The Miraculous Mandarin

Bartók’s dramatic tour-de force!
Along with Concerto for Orchestra and the setting of Village Scenes, it demonstrates his most effective use of orchestral resource. Homolya described it as “folk music… now dissolved in an even more complex idiom of art music”. The work is equally effective as an orchestral suite, the full pantomime or the full pantomime music presented in concert setting. On the stage, The Miraculous Mandarin is ideal as the culmination of a Bartók triple bill, or in association with Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring or Petrushka ballets.

Note by Malcolm Gillies