The Miraculous Mandarin - Szeged Contemporary Dance Company

[fredericfranc]

...this does not have that much to do with Bartok's work, and this is not really his music...it is heavily "modified"...to crank things up a bit...

[fabianidhesona]

@fredericfranc what??!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! this is the miraculous mandarin you stupid ignorant! this is the last part of this patomime ballet. it is rarely performed in its entirety( which is a scandal) usually it is performed just as a suite without this part.

[fredericfranc]

@fabianidhesona ...in the MM Suite we get about 30 minutes of music from Bartok, but none of which appears here...if Bartok deliberately left this music here out of his suite, which was intended for concert performance...he was exercising good judgement...because what we get here will propel the dancing pretty well...but does not work as symphonic music at all...

[fabianidhesona]

@fredericfranc thie suite version lasts only 19/20 minutes. the suite is just a concert version because they couldn't performe the piece in its entirety because it was outrageous. Pierre Boulez has performed the whole piece and also Abbado. I made a mistake in my previous statement, this work originally was a pantomime and later was performed as a ballet as well. does not work as a symphonic music at all?! this is the best part. it is the most dramatic part

[fredericfranc]

@fabianidhesona ...this here is very effective music...but keep in mind that Bartok went to a lot of trouble...it took him a lot of time and hard work to transform the ballet into the suite...he radically altered the orchestration...he did this for specific artistic reasons...not because the ballet was supposedly "outrageous"...the fact that the ballet could not be, just about, performed in his liifetime, had nothing to do with his turning out the suite...he did not think like this...

[fabianidhesona]

@fredericfranc it was outrageous for the audience not for him. when they first performed it was a scandal. thts why he had to transform it into a concert suite...

[fredericfranc]

@fabianidhesona ...that is exactly wrong...Bartok's motivation for turning out the suite had nothing to do with the so called scandal...

[fabianidhesona]

Rispondi a questo video... ou didn't even know that this is Bartok's music, so how could you talk about The Miraculous Mandarin if you don't know how it sounds. I mean, its written CRSITAL CLEAR: Béla Bartók: The Miraculous Mandarin. this tells me that you don't know anything about this piece. the fact that you didn't believe this is a bartok piece leads me to this question: why on earth you thought this isn't Bartok's music? I could understand if this video had no title or any explanation.

[fredericfranc]

@fabianidhesona ..I am extremely well read in the Bartok biography, books after books after boooks...so I know exactly how the various versions of this came into being, the "scandal" in Cologne and so on...his balletic writing is unusual, his orchestration is "weird", and I had not heard this section before...but the main point is that Bartok's suite of this, which is distinct from the ballet came into being for reasons not related to the "scandal"...he just wanted to do it as his own idea...

[fredericfranc]

@fabianidhesona ...in the "official" listing Bartok's compositions, the ballet and the suite are listed as two different compositions, composed and published at different times, for the obvious reason that Bartok thought of them as two different things and wanted them clearly distinguished as different things in the public mind... because he obviously brought them into being for different reasons and wanted this to be clear for anybody interested in the music for whatever reason...

[fabianidhesona]

just beautiful.

[DublinPhilharmonic]

Amazing!! 

[HuggumsMcgehee]

I'm very confused. Keep in mind I just read the synopsis on Wikipedia. Does the girl want the mandarin or is she still trying to tempt him for whatever reason? Cause the wikipedia article makes it seem like they got in over their heads and were trying to kill him and the girl kept trying to get away.

[Schell77]

Very powerful. A beautiful way to stage this work in a modern way.

[colguy11]

typical sex fantasy or paranoia of occidental.

why the occidental like to show their sex when they are excited?

for most asian, the occidental have some malade psychological sex.

[NedRorem]

? The occidental? The asian?

[AZIMUTH595]

Typical reaction of someone who's afraid of everything: their body, their existence, their life, other people. And I don't discrimate between western and eastern people. That's just geography.

[tomestubbs]

This is great art! I'm so glad to C this, but I want to C the first part of this masterpiece or where can I buy it?

[gsmoothgq]

I love the dance and I love the music the way Bartok had intended it to be not slowed down and less powerful all in all a great version

[JeeRant]

Some pretty intense stuff...

[zoltai9]

what is this? I have Bartok's Miraculous Mandarin on tape, and it is NOT this music.

Strange, beacuse the choreography suggests the same story, but the music I have ends in a completely different way, very abrupt and shocking.

[clairannette]

You might have a recording of the suite rather than the full ballet. Which orchestra is on the recording?

[zoltai9]

yeah, you're right. I figured that out when I found the full piece elsewhere and the story behind it. It's truly fantastic seeing it in a clearer context (not that the suite wasn't fantastic anyway). It's hard to believe that Bartok once criticized the way Stravinski composed. They both had a potency that only a handful of composers ever achieved in my opinion. I'm sure it would have been more of an observation than anything as hasrsh as criticism, though.

[ocakavanie]

I agree you, its very strange.

[EditionsR2]

The (shortened) version you mention is the orchestral suite for concert performance!!! This is the much more impressive full dance version.

[epanody]

the concert suite is different from the ballet: both are authentic.

[pipasaladas]

I really enjoyed it! love it!!

[abnerwagner]

This ballet is STRANGE and SHOCKING!!!!!! I LOVE IT!!!!!! Viva Bártok. I love the dancer in white.

[Livsie]

Great!

Please, put the first part of the video..

Tnank you