Music : Bartók: Duke Bluebeard's Castle / Kertész, Ludwig, Berry
from: Decca
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0028946637722
Label: Decca
Manufacturer: Decca
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Decca
Release Date: September 14, 1999
Sales Rank: 96823
Studio: Decca
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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
Bartók's lone opera has fared well on disc, and the Kertész is one of the best, even if it lacks the full bite and snap of singers emoting in their native language. Ludwig, a mezzo Judith, is convincing as a loving bride wishing to share her husband's innermost secrets, and Berry is a patient Bluebeard, saddened by her inevitable consignment to oblivion behind the seventh door. They capture the private, intimate horrors at the core of the story. Kertész conducts brilliantly, drawing full, warm sounds from the LSO aided by Decca's spectacular demonstration-quality engineering. Doráti (on Mercury, also with great sound but with native singers) may get closer to the spirit of Bartók's sharp-edged score, but Kertész is in the same league. --Dan Davis
Average Rating: 
Rating: -
To be honest I am not a great Bartok fan but liked his Wooden Prince on Naxos recently and then bought a set of concertos as his concerto for orchestra was my fathers favorite but he had a terrible recordings of it. I then saw this on the shops shelves got it also.
I remember buying him (my father) the Ormandy-Hines-Elias recording (in English) and I think I played it more than he did - it was, and no doubt is very fine (I don't know if its still under the stairs or if I dumped it along with most of the LPs as no one wanted them when he died. With the exception of this I have nearly most all of my LP's in re-releases in digital enhanced sound so...)
This seems just a bit better all round with the exception of the Hungarian which although it sounds very good to me, and they are both very expressive in it, only Hungarians truly understand!
I think the gist of much of Bartok is the quality of the interpretation and this has it in spades...love it, it even sounds great in the car, especially in the car when I find myself singing along with Ludwig..."your garden is beautiful"...Tum TUm TUM, BHAM BHUMMMM... or so it seems! Berry is very lyrical whereas Hines was more brutal I think...
A friend of mine who doesn't know the work so well is a little more reserved about the work and I think you need to know it in English before you go for the Hungarian (I'm a philistine I like opera in English and can't for the life of me understand ... Read More
Rating: -
Like so many devotees of this spectacular recording, I am no fan of Bartok in general, but this piece transcends any general opinion I might have of his idiom; it is one of the most complete and involving performances in the whole operatic catalogue. Unlike some operas, whereby you simply resign yourself to sitting back and enjoying the music in spite of the risible plot or lumbering libretto ("Ernani" and "Le Villi" come to mind), or whereby the words seems to take precedence over the music (some of Hofmannsthal's more abstruse efforts for Strauss?), this opera embodies the perfect fusion between words and music, between drama and beauty of form, much as Debussy's "Pelleas et Melisande" - a clear influence on Bartok - does. No problem here with "prima la musica, dopo le parole" - or vice versa!
First, as so many have already noted, the Decca sound engineers triumphed; you would never guess that this recording is well over forty years old, so full and atmospheric is the sound. The unearthly, otherworldly groans accompanying the opening of Bluebeard's doors to his secret chambers are enough to make the hairs on the back of your neck prickle and the major chord sequence accompanying the flinging wide of the door onto Bluebeard's kingdom is one of the great moments in recording history.
The performances are also superlative; Berry has just the right combination of power and mystery in his voice and Ludwig manages to make Judith shrewish and importunate ... Read More
Rating: -
Decca Records....The very name seems to bring warm thoughts and feelings to one's body and mind...
What a "richer" place the world is, because of Decca, RCA, EMI (and of course, also, Philips, Deutsche Grammophone, and Columbia Records). These companies pioneered sound (and recordings) for us, and through their efforts, we have, currently, little silver discs (formerly, of course, Shiny Black LP's), that document and preserve both their technical achievements and those of the artists/participants of these recordings.
So, "Thank You Very Much" of course deserves to go to these companies for making our lives so much richer.
The Review...
One of these Pioneering Achievements, make no doubt about it, is this Magnificent recording of Bela Bartok's lone opera, Duke Bluebeard's Castle (A kékszakkallú Herceg Vára). The sonic achievement of this recording, for clearness, spaciousness, and simply breadth and range will amaze you if you are not famaliar already with it. This recording will probably forever stand as one of the greatest achievements in sound ever done, as it has from it's release right up until today. There is one KnockOut rival*, but it DOES NOT replace it! (see below)
If you are unfamiliar with this work, you are in for a REAL TREAT. If you do not understand it, that's ok, wait a couple days, and play it again! (I'm sure you know how this works, if you have experience with Classical Music and Opera).
Read More
Rating: -
I normally don't seek out an experience that is dark and disturbing. Now, this is a dark opera, to be sure, but I am astonished at what a beautiful and powerful opera it is. The music is perfect - the chords, the way the melody supports the vocal lines, the mood that is so perfectly established. This is essentially a psychological tale, in fact the prologue asks us to ponder if this is a story of within (psychological) or without. It is the story of a man who begs his wife not to dig too deep, but she can't help it, she continues to push, until... it is too late. The singing is fantastic. The orchestra playing is lush, the sound quality first rate. Now that I have heard this piece I think the biggest tragedy is that Bartok didn't write more operas. He shows tremendous compositional skill and a great sense of how to unfold the drama that I feel sometimes composers miss. Get your hands on this CD.
Rating: -
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Source: Studio recording made in Kingsway Hall, London, November 1965.
Sound: State of the art analogue stereo that received high praise when it was issued in 1966. The second digital remastering, done in 1999, has been very successful. More acute ears than mine have noted the sound of the occasional tape join and some slight hiss. I do not go searching for such things and I certainly have not heard them on my copy.
Text: The work is performed in Hungarian as "A Kekszkallu herceg vara." [Sorry about the forms of the vowels, but Amazon has not been accepting my properly spelled foreign words recently.] The 28-line spoken verse prologue has not been recorded.
Documentation: Libretto in Hungarian joined with the standard, very loose, English singing translation by Christopher Hassall. Brief memoir on the origin of this recording. Short record of a conversation between Kertesz and Ludwig in which the conductor provides his interpretation of some aspects of the story. Track list shows timings.
Format: One disk - eight tracks; 59:30.
Cast: Bluebeard - Walter Berry; Judith - Christa Ludwig. Conductor: Istvan Kertesz with the London Symphony Orchestra.
In 1911, the thirty year-old Bartok began setting the libretto of "A Kekszkallu herceg vara" ["Duke Bluebeard's Castle"] by his friend, Bela Balasz. It was not performed until 1918. Because it is performed in opera houses and involves two people ... Read More
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