'The Miraculous Mandarin' (op. 19, Sz 73) is Bartok's last work for the stage. The plot revolves around prostitution, brutality, robbery, murder, being an outsider, (unrequited) love and finally, as a catharsis, a kind of love-death. The music is relentlessly sharp for long stretches, garishly dissonant, radical, probably the most modern score Bartok created. The premiere (1926) in Cologne was a scandal and Konrad Adenauer, then Lord Mayor of Cologne, immediately cancelled the performances.

The Violin Concerto No. 2 Sz 112 was composed between August 1937 and 31 December 1938, shortly before Bartok's emigration to the United States in view of the increasingly oppressive political and social climate in Hungary. Unlike the 'Mandarin', the work quickly established itself after it's premiere in Amsterdam in 1939 as one of the central violin concertos of the first half of the 20th century and at the same time as one of Bartok's greatest creations.

In the course of his long career, Michael Gielen has been Music Director of the Royal Opera in Stockholm, the Belgian National Orchestra in Brussels, the Dutch Opera and the Frankfurt Opera. He was also Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Staatskapelle Berlin as well as Chief Conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the Sudwestfunk Symphony Orchestra. He developed an early interest in contemporary music and became known for his outstanding performances of Viennese classical music and of Bruckner's and Mahler's symphonies. He has conducted several world premieres of important 20th century works such as Bernd Alois Zimmermann's opera 'Die Soldaten' and Gyorgy Ligeti's 'Requiem'.