Cristian Măcelaru – Bartók: The Wooden Prince & Dance Suite (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz]

Cristian Măcelaru – Bartók: The Wooden Prince & Dance Suite (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:14:30 minutes | 703 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Linn Records

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.

Rising conductor Cristian Măcelaru recorded mostly American music during his tenures in the U.S., but his posts in Europe have sent his career in a new direction. With the WDR Sinfonieorchester, he has recorded Dvořák and now, on this 2023 release, Bartók, with extremely promising results. Bartók’s The Wooden Prince is a charming and affecting ballet about a romance controlled by a wooden puppet. The music is folk-influenced, but in place of the acerbic and rigorous later Bartók is a gentle gracefulness that Măcelaru’s reading captures to the hilt, and the clean sounds he is getting from the WDR Sinfonieorchester bodes extremely well for his future outings with that ensemble. Bartók’s Dance Suite can look either backward or forward in performance, and Măcelaru chooses the former; he offers a restrained Allegro molto that lets the primitivism in the score emerge naturally rather than hammering it home. Bartók rather lacks a champion right now, but this immensely satisfying recording, with excellent sound from the Kölner Philharmonie, suggests that Măcelaru may be able to fill that role. – James Manheim

Tracklist:
1-1. Cristian Măcelaru – I. Introduction (05:39)
1-2. Cristian Măcelaru – II. First Dance. Dance of the Princess in the Forest (02:19)
1-3. Cristian Măcelaru – III. The Prince Sets off and Falls in Love (02:44)
1-4. Cristian Măcelaru – IV. Second Dance. Dance of the Trees (04:59)
1-5. Cristian Măcelaru – V. Third Dance. Dance of the Waves (04:16)
1-6. Cristian Măcelaru – VI. The Prince Has an Idea (07:22)
1-7. Cristian Măcelaru – VII. Fourth Dance. Dance of the Princess With the Wooden Prince (05:30)
1-8. Cristian Măcelaru – VIII. The Prince Despairs (07:26)
1-9. Cristian Măcelaru – IX. The prince Is Restored (02:24)
1-10. Cristian Măcelaru – X. Return of the Princess – Fifth Dance (02:59)
1-11. Cristian Măcelaru – XI. The Wooden Prince Falls to the Ground – The Radiant Prince Appears – Sixth Dance (01:43)
1-12. Cristian Măcelaru – XII. Seventh Dance. The Despair of the Princess (04:49)
1-13. Cristian Măcelaru – XIII. The Happy End (04:43)
1-14. Cristian Măcelaru – I. Moderato (03:29)
1-15. Cristian Măcelaru – II. Allegro molto (02:17)
1-16. Cristian Măcelaru – III. Allegro vivace (02:59)
1-17. Cristian Măcelaru – IV. Molto tranquillo (03:37)
1-18. Cristian Măcelaru – V. Comodo (01:12)
1-19. Cristian Măcelaru – VI. Finale. Allegro (03:56)

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