Béla Bartók

The Miraculous Mandarin op. 19/Sz. 73

Der Wunderbare Mandarin (The Miraculous Mandarin) is a suite adapted from Béla Bartók's (1881 -1945) pantomime ballet of the same name. The ballet was the last piece of music Bartók wrote that was intended for the stage. The ballet was in turn based on a Melchior Lengyel short story in which three men kidnap a young woman, bring her to a brothel, and force her to seduce three men, the last of which is the title's "Mandarin," who is eventually killed by the kidnappers. The controversial subject matter of the piece and the public's reaction to it convinced Bartók to rework his ballet into an orchestral suite, which premiered in Budapest in October 1928. Instrumentation: 3(2nd & 3rd Picc).3(3rd dEH).3(2nd dEb.3rd dBCl).3(3rd dCBsn): 4.3.3.1: Timp.Perc(4): Hp.Pno.Clst.Org: Str (9-8-7-6-5 in set). Reprint edition.