A la carta: Bartók's The Miraculous Mandarin suite

The Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra directed by Edward Gardner performs Bartók's The Miraculous Mandarin suite.

This piece was originally a one-act pantomime ballet, composed between 1918–1924, based on the story by Hungarian writer and dramatist Melchior Lengyel, a lurid and grotesque tale set in a brothel's bedroom.

Due to the uproar and scandal it caused when it was first premiered in Germany, even today the ballet is almost never seen on stage, but the beautiful music lives on in the form of a concert suite, which preserves about two-thirds of the original pantomime's score.

Filmed in October 2015.