Prague “Dishevelled” with the Czech Phil
I have never seen a more dishevelled conductor than our conductor tonight directing the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. The Czech Phil is a VERY smart orchestra with tails, white tie and dress shirts etc but our conductor tonightl was wrapped around by a crumpled lounge suit and floppy trousers. It looked as though his coloured shirt and tie had been picked up from an ‘op shop on the way to the concert. His eccentric grey hair was all over the place but his smile made up for it all.
He conducted two musically gigantic pieces tonight in this week’s concert. First we had the Martinu Double Concerto for two string orchestras, piano and timpani. I can’t get hold of any examples to illustrate how marvellous a piece this is but these short examples might help. It’s a great work. I expected the ‘two orchestras’ to be half the normal size but the Czech Phil turned out an enormous number of string players so they really were two separate full-size string orchestras
The warm-up music in the second half was a very pleasant piece by Dvorak played excellently of course by the Czech Philharmonic. Here’s a little bit of it …
http://www.instantencore.com/concert/playlist.aspx?PId=5038863
Then we heard the Bartok Concerto for Orchestra.
There’s heaps of stuff written about Bartok and folk music but the Concerto for Orchestra uses only the “rhythmic and melodic contours of folk music”. Bartok spent much of his time collecting folk melodies and using them in his music. He was even criticised for doing so. His answer was to say that Moliere and Shakespeare based a lot of their work on existing stories and much of Bach’s material is derived from other sources. “He completely absorbed the idiom of peasant music which then become his musical mother tongue.” These influences and uses of folk music are most easily enjoyed in his six volumes of teaching compositions entitled ‘Mikrokosmos’. He composed some of the greatest works of the twentieth century but I’ll put his six string quartets up as the works that continually amaze me. I’ve also enjoyed playing such pieces as his ‘Dances in Bulgarian Rhythm’ especially the ‘2 3 | 2 3 | 2 3 |1 1|’ and the ‘ 3 3 2 | 3 3 2 | 3 3 2 | …’ It must have been exciting collecting those!
Before listening to the illustrations below, it’s interesting to hear the history of another piece by Bartok called ‘Contrasts’ which uses folk melodies throughout. Joseph Szigeti had written to Bartok asking for a short piece but it was Benny Goodman who eventually commisioned a longer piece for clarinet, violin and piano which he and Szigeti played together with Bartok himself when he arrived later in New York. It’s interesting to note that Bartok was not particularly ‘famous’ at this time – certainly he had not yet been recognised as one of the greatest composers of the twentieth century. The Benny Goodman, Joseph Szigeti, Bartok recording is directly below before the illustrations of the Concerto for Orchestra, commisioned by Serge Koussevitzky during a time when Bartok’s leukemia was developing. Bartok also did some work on folk music at Columbia university during his time in New York. He never accepted financial help from friends but he did accept commisions including the Concerto for Orchestra.
Bartók “Contrasts” – Bartók/Szigeti/Goodman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZYSKKADagI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXceJjKDA1Q&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhhErDZKOBo&feature=related
Another nice recording ..
Bartók: Contrasts for Clarinet, Violin & Piano
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2niZ2hDl14
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6Nhw1YQRrQ&feature=related
Bartok Concerto for Orchestra(BRSO, Maazel)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu7JCtKd9mM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y64R3p-kBww
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExOwpYqXKLc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp-eeZ-l_Rs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZj8o-NHgfM
Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra (BRSO, Maazel as above) PLAYS ALL THROUGH
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=AFC92BB40D1E5E66&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&v=eu7JCtKd9mM
Bartók Concerto for Orchestra LA Phil Zubin Mehta
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9bIoYvdMtE&feature=PlayList&p=3F38760B1DBF8018&index=0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDqWnTLQiIc&feature=PlayList&p=3F38760B1DBF8018&index=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27kgmoldh9E&feature=PlayList&p=3F38760B1DBF8018&index=2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fq9nOP8WQug&feature=PlayList&p=3F38760B1DBF8018&index=3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTMP220xhI0&feature=PlayList&p=3F38760B1DBF8018&index=4
Bartok : Concerto for Orchestra Czech Phil Karel Ancerl
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhpzByL5F1g&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrK2hq-WGNM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tytnRyyNrQM&feature=related
Paul Rissmann discusses Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1lxqcG5ZeY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZV1gfDCjSFU&NR=1
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hd744RSVAb0
Keith of Ninewells 