Left: Béla Bartók

The recent acclaimed readings by Haitink and Boulez are understandably at full price and this reissue with Hungarian interpreter Kertész at the helm could not have come at a more welcomed time! The performance merits here are undoubtable - the London Symphony Orchestra is at the peak of its roller coaster 'career', if I may use that word to describe the fate of the unfortunate orchestra. Further, Kertész, who was much over shadowed by Solti in Decca and later made his fame with his impeccable Dvorák symphonic cycle, did in fact leave behind many other fine interpretations of modern works from his native Hungary, one of which was this unbeatable recording of Bartók's only opera.

Bluebeard's Castle was once described by Kodály as a "musical volcano erupting for sixty minutes of tragic intensity" and true enough, there are musical impresarios here to deliver that needed impact. Kertész leads the LSO thrillingly, capturing vivid drama and intensity to drive home this heavy weight of an operatic experience. The remastering boasting 96kHz-24 bit Super Digital Transfer is excellent. It is justifiably warm and spacious. There is little to compain of with the exception that Walter Berry's voice was at some parts given too large a reverberation than is convincing. There are also minor cut-and-paste flaws that is occasionally disturbing to the astute ear. Nonetheless, the merits in this reissue exceed the flaws and the improved sound makes for an intense 60 minutes into the terrifying yet pathetic psyche of Bluebeard. Kertész's perfectionist meandering of soulful pain and angry flounderings is brought out in full sonic vigor, enough to make me hit the panic button!

The outline of this dramatic story has been very well detailed here. Kertész (right) says: "the point is that all the blood is Bluebeard's [his] blood, it means his suffering." True enough, everything happens in the imagination and the husband and wife coupling of Christa Ludwig and Walter Berry as Judith and Duke Bluebeard are in dramatic terms, la divina par excellence! They capture the turns and twists of this boiling tragedy and propels my imagination, darkness and all, with their superb vocal subtleties. Kertész achieves the 'sighs' which Bartók requests in the score with a sort of mixture between the 'sound of weeping women and the wind of the night'. This effect is heightened by the current remastering and the monophonic panning sort of isolates the listener into further engagement with his own soul...the Bluebeard inside all of us.