Persuasive harmonies

Béla Bartók, Excerpt from Bluebeard's Castle (1911), performed by Walter Berry, Christa Ludwig, and the orchestra of Covent Garden under the direction of István Kertész, 1965.

Here's another beautiful moment from Bluebeard's Castle (the first one is here). When Judit opens the first of Bluebeard's seven locked doors, she finds a torture chamber with bloodstained walls. This hardly fazes her, and she resolves to open all the other doors. To reassure Bluebeard, she promises to be gentle and quiet, accompanied by these extraordinarily gentle, quiet chords in the strings and harp.

But Bluebeard is barely convinced, and if you listen closely, the accompaniment reflects his reluctance and suspicion as well. There's something about the harmony and orchestration here that is guarded and meltingly seductive at the same time. It might be a stretch, but I think I can even hear Judit's wariness of Bluebeard, who is rumored to have murdered his three former wives.

The night wind sighs down endless, gloomy labyrinths

Béla Bartók, Excerpt from Bluebeard's Castle (1911), performed by Christa Ludwig and the orchestra of Covent Garden under the direction of István Kertész, 1965.

In honor of the Chicago Opera Theater's recent production, our first two moments are from Bartók's only opera. Judit has just moved into the dark, creepy castle of her new husband Bluebeard. She wants the doors open, he wants them closed, she thinks he's hiding something, and that's basically the plot of the opera.

Early on, Judit throws a tantrum and pounds her fist against one of the doors. At that point, Bartók writes in the score: "The sound is answered by a cavernous sighing, as when the night wind sighs down endless, gloomy labyrinths," but he doesn't actually write any notes or say how the orchestra should make the sound!

This has to be one of the weirdest sounds ever recorded. Does anyone know how they did this? My other recording sounds prosaic by comparison: