Timber!
This ballet, first staged in 1917, has been criticised for being second-rate Bartok, and I suppose if one were being mean one could say that apart from a few Hungarian rhythms it's something of a knock-off of Stravinsky's Firebird. Well, maybe, But for me it's a most entertaining hour. Like all good ballets, the work is a series of highlights. It seems to me to fall somewhere between a by-the-numbers work and an outright tone poem, and Bartok himself described it as "a symphonic poem to be danced to". The narrative within the music is clear enough for you not to need to see the action. I've not heard any other recordings, so I can't offer a comparison, but this seems a fine performance. I really liked the Roussel and Ginastera ballet discs Naxos released last year, and this one makes a good companion.
