BARTOK – THE WOODEN PRINCE       NAXOS  8.570534

Béla Bartók’s one act pantomime ballet, The Wooden Prince, was composed in 1914-1916 (orchestrated 1916-1917) to a scenario by Béla Balázs and was first performed at the Budapest Opera in 1917. Although never been as popular as Bartók's other ballet, The Miraculous Mandarin (1926), The Wooden Prince was enough of a success to prompt the Opera House to stage his opera, Bluebeard’s Castle the following year. For two years Bartok had almost given up composition, devoting himself to the collection, arrangement and study of folk music until the First World War put an end to his expeditions. He returned to creative activity with his String Quartet No.2 and this fairytale ballet, the success of which restored him to public favour. The Wooden Prince is a captivating tale of magic, princes and princesses. A Prince falls in love on with a Princess, who alas is impervious to his attentions. A fairy puts various obstacles in his path to stop him from contacting his beloved, so to attract her attention the prince hangs his cloak on a staff, fixing a crown and locks of his hair to it. The Princess dances with her ‘wooden prince’ and, eventually, they become a couple and live happily ever after. Though outwardly sunny in its subject matter, The Wooden Prince has a mystical side that may explain Bartók’s attraction to the story. The ballet’s opening pages have often been compared to the opening of Wagner’s Das Rheingold, and the majestic heart of the score lies in the glorious music Bartók wrote to accompany the prince’s apotheosis. The composition calls for a large orchestra (including saxophones) and shows the influence of Debussy and Richard Strauss, as well as Wagner. On this recording the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra is directed by the acclaimed American conductor, Marin Alsop.

STRAVINSKY CONDUCTS HIS OWN WORKS     MUSIC & ARTS CD-1184

The Russian-born Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky composed in primitivist, neo-classical and serialist styles, but is best known for two works from his earlier, Russian period: Le sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring) and L’Oiseau de feu (The Firebird) - daring and innovative ballets that reinvented the genre. Stravinsky wrote in a wide range of ensembles and classical forms, from symphonies to piano miniatures. He also achieved fame as a pianist and conductor, often at premieres of his own works. He began conducting during his French years, when he was no longer the celebrated composer of major Diaghilev ballets and needed to make money. But as important as earning a living (or perhaps even more so) was the degree of control over his music that conducting gave him. Other conductors’ interpretations often left him dissatisfied, and the scores available for performances were often full of errors or contained insufficient instructions to the performer. Stravinsky wanted, on the one hand, to correct or even revise the scores during performance, and on the other hand to execute those musical choices and ideas which could not be notated. Beginning in the late 1920s, Stravinsky also started to record his major works. This double CD collection includes six of his Neo-Classical masterpieces in superb West German interpretations, four of them previously unissued in any format. They include Oedipus Rex (with Peter Pears, Martha Mödl and Heinz Rehfuss), Symphonies of Winds Capriccio (with Maria Bergmann), Jeu de Cartes, Symphony in 3 Movements and Apollon Musagète Ballet en deux tableaux pour orchestre à cordes. Performers also include the Cologne Radio Orchestra and the SO des SWF, Baden-Baden. These valuable and intriguing recordings from the 1950s have been expertly restored and make essential listening for anyone interested in twentieth century music.

COPLAND/HINDEMITH - ATLANTA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA     TELARC

Martha Graham asked Aaron Copland to compose a ballet based on her scenario. The resulting work was originally called ‘Ballet for Martha’ until Graham suggested the title from a phrase in a poem by Hart Crane, although it had nothing to do with the scenario of the ballet. Of all Copland’s important ballet scores Appalachian Spring makes least use of folk tunes, but  the Shaker hymn ‘Simple Gifts’ inspires a series of marvelous variations at the end of the ballet. Louis Lane and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s interpretation of Appalachian Spring together with Copland’s Rodeo and Fanfare for the Common Man have long been acclaimed for their stunning clarity and this reissue in remastered DSD captures all the energy and optimism of the original recordings. Paul Hindemith’s Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber is based on sketches the composer made for a ballet by the choreographer Léonide Massine, inspired by Brueghel paintings. Hindemith was never paid for his work and the ballet was never performed, although eventually the music was used in a ballet, staged by the New York City Ballet in 1952 with choreography by George Balanchine. This witty and dynamic piece is engagingly played here by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Robert Shaw.

STRAVINSKY/NIELSEN - RITE OF SPRING/SYMPHONY NO. 5     TELARC

Few musical work can have had such a powerful influence or evoked as much controversy as Igor Stravinsky’s ballet score, The Rite of Spring. The work’s premiere in 1913 at the Théatre des Champs-Elysées in Paris caused a great scandal as the music’s pulsating, jagged chords vied for attention with the extravagant costumes, unfamiliar choreography and a grotesque story of pagan sacrifice. Stravinsky's revolutionary masterpiece has had tremendous impact on music ever since. Carl Nielsen’s underrated Fifth Symphony was premiered some twelve years later and like many of the composer’s works it explores the boundary between Romanticism and Modernism. Estonian-born Paavo Järvi is the acclaimed Music Director of Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and together on this imaginatively-programmed SACD they brilliantly reveal the connections between these apparently unrelated compositions. ‘Paavo Järvi is putting the Cincinnati Symphony on the map’ - Gramophone.