DESCRIPTION:
- Composer: Béla Viktor János Bartók (25 March 1881 -- 26 September 1945)
- Orchestra: New York Philharmonic
- Conductor: Pierre Boulez
- Year of recording: 1971

The Miraculous Mandarin, pantomime in 1 act, Sz. 73, BB 82 (Op. 19), written in 1918-1919.

00:00 - 01. Opening – The girl and three tramps
03:07 - 02. First seduction game: the shabby old rake
06:52 - 03. Second seduction game: the young student
09:55 - 04. Third seduction game
11:37 - 05. The Mandarin enters and remains immobile in the doorway
14:01 - 06. The girl begins a hesitant dance…
19:54 - 07. The Mandarin stumbles – the chase becomes even more passionate
20:36 - 08. The three tramps leap out, seize the Mandarin and tear him away from the girl
22:42 - 09. Suddenly the Mandarin's head appears between the pillows and he looks longingly at the girl
25:42 - 10. The terrified tramps discuss how they are to get rid of the Mandarin
27:03 - 11. The body of the Mandarin begins to glow with a greenish blue light
28:52 - 12. She resists no longer – they embrace

Béla Bartók’s pantomime The Miraculous Mandarin stands at the head of a group of works (including the Four Orchestral Pieces, the two violin sonatas, and ballet The Wooden Prince) that effectively bring to a close the first half of his career. Defining in Bartók’s early career was the experience, in 1903, of hearing Richard Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra. Consequently, the most important orchestral scores of Bartók’s early years feature striking colouristic effects and a highly complex internal counterpoint inherited from Strauss, though with Bartók’s own stylistic and rhetorical profile. This work represents the zenith of this stylistic trend.

Based on a play by Menyhert (Melchior) Lengyel, The Miraculous Mandarin tells the sordid (but “beautiful,” to use Bartók’s term) story of three urban toughs who force a girl to lure men to their lair, where they will then be attacked and robbed. Among those ensnared is a wealthy and otherworldly Mandarin, whose desire for the girl inures him against the robbers’ attempts to kill him by using a variety of methods. Only when the girl submits to the Mandarin’s desires is he finally able to die from his wounds.

Writing to his first wife, Bartók described the unforgettable opening bars as “an awful clamor, clatter, stampeding and blowing of horns.” Swirling strings and blaring winds depict the chaotic urban street scene, from which we are transported into the robbers’ lair. Bartók is at his most dissonant here, his Expressionistic chromaticism pushing close to the border of atonality. The girl’s seductive call is represented by a snaky clarinet theme, which is answered first by a poor student, then a shabby old man. The robbers toss both of the unlikely prospects down the stairs. The appearance of the Mandarin is underscored by an imposing wall of timbres over a low pedal point, with frightening emphasis from the organ. The girl hesitantly dances with the Mandarin to a sinuous and unsettling waltz, but his lust turns the pas de deux into a frantic chase. Bartók here translates his “Allegro barbaro” style into an expressionistic sequence of impressive skill and excitement (the concert suite ends with the climax of the chase). The robbers’ attempts to kill the Mandarin are graphically depicted, with low, muffled music for the smothering and sharp orchestral sforzandi accompanying each stab of the sword. When the girl takes pity on the Mandarin, her gestures are accompanied by an eerie variant of the waltz theme. The death of the Mandarin is among the most terrifying music ever written: an offstage chorus keens wordlessly on a rocking minor third, while a cold cantabile in the strings is punctuated by dissonant clusters from winds and percussion depicting the Mandarin’s horrible death spasms. Bartók’s original version of the score was tied closely to the dramaturgy of pantomime, with long sections of recitative-style music to mirror the stage action. Subsequent revisions brought the score into a more symphonic shape.

At some points the 4-hand reduction was different from the recording of the orchestral version; I had to black out some parts, and also used a few sheets from the orchestral version.