The Miraculous Mandarin, op.19, Sz73, is Bartók’s final work for the stage. The plot revolves around prostitution, brutality, robbery, murder, being an outsider, (unrequited) love and finally, by way of catharsis, a kind of love-death. The music is relentlessly abrasive for long stretches, garishly dissonant, radical, probably the most modern score Bartók created. The premiere in Cologne in 1926 was a scandal and Konrad Adenauer, then Lord Mayor of Cologne, immediately cancelled the performances.

The Violin Concerto no.2, Sz112, was composed between August 1937 and 31 December 1938, shortly before Bartók emigrated to the United States on account of the increasingly oppressive political and social climate in Hungary. Unlike the Mandarin, the work quickly established itself after its premiere in Amsterdam in 1939, both as one of the pivotal violin concertos of the first half of the 20th century and as one of Bartók’s greatest creations.

Over the course of his long career, Michael Gielen was music director of the Royal Opera in Stockholm, the Belgian National Orchestra in Brussels, the Dutch Opera and the Frankfurt Opera. He was also principal guest conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Staatskapelle Berlin as well as chief conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the Südwestfunk Symphony Orchestra. He developed an early interest in contemporary music and became known for his outstanding performances of Viennese classical music and the symphonies of Bruckner and Mahler. He conducted the world premieres of several important 20th-century works, including Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s opera Die Soldaten and György Ligeti’s Requiem.

Live recordings, Musikverein Wien: 17.01.1992 (Miraculous Mandarin); 31.03.1995 (Concerto