Béla Bartók: “The Miraculous Mandarin, Op. 19” | Philharmonia Zürich and Jukka-Pekka Saraste

Directed by Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Béla Bartók’s concert suite “The Miraculous Mandarin, Op. 19“ was performed by the Philharmonia Zürich at the 2019 Beethovenfest in Bonn. Originally written as a one act pantomime ballet in 1926, Bartók re-wrote “The Miraculous Mandarin” in 1928, turning it into a concert suite preserving about 2/3 of the original pantomime music. Today, it’s known as one of the most popular concert suites of the 20th Century. The story of a Mandarin, a term historically used to describe