Béla Bartók (1881–1945)
Kossuth
Two Portraits • Suite No. 1
Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra • JoAnn Falletta

All three of the works in this programme reveal a young composer on the threshold of greatness, serving as his passport to the vast new world of orchestral music prevailing at the beginning of the 20th century. Inspired by the tone poems of Richard Strauss, Bartók’s Kossuth dramatically commemorates the struggle for Hungarian independence in 1848 with an alluring and provocative orchestration. The Two Portraits set moods of love and painful heartbreak into stark contrast, while the First Suite is a showcase of symphonic effects which caused a sensation in Vienna at its première in 1905.

JoAnn Falletta, acclaimed by The New York Times as “one of the finest conductors of her generation”, serves as the music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and Virginia Symphony Orchestra, principal conductor of the Ulster Orchestra in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and principal guest conductor of the Brevard Music Center. She has guest conducted more than a hundred orchestras in North America and many of the most prominent orchestras in Europe, Asia, South America, and Africa. Falletta is an ardent champion of music of our time, introducing over 500 works by American composers, including more than 110 world premières. Her extensive Naxos discography includes a double GRAMMY® Award-winning volume of works by John Corigliano and GRAMMY®-nominated discs by Fuchs, Gershwin, Holst, Respighi, Strauss, and Schubert.

Founded in 1935, the GRAMMY® Award-winning Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, under the direction of music director JoAnn Falletta, is Buffalo’s leading cultural ambassador and presents more than 120 Classics, Pops and Youth Concerts each year. Over the decades, the BPO has matured in stature under some leading conductors, including William Steinberg, Josef Krips, Lukas Foss, Michael Tilson Thomas, Maximiano Valdés, Semyon Bychkov and Julius Rudel. During the tenure of JoAnn Falletta the BPO has rekindled its distinguished history of radio broadcasts and recordings, including the release of 24 new CDs of a highly diverse repertoire on the Naxos and Beau Fleuve labels. The philharmonic’s Naxos recording of composer John Corigliano’s Mr Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan(8.559331), featuring soprano Hila Plitmann, won GRAMMYs® in two categories of the three for which it was nominated: Classical Vocal Performance and Classical Contemporary Composition.

ALSO AVAILABLE

8.572822

“Falletta and the Buffalo Philharmonic deliver a performance that is so committed and radiant that it ought to attract the attention of other music directors here and abroad.”

- American Record Guide

8.559753

8.573161

“This is an important recording for several reasons. First, it contains the finest version yet recorded of Glière’s epic Third Symphony, “Il’ya Muromets.” Second, it defines once and for all how the piece is supposed to go.”

- ClassicsToday.com

NBD0041 (BluRay)