Budapest Festival Orchestra . Iván Fischer

Poor health and a weakly physique. This was all Bartók needed to evade military service and to spend his time not in the violence of the First World War but on composing. It was at this time that he wrote one of his most inventive ballets, 'The Wooden Prince'. His interest was immediately aroused by this fairytale, written by Béla Balász - later to be the librettist for Bartók's only opera 'Duke Bluebeard's Castle' - in 1912, and he saw in it a unique opportunity to combine the sounds of the late-Romantic orchestra with Hungarian folk music. The confrontation between Balász' grotesque narrative powers and Bartók's sombre, profoundly warm score led to a successful first performance in 1917. Although his ballet music, together with other works such as the 'Hungarian Scenes' from 1931, are currently overshadowed by Bartók's other, more renowned orchestral works, it is a marvellous piece of baroque contrivance. Perfectly suited to Iván Fischer and his Budapest Festival Orchestra. In this concert, Bartók's world of sound is played out against that of Beethoven, in whose brilliant and wilful Fourth Piano Concerto Richard Goode once again shows his masterly musicianship.