Prom 25: Dvorak's Cello Concerto and Bartok's Duke Bluebeard's Castle

Live at BBC Proms: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Charles Dutoit, with Alban Gerhardt (cello). Dvorak's Cello Concerto and Bartok's opera Duke Bluebeard's Castle.

Live from the Royal Albert Hall, London
Presented by Clemency Burton-Hill

Dvorák: Cello Concerto in B minor

8.15 INTERVAL: Proms Extra
Bartok and Duke Bluebeard's Castle
Martin Handley discusses the story behind the richly scored music of Duke Bluebeard's Castle with musicologists Heather Wiebe and Rachel Beckles Willson.

8.35
Bartók: Duke Bluebeard's Castle

Alban Gerhardt, cello
Ildikó Komlósi, mezzo-soprano (Judith)
John Relyea, bass (Duke Bluebeard)
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Charles Dutoit, conductor

The gothic horror story of Duke Bluebeard prompted some of the most imaginative, descriptive and shocking music Bartók would write. With its huge orchestra, underpinned in this concert performance by the mighty Royal Albert Hall organ, Bartók's score speaks of the darkness of Bluebeard's vast castle and the cold-blooded murder of his six wives.

Under Principal Conductor Charles Dutoit, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conjures up Bartók's unsettling realm after Dvorák's Cello Concerto, which the composer believed 'outstrips the other two concertos of mine'.

PROMS EXTRA: Bartok and Duke Bluebeard's Castle
Martin Handley hosts a discussion with musicologists Heather Wiebe and Rachel Beckles Willson about the story behind the richly scored music of Duke Bluebeard's Castle, and about the life and work of its Hungarian composer. Recorded earlier at Imperial College Union.
Producer, Helen Garrison.