Bartok - Dance Suite

Onward to Bartok's Dance Suite (1923), one of his most engaging and accessible works. This collection of orchestral pseudo-folk dances is a longtime favourite of mine. I used to listen to Solti's recording with the Chicago SO (my father has it in his collection) but I have a copy on CD of his earlier recording (1965) with the London Symphony Orchestra. It's a beautifully crafted, superbly paced performance and also the recording is in a class of its own: dynamic, spacious, richly detailed and with a very attractive and subtle graininess that suits the music very well. I would almost say it sounds 'analog'. CDs don't come any better than this. Decca engineer on duty was the resourceful Kenneth Wilkinson. It was he who in the 1950s developed the Decca tree spaced microphone array for stereophonic recordings. Wilkinson also discovered Walthamstow City Hall as a recording venue. But the Dance Suite was taped at his favourite location, Kingsway Hall. I have never realised that one of the best recording locations in the world does not exist anymore. It has been demolished to make space for a hotel. There's a very informative and sympathetic account of Wilkinson's way of working on Wikipedia.

I also listened to Fricsay's mono 1953 recording with the RIAS Berlin orchestra. It's no match for the Solti, partly on account of the sound quality, of course. Furthermore, the Suite shares an LP side with the last movement of the Second Violin Concerto. The grooves are so narrowly spaced that the needle jumps out at very loud passages. Qua interpretation I think Fricsay only has the edge in the Molto Tranquillo. Very strange is his lumbering tempo in the ensuing Comodo. On the whole I vastly prefer the Solti which is a classic.

Finally I put on the piano version of the suite, played by Zoltan Kocsis. Whatever the qualities of the piano playing, it's very difficult to listen to it without hearing the colourful orchestral version in parallel.