Tour: Beethoven, Bartók – 2

What could a Hungarian orchestra bring to Beethoven’s hometown other than a grand piece from the Viennese classical composer and one by the greatest Hungarian composer of all time? The Budapest Festival Orchestra will first pay tribute to Beethoven with his Seventh Symphony, which became world-famous for its funeral march. Wagner described the piece as “the apotheosis of the dance”, a work that expands the previously known boundaries of the genre. Relationships between men and women will be the focus after the intermission. All three of Bartók’s one-act pieces – in spite of the visual images on stage – are internal dramas. The Miraculous Mandarin, a moral tale told as a pantomime and one of Bartók's most beloved works, with a plot that explores questions of body and soul, will be brought to life by the Éva Duda Dance Company, an internationally acclaimed Hungarian contemporary dance ensemble.

The piece has no nickname but it is still known by everyone. It is built on the traditions of Viennese Classicism but leads the way for Romantic composers. Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony has a special place in his oeuvre even without a program or the use of human voice. The symphony was composed, with some exaggeration, thanks to Johann Maelzel, the inventor of the metronome, who commissioned a piece from Beethoven for his “mechanical orchestra.” That piece was premiered on December 8, 1813 at a charity concert organized for soldiers wounded in war, where Symphony No. 7 was also performed for the first time. This work, written as the companion piece to Symphony No. 8, is grand in its form and bold in its harmonies. This last characteristic is shown immediately in the slow introduction of the fast-paced opening movement. The not-too-slow second movement in dark A-minor evolves through the continuous development of a single motif. In the whirlwind, stormy scherzo, only the more restrained trios offer some moments of calm, and then the finale further accelerates the tempo, intensifying the wildness, and the obsessive joy.

“In a manor house, three outlaws force a young girl to seduce men whom they then rob”, begins Béla Bartók’s description of The Miraculous Mandarin. In Menyhért Lengyel’s nightmare tale, the outlaws cannot overcome the wealthy Chinaman who comes after two poor men and besieges the girl with his love. They strangle him, stab him with a sword, hang him, but to no avail. Finally, the girl fulfills the mandarin’s desire, and he drops dead. Bartók’s one-act opera caused such a scandal at its premiere in Cologne in 1926 that the mayor banned further performances because of the openly depicted orgasm. Aside from the theme, the music is also progressive. Bartók breaks with classical tonality and uses dissonance as a means of expression. He puts the percussionists in the foreground, writes an unorthodox part for the wind instruments, and portrays the story with a wild, rhythmic, pulsating sound – at least musically.