An energetic Kodály and a convincing Bacewicz String Quartet no. 4 made for a satisfying first half, while the Quatuor Danel delivered a wonderful rendition of Beethoven’s Op.59 no. 1.
After star pianist Gabriela Montero unfortunately withdrew due to injury, the young Russian Pavel Kolesnikov stepped forward with inspired conductor Joana Wallmitz to save the day.
‘Dancing with the Orchestra’ was the last subscription concert of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and two compositions with a focus on dance bookended Béla Bartók’s Violin Concerto no. 2.
Two young, widely championed string players – violinist/pianist Julia Fischer and cellist Daniel Müller-Schott – recently joined to perform an eclectic concert at the city’s stunning new concert hall.
Polish opera director Michał Znaniecki created a new version of Zoltán Kodály’s 1927 The Spinning Room, a short one-act which is basically a collection of 21 Hungarian folksongs that Kodály had selected from the Székely region.
Where does one go to hear some of the world’s greatest pianists? To Jerusalem. More specifically, the Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival, the annual ten-day musical delight in the Holy City in early September.
Auckland has not seen chamber music of this sheer magnetic excitement since, funnily enough, the Takács Quartet were here a couple of years ago. There must be something in the water in Hungary for that country to concurrently have two such magnificent string quartets.
Eastern European folk rhythms and the spirit of fin de siècle Russia resonate through Basingstoke as the Vienna Tonkünstler Orchestra plays Kodály, Rachmaninov and Dvořák.
Members of Royal Northern Sinfonia and John Reid take us on an intoxicating trip round the cafés of Central Europe with chamber music by Enescu, Martinů, Bartók, Dvořák and Kodály.
Kristjan Järvi cuts quite a dash on the podium, youthful, exuberant and full of energy, all adjectives that could be applied to the music in last night's Barbican crossover gig by the LSO, entitled "Balkan Fever".
The Los Angeles Philharmonic’s January 20 concert, the last in its “Focus on Eötvös” mini-residency, may as well have been called “Focus on Hungary.” The small, landlocked country, with barely over 9 million residents, has exerted – and continues to exert – a powerful influence on music.
With so much of the chamber repertoire focused on strings and piano, it was a refreshing choice by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center to open their season with some of the great works for winds.
Composers have a long tradition of incorporating folk tunes into their music, and this evening’s concert by the National Youth Orchestra, with support from members of the folk group Bellowhead, really proved the point that musical genres are not separate boxes, but just points on a continuum, with no fixed boundaries.
Wednesday’s performance by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, entitled “Rising Star,” was the third in a series of four free concerts this year at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl. For over fifty years, these annual free concerts have given audiences in Melbourne a unique opportunity to sample select works from the classical music repertoire in open air.
I would be surprised if, by the end of the evening, I'd been the only one to suspect a hidden pun in the programme's title, 'In The Steppes of Central Europe'. All three pieces shared a dance element. You would expect this from Kodály's Dances of Galánta.
Zoltán Kodály was an ethnomusicographer as much as a composer: he studied the folk music of Hungary, and this influence can be heard in most of his works. Dances of Galánta is no exception, yet it is so much more than folk melodies arranged for an orchestra.
A "riot of orchestral colour" was promised, but little of it was allowed to flourish.
Elgar's Cockaigne Overture, written during the winter of 1900-01, is a portrait of a busy London, conjuring the hustle and bustle of everyday, metropolitan life. The orchestration, as is typical of Elgar, is often very detailed, the principal threads of the texture being added to momentarily here and there, as a flute highlights this and a tuba underscores that. Jac van Steen, the principal guest conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, exerted tight control over the score, but often at the expense of integration. As a result, the sound was unequal rather than homogeneous, which was further upset by moments of poor orchestral balance, the brass at times overwhelming their colleagues. Yet this was spirited playing that did much to realise the charm of Elgar's score.
Prom 15 given by Vladimir Jurowski and the London Philharmonic Orchestra was billed as a “Hungarian Prom” and featured music of Kodály, Bartók and Liszt.
Sometimes concerts are just concerts: music is performed, and if the juxtaposition of two pieces happens to provide some insight into the composer or his music, then this is a pleasing by-product of the performance. Other concerts are barely-disguised lectures; these concerts have grand aims and programmes thick with scholarly arguments.
The central Austro-German repertoire in this excellently conceived programme was flanked by two Hungarian works from the pen of archivist, educator and composer, Zoltán Kodály. A seamless suite of five deftly orchestrated, and increasingly animated movements, Dances of Galánta (1933) draws on memories of Kodály's happy childhood in the titular market town.
Evgeny Kissin dans le deuxième concerto pour piano de Bartók, avec Lawrence Foster à la tête de l'Orchestre national de France. Un engagement et une déterminatin à toute épreuve.
Der rein ungarische Konzertabend hatte mit einer engagierten Interpretation des Konzerts für Orchester von Zoltán Kodály begonnen und endete mit dem absoluten Highlight des Abends, dem großartigen Konzert für Orchester von Béla Bartók.
Vilde Frang leitete das Ensemble vom ersten Pult aus – hochqualifizierte, hochkarätige Individuen der gleichen Generation, vereint im Willen, eine Spitzenleistung zu erbringen.
Das Kelemen-Quartett überzeugte mit leichter Artikulation, einem weichen Ton und ausgezeichneter, sprechender Agogik und Dynamik, perfekter Koordination. Es agierte aus einem Geist, mit einer Seele.
Bei den Metamorphosen waren die leisen Stellen total verinnerlicht, und in den intensiven Partien schien das Klangbild demjenigen der vollen Besetzung in nichts nachzustehen.
Rafael Payare, chef vénézuélien offre une vision contrastée du Concerto pour orchestre de Bartók, sans pour autant mener le troisième concerto de Beethoven à bon port : la jeunesse de David Fray n'aura pas su donner l'amplitude nécessaire à l'œuvre du génie allemand... dommage car l'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande sonna bien...
Une programmation cohérente et originale, une prestation imparfaite mais sincère, des idées nouvelles : le concert Empereur de l'ONDIF, avec ses trois campagnes napoléoniennes, fut un concert intelligent.
Music in the shadow of war - Musik im Schatten des Krieges. Wie kunstvoll Angst und Schrecken auf das Schaffen unterschiedlicher Komponisten Einfluss nahmen, zeigten Steven Isserlis & Friends im Großen Saal der Stiftung Mozarteum an Werken von Debussy, Fauré, Strawinsky, Zoltan Kodály und Edward Elgar.
