronts us with the pounding force of Stravinsky’s ostinatos is invigorating,’ writes Richard Morrison. Completing his survey of music from the early part of the 20th century, recorded for DG with orchestras from Berlin, are recordings of music by Bartók made in 1979 and released internationally on CD for the first time.

Reviews

February 2015

Maazel secures astonishing orchestral brilliance and panache, but with a dislikeable, hard-edged relentlessness. Bartok's rarely heard Two Pictures emerge best.

plenty of atmosphere and good perspective. Detail is well defined and there is a wide frequency response … As a recording the work has never been better served […] a Bartók performance which has warmth as well as bite … the DG sound for the whole record is as full and brilliant as one could want

20th-Century Portraits: Falla, Bartók & Stravinsky

2 CDs

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