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Masterpiece Theatre: Part Six - Bartók's The Miraculous Mandarin
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Bartók composed the complete Miraculous Mandarin ballet in 1918 - 1919, orchestrated it in 1923, and called the first six sections as a suite in 1927. Ernö Dohnányi conducted this suite in Budapest on October 15, 1928. Incorporating both a grim modernist outlook and the folk influences that would come to the fore later in Bartók's is scored for large orchestra including triple winds, four percussionists, celesta, and piano. Designated a pantomime, it is of an unusual length for a stage presentation -- a long single act. But longer would have diluted both the visceral music and enthralling eroticism. Consider the plot:
Three ruffians hire brothel space and a girl, who stands in the window as bait; those who venture inside are robbed. The first to enter is an old, shabbily dressed cavalier; he is ejected when they discover him penniless. An impoverished young man is likewise thrown out. Then an apparition appears. In the score we read that "the Mandarin enters and remains motionless in the doorway; the girl flees terrified to the far part of the room. Urged by the [hidden] ruffians, she overcomes repugnance and begins to dance hesitantly, then faster. The Mandarin looks at her with a fixed, impassive stare. But when she sinks down to embrace him, he begins to tremble in feverish excitement. She shudders at his embrace and tries to tear herself from him. Briefly free, she runs but is stalked and finally caught. They struggle. The ruffians leap out...."
Here the suite ends (merely a section of the whole ballet, it is not a true suite). But the ballet proceeds: "The ruffians seize the Mandarin and strip him of his jewelry and money. They drag him to a bed and try to smother him with pillows and blankets. Then they stab him three times with a rusty sword. He staggers, but still tries to embrace the girl. They drag him to the center of the room and hang him from an overhead lamp-hook; it falls, and in the darkness the Mandarin's body begins to glow with a greenish light. At last the girl realizes what will save them. She embraces the Mandarin. His longing now stilled, his wounds begin to bleed, he weakens, and dies after a short struggle."
Bartók said, during a 1929 interview in London, that "people had [only] read the plot and decided it was objectionable. [The piece was not performed in Hungary until 1946.] From beginning to end the speed is almost breathless, and the effect accordingly is quite different from what had been imagined. The Mandarin is very much like an eastern fairy tale and contains nothing to which objection can be taken." (It wasn't reported whether his nose then grew six inches.)
A vertiginous first section depicts the city's streets and the girl's instructions. Each of her "decoy games" (so called in the score) is lured inside with clarinet arpeggios and ejected clamorously. A lewd trombone glissando characterizes the old man; a solo oboe the young man. The clarinet's third lure is more shrill, accompanied by a long orchestral tremor, interrupted by trombones, that ends in a shriek when the Mandarin stands in the doorway. After a sudden hush, he begins a slow waltz that accelerates until the orchestra shudders convulsively at his embrace of the girl.
She frees herself to whooping, pounding chords. A scurrying, Middle Eastern subject in the low strings gets hotly pursued by violins -- a fugue of scarifying intensity, twice interrupted when the Mandarin stumbles before he finally clutches the girl. This signals the ruffians' attack, and the crashing, crushing end of the concert suite.
[Article taken from All Music Guide]
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One of my absolute favorite pieces of music of all-time. The Miraculous Mandarin is eerie, erotic and, at times, downright frightening, but, most importantly, it's a joy to hear. I often find myself grinning from ear-to-ear whenever I'm listening to it and this because it's such a ridiculous work (and I mean this is the best possible sense --- nothing negative). The plot makes zero sense to me, but, musically, it's all over the place.
What do you guys think of the work? Any favorite recordings? I suppose if I had to pick one recording, it would be Dohnányi's account on Decca with the Wiener Philharmoniker. I also adore Boulez's account with the New York Philharmonic on Columbia (Sony).
I like what Esa-Pekka Salonen had to say about it:
Bartók composed the complete Miraculous Mandarin ballet in 1918 - 1919, orchestrated it in 1923, and called the first six sections as a suite in 1927. Ernö Dohnányi conducted this suite in Budapest on October 15, 1928. Incorporating both a grim modernist outlook and the folk influences that would come to the fore later in Bartók's is scored for large orchestra including triple winds, four percussionists, celesta, and piano. Designated a pantomime, it is of an unusual length for a stage presentation -- a long single act. But longer would have diluted both the visceral music and enthralling eroticism. Consider the plot:
Three ruffians hire brothel space and a girl, who stands in the window as bait; those who venture inside are robbed. The first to enter is an old, shabbily dressed cavalier; he is ejected when they discover him penniless. An impoverished young man is likewise thrown out. Then an apparition appears. In the score we read that "the Mandarin enters and remains motionless in the doorway; the girl flees terrified to the far part of the room. Urged by the [hidden] ruffians, she overcomes repugnance and begins to dance hesitantly, then faster. The Mandarin looks at her with a fixed, impassive stare. But when she sinks down to embrace him, he begins to tremble in feverish excitement. She shudders at his embrace and tries to tear herself from him. Briefly free, she runs but is stalked and finally caught. They struggle. The ruffians leap out...."
Here the suite ends (merely a section of the whole ballet, it is not a true suite). But the ballet proceeds: "The ruffians seize the Mandarin and strip him of his jewelry and money. They drag him to a bed and try to smother him with pillows and blankets. Then they stab him three times with a rusty sword. He staggers, but still tries to embrace the girl. They drag him to the center of the room and hang him from an overhead lamp-hook; it falls, and in the darkness the Mandarin's body begins to glow with a greenish light. At last the girl realizes what will save them. She embraces the Mandarin. His longing now stilled, his wounds begin to bleed, he weakens, and dies after a short struggle."
Bartók said, during a 1929 interview in London, that "people had [only] read the plot and decided it was objectionable. [The piece was not performed in Hungary until 1946.] From beginning to end the speed is almost breathless, and the effect accordingly is quite different from what had been imagined. The Mandarin is very much like an eastern fairy tale and contains nothing to which objection can be taken." (It wasn't reported whether his nose then grew six inches.)
A vertiginous first section depicts the city's streets and the girl's instructions. Each of her "decoy games" (so called in the score) is lured inside with clarinet arpeggios and ejected clamorously. A lewd trombone glissando characterizes the old man; a solo oboe the young man. The clarinet's third lure is more shrill, accompanied by a long orchestral tremor, interrupted by trombones, that ends in a shriek when the Mandarin stands in the doorway. After a sudden hush, he begins a slow waltz that accelerates until the orchestra shudders convulsively at his embrace of the girl.
She frees herself to whooping, pounding chords. A scurrying, Middle Eastern subject in the low strings gets hotly pursued by violins -- a fugue of scarifying intensity, twice interrupted when the Mandarin stumbles before he finally clutches the girl. This signals the ruffians' attack, and the crashing, crushing end of the concert suite.
[Article taken from All Music Guide]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
One of my absolute favorite pieces of music of all-time. The Miraculous Mandarin is eerie, erotic and, at times, downright frightening, but, most importantly, it's a joy to hear. I often find myself grinning from ear-to-ear whenever I'm listening to it and this because it's such a ridiculous work (and I mean this is the best possible sense --- nothing negative). The plot makes zero sense to me, but, musically, it's all over the place.
What do you guys think of the work? Any favorite recordings? I suppose if I had to pick one recording, it would be Dohnányi's account on Decca with the Wiener Philharmoniker. I also adore Boulez's account with the New York Philharmonic on Columbia (Sony).
I like what Esa-Pekka Salonen had to say about it:
