Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra / Kodaly: Peacock Variations

Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra / Kodaly: Peacock Variations

Erich Leinsdorf's 1962 version of BartÃ³k's Concerto for Orchestra has certainly come up with astounding vividness in RCA's latest 24-bit remastering--nowhere more so than in the irrepressible finale, which bounds along here with a giant confidence. Ultimately, though, Leinsdorf's interpretation is simply too slick to convince. Sure, the corporate virtuosity of the Boston orchestra is pretty dazzling--on a purely technical level, the standard of the playing is well up there alongside that on other vintage analogue versions from the Chicago Symphony under Fritz Reiner (RCA) and the London Symphony Orchestra with Antal Dorati (Mercury)--but the music's tangy wit, pathos, and (above all) homesick heartache elude the present team entirely. Fortunately, Ivan Fischer and his dazzling Budapest Festival Orchestra are on hand to provide the necessary antidote; their Philips version positively brims with creative flair and affectionate perception. Bafflingly, Leinsdorf's performance of KodÃ¡ly's masterly and exhilarating Peacock Variations is something else again, a clear-headed, purposeful reading as sublimely poised as it is splendidly imposing. Once more, the 1963 sound possesses superb, ear-tingling realism. A frustratingly unequal coupling, then, but do try to hear the KodÃ¡ly. --Andrew Achenbach
Country USA
Manufacturer RCA Legacy
Binding Audio CD
Color Multicolor
ReleaseDate 1999-03-09
UPCs 090266330928
EANs 0090266330928

Country	USA
Manufacturer	RCA Legacy
Binding	Audio CD
Color	Multicolor
ReleaseDate	1999-03-09
UPCs	090266330928
EANs	0090266330928

Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra / Kodaly: Peacock Variations

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