WDR Sinfonieorchester, Cristian Măcelaru
Following their first album for Linn (Dvořák: Legends Op. 59, Czech Suite Op. 39), the WDR Sinfonieorchester and Cristian Măcelaru pursue the same folk vein with two orchestral works by Béla Bartók. Based on a rather childish tale (prince, princess, fairies, and of course a happy ending!), the music of the ballet The Wooden Prince – recorded in full here – has all the ingredients of a masterpiece: masterful scoring for large forces, use of musical themes, an effortless amalgam of folk and late-Romantic elements. Composed in 1923 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the merging of the towns of Buda and Pest – alongside commissions by Ernö Dohnányi and Zoltán Kodály – the century-old Dance Suite is a six-movement work that has become one of Bartók’s best known compositions. Born in Timișoara, a short distance from Hungaria, Măcelaru can boast an unparalleled understanding of Bartók, as evident here.
Măcelaru’s new recording with the WDR Sinfonieorchester, of which he is chief conductor, is vividly appealing and captured in sound of great warmth, even lushness.
[Măcelaru] displays real kinship here with the melodic colour and cast of the music – not least Bartók’s curvaceous lyricism – and marries it so compellingly to the textural elements.
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