Dramatic Beauty

Works by Eötvös and Bartók,
reviewed by GIUSEPPE PENNISI

It is always a thrill to listen to a new composition conducted by the composer himself, especially if the composer is highly appreciated by the listener. I much enjoyed Peter Eötvös' Le Balcon at the 2002 Aix-en-Provence Festival and consider Trois Soeurs one of the best contemporary operas -- I know it only through the recording conducted by Kent Nagano. As his recent Glyndebourne opera, Love and Other Demons, so vividly demonstrated, Peter Eötvös has a blistering talent for orchestral color. And there was plenty of orchestral color at the National Academy of Santa Cecilia main symphony hall on 2 May 2011 when, as a part of a series of three concerts, Eötvös conducted his own concerto for violin and orchestra and Béla Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle. An interesting and well received attempt to bring contemporary and twentieth century music to subscribers mostly accustomed to eighteenth and nineteenth century repertory...

BELA BARTOK

HUNGARY

ROME

ITALY