Bartok Miraculous Mandarin/Dorati

[richardfinegold]

I am working my way through the second Mercury Living Presence Box and just listened to Dorati's version of Mandarin recorded with the BBC orchestra. I had learned this piece via Dorati's later recording with the Detroit Symphony. I was living in Detroit at the time and that early digital recording was well received critically and really knocked my socks off. I would still say the Detroit recording is better than the somewhat more polite
Mercury version, but the Mercury is well recorded and those allergic to the sounds of early digital may prefer it.

[jayne lee wilson]

Dorati's mono CSO recording of the MM Suite was pretty stunning too; my favourite complete Mandarins are Rattle/CBSO (astounding on Toshiba/EMI, c/w Concerto for Orchestra) and Peter Eotvos/Junge Deutsche Philharmonie on Budapest MCR, again c/w the Concerto. See Rob Cowan's G. reviews in 1/95 and 9/2002. His excellent Collection survey of the ballet is in G. for 12/95.

[Ferretfancy]

Apparently Dorati's fondness for this work lead to the BBC SO calling him ITMA -"It's that Mandarin again! "

His Mercury recording of The Wooden Prince is the best I've heard.

[richardfinegold]

Apparently Dorati's fondness for this work lead to the BBC SO calling him ITMA -"It's that Mandarin again! "

His Mercury recording of The Wooden Prince is the best I've heard.

Yes, that was the previous disc in the Mercury Collection. My only other comparison is a Boulez recording, which left me quite cold. Dorati humanizes the piece,
and it sounds more like an extension of the 19th Century Romantic Tradition with some modernistic touches. I will be replaying the Prince frequently.

[amateur51]

Apparently Dorati's fondness for this work lead to the BBC SO calling him ITMA -"It's that Mandarin again! "

[Petrushka]

It is indeed a great recording. I have similar thoughts as RF regarding Dorati's LSO Firebird. Many have come and gone since but that 1960 recording of the Firebird is still sensational and remains my first choice.

[Stanley Stewart]

Worth tracing, too, is Antal Dorati's autobiography, Notes of Seven Decades, (Hodder & Stoughton, 1979).

He spent his childhood in the idyllic sunshine of Budapest before WW1. His family background was musical and he attended the Franz Liszt Academy for Music in Budapest as a very young pupil; he found the battle between the traditionalists and the new "nationalists" in full swing. Zoltan Kodaly was among his teachers, and Bartok, his hero, in later years, had his room across the corridor. Many anecdotes from Richard Strauss to Stravinsky, Thomas Beecham to Furtwangler and, of course, his great achievement in recording a complete set of Haydn's symphonies.

[jayne lee wilson]

Apparently Dorati's fondness for this work lead to the BBC SO calling him ITMA -"It's that Mandarin again! "

His Mercury recording of The Wooden Prince is the best I've heard.

A worthy successor to the classic Dorati is Zoltan Kocsis/Hungarian NPO on Hungaraton. All the local colour&humour, folk-inflected richness and drama is there, excellent sound too (SACD hybrid, if that's your thing). G.ref is 6/2007.

[Barbirollians]

My introduction to Stravinsky was the The Rite and Petrushka coupled on a Decca Ovation cassette with Dorati in Detroit - a record that has given me a lifelong love of the music.

[richardfinegold]

My introduction to Stravinsky was the The Rite and Petrushka coupled on a Decca Ovation cassette with Dorati in Detroit - a record that has given me a lifelong love of the music.

His tenure in Detroit was a happy one. I was in Medical School in Detroit when he was hired and there was tremendous excitement about the Orchestra. While the DSO had been led by capable Conductors for the previous two decades, many felt the Orchestra was in a long state of slow decline since the days of Paul Paray. Dorati brought both a Decca recording contract and tremendous enthusiasm. There were many open rehearsals and I attended a few and as a non Musician, I found them both entertaining and instructful.
Many were hoping that if the Symphony could revive, then perhaps the economic fortunes of the city would follow. Clearly that did not happen--wouldn't it be wonderful if Music had such power?--but it was an exciting hopeful time that did result in a lot of exciting performances and recordings.