Bartok: Duke Bluebeard's Castle

[Guest]

On reading the review on International Record review of the new SACD version conducted by Ivan Fischer, I toddled over to the Amazon website to check out prices etc.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bartok-Bluebeards-Bluebeard-Laszl%C3%B3-Polg%C3%A1r/dp/B004YNRHB4/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1322660056&sr=1-1

There I also discovered this performance apparently emanating from a Proms 2004 concert.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bartok-Worldwide-2004-Proms-Season/dp/B0007YMS2C/ref=sr_1_5?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1322659750&sr=1-5

Does anyone know this performance and if so, what are your views please?

[Mahlerei]

Am51

I think the Fischer is a reissue of a Philips recording made some years back, so it isn't really 'new'. Don't know the disc you've uncovered but would suggest the Haitink/EMI Bluebeard sweeps the board.

[amateur51]

Am51

I think the Fischer is a reissue of a Philips recording made some years back, so it isn't really 'new'. Don't know the disc you've uncovered but would suggest the Haitink/EMI Bluebeard sweeps the board.

Cheers, Mahlerei!

The IRR review of the Fischer mentions that it was originally released about ten years ago by Decca. I have & love the Haitink but the review of the IFischer was sooooo positive that .... you know how it is!

[umslopogaas]

I dont think you can beat the 1966 Decca versiion, with Christa Ludwig and Walter Berry and the LSO conducted by Istvan Kertesz. Its one of the versions recommended by The Rough Guide To Opera (the other two are Haitink and the Berlin Phil, and Fischer and the Hungarian State Orch.).

[Mandryka]

The Kertesz recording is the only one I know: though I love the Kingsway Hall recording and Berry and Ludwig are fine, I can't help wishing some good native Hungarian singers had been available.

Anyone know what the Solti version with Sylvia Sass is like?

[umslopogaas]

Interesting ...

I've got the Solti version on LP, but it doesnt stick in the mind like the Kertesz. However, The 2010 Penguin Guide rates it very highly, three stars and the top recommendation. But I'm confused. My LP was made in Kingsway Hall by Decca in 1979, Producer Christopher Raeburn and Engineer Kenneth Wilkinson, legendary stuff. But what the Penguin Guide is recommending is a DVD made in 1981. Same musicians and orchestra, but it must be a different recording. Whatever, it comes highly recommended.

[Biffo]

I have the Sass/Kovats/Solti/LPO version but only on LP and I haven't heard it for a long time. It is not a work I listen to very often and when I do it is to the Kertesz version on CD. Listening again to the LP, first impressions are that it is a fine recording. Kovats is an impressive Bluebeard but I am not sure I like Sass - a personal reaction I am sure.

After a spot of comparative listening, I can't choose between Solti and Kertesz; I prefer Kovats marginally to Berry but Ludwig greatly to Sass.

[LeMartinPecheur]

Like many others I got to know the work from the Kertesz LP. In 1976 I heard Troyanos, Nimsgern and the BBCSO under Boulez do it at the Proms: still one of my most memorable Proms, even concerts full stop.

There's a good Sony CD, apparently deleted, http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bluebeards-C...2672552&sr=1-2 S/h Marketplace prices are reasonable, though the New price suggests it's something of a collector's piece for others besides me.

[John Skelton]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bluebeards-Castle-Complete-Boulez-Bartok/dp/B0000262GR/ref=sr_1_2?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1322672552&sr=1-2[/url] S/h Marketplace prices are reasonable, though the New price suggests it's something of a collector's piece for others besides me.

It can be had in a box of Boulez's CBS / Sony Bartók recordings http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-lis...&condition=new

There's a UK dispatch market place copy for £13.32 (inc. p and p). (or dodax online costs a little more but is in my experience reliable. Don't know the other seller).

[Mahlerei]

The Sass/Solti was used as the soundtrack for a film of Bluebeard, which is quite well done. Sass certainly looks teh part as the naive Judith, although there are times when the lip-synch goes awry. i agree about the incomparable Kertesz, and Alsop on Naxos isn't bad either.

[Mandryka]

I first heard this work at the RFH, around about October 1998: the BBCSO, with John Tomlinson and Sally Burgess. I forget who conducted, but I can remember being bowled over by the work, not knowing much Bartok at the time. I think it was my first visit to the RFH, too. Saw it again some months later with Haitink and the LPO, with two Hungarian soloists, though I don't remember this occasion so well. Both times, the prologue was spoken by Sandor Eles.

[Petrushka]

I've only ever heard Bluebeard in performance once and that was in the opera house! It was a double-bill with Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex at English National Opera in 1991 with Gwynne Howell and Sally Burgess. Mark Elder was in the pit. Anybody else remember it?

I love the piece and have the Kertesz recording, plus the Solti, Haitink and, my favourite, Dorati. All excellent.

The 2004 Proms performance mentioned by Am51 was also broadcast on TV and memory tells me that, too, was excellent. Let's hope we get the recent Salonen/Philharmonia concert on CD.

[johnb]

Let's hope we get the recent Salonen/Philharmonia concert on CD.

I captured the iPlayer HD stream of that performance and that is the only 'recording' of the piece that I have. After reading this thread I am seriously considering getting the work on CD - but which.

I am hesitant about the Kertesz - purely because I find the Kertesz Dvorak recordings extremely tiring to listen to on my audio system, which is a great pity as I love the performances.

The Haitink doesn't seem to be currently available (though there are used copies on Amazon MP). I'm tempted to try the Fischer as I seem to remember that his Bartok recordings were highly praised, though most are not currently available.

[Colonel Danby]

I grew up with my brother's recording of Antal Dorati's complete set on Philips, 3 LPs:I can't for the life remember what else was on the other sides, but I suppose 'Mandarin' and perhaps 'The Wooden Prince'. But I got Haitink's EMI issue of 'Bluebeard' on CD, with big John Tom and Anne Sophie von Otter, and for me this sweeps the board. I'm surprised that this is not currently available...

[gurnemanz]

I did not know the work at all before seeing at the ROH in 2006 with Erwartung - bowled over. I don't have a recording so I'm following this thread with some curiosity.

http://www.musicomh.com/opera/roh-bluebeard_0506.htm