Bartok - Divertimento; Britten - Frank Bridge Variations | MDG (Dabringhaus und Grimm) MDG3210180

Bartok - Divertimento; Britten - Frank Bridge Variations

£13.25

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Label: MDG (Dabringhaus und Grimm)

Cat No: MDG3210180

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Genre: Chamber

Release Date: 21st April 2023

Contents

Artists

Polish Chamber Orchestra

Conductor

Jerzy Maksymiuk

Works

Bartok, Bela

Divertimento for Strings, Sz113

Britten, Benjamin

Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, op.10

Artists

Polish Chamber Orchestra

Conductor

Jerzy Maksymiuk

About

Jerzy Maksymiuk produced recordings of reference rank, including a recording of Bartók's Divertimento, which the sound magicians of MDG have now conjured up from the depths of the archive for the new "Preziosa" series. From a time when the world still looked completely different, the recording surprises with an almost youthful freshness.

By no means self-evident, for the situation in socialist Poland was anything but easy, even after martial law was lifted. But the proverbial willingness of the people to help made up for many a shortcoming, as producer and sound engineer Werner Dabringhaus recalls in the entertaining and interesting booklet text.

And so, a recording was made that the French Télérama even counts among the orchestra's best. Above all, the sheer unbelievable richness of sound colours thrilled the reviewer. In Germany, the LP immediately jumped onto the coveted quarterly list of the German Record Critics' Prize, and the usually highly critical British Gramophone also gave it top marks.

Bartók's Divertimento, composed in 1939 shortly before the composer's emigration, casts a hopeful glow into the otherwise rather gloomy and pessimistic output of those years. Maksymiuk juxtaposes this key work with Britten's rarely heard Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge - an extremely humorous stylistic retrospective of the 19-year-old composer, which the Polish Chamber Orchestra celebrates with audible enthusiasm. Just listen to the Aria Italiana...

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