Negative Positive
Title: A riveting live performance--the best Bluebeard in forty years
Review: For the past four decades no one has surpassed Kertesz's classic Bluebeard's Castle on Decca, a miracle of perfect casting, great conducting, and demonstration-quality sound that thrills time after time. What Haitink gives us in this live concert from 1996 is the next best thing: a committed, very musical performance, rather on the gloomy side, that makes its mark through the virtuosity of the Berlin Phill, Haitink's insights, and above all the impassioned Judith of von Otter, surely the best singer in the role since Christa Ludwig. For anyone who loves this early masterpiece of Bartok's, here is an unmissable recording.
Is the review positive or negative? 