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I often conduct Bartók pieces, and though years have passed since these recordings were made, I still feel that these concert performances were exceptionally powerful and authentic, and that their verve, character and dynamism can be felt on the recordings as well. (Peter Eotvos)

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Bartok's Miraculous Mandarin is such a viscerally graphic score it could easily function as a tone poem (and indeed usually does). But, it is a ballet after all, and Peter Eotvos' gripping performance with the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie strongly emphasizes the music's physicality. Right from the opening, with its coldly swirling strings and the traffic-din suggested by the trombones and trumpets, Eötvös exhorts his orchestra to play full-out while maintaining tight rhythmic control. Such is the vividness of this performance that you can almost see each new 'customer' being rudely dispatched-and when the Mandarin appears, the brass present him as an awesomely threatening figure. Best of all is the chase sequence that builds steadily to a tremendous climax.

     —Victor Carr Jr, ClassicsToday

Eötvös' Mandarin is the most consistently energetic and powerful reading I have heard. I suspect that this youth orchestra had more rehearsal and working time with Eötvös than is customary in most conductor / orchestra relationships, and as a result the tempo changes are delivered in confident and exact detail.

     — Grant Chu Covell, La Folia

Here, under composer-conductor Peter Eotvos they are recorded live in Concerto for Orchestra (albeit a decade ago). But the more electrifying performance on the disc is the complete Miraculous Mandarin, also live (1994). This is partly a question of sound quality, which in Concerto for Orchestra is rather constricted in ambience, with close focus on, for instance, timpani. But if there are sonically preferable alternatives, in this version the Hungarian elements are wonderfully idiomatic. Consider it a bonus with an exceptional Mandarin -- more spacious in sound, from a WDR studio, though there's some noise and coughs from the audience. Perhaps they were taken aback by the violence in the music, at its most ghoulish when the chorus enters (lost when conductors only do the Suite). The players are unabashed and unleash a torrent of noise where called for. The 32m ballet is presented as a single track.

     —Christopher Breunig, Hi-Fi New