Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Kodály

Znaniecki's directorial success in Budapest: Kodály’s The Spinning Room

By Alexandra Ivanoff, 01 October 2016

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.

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Jerusalem

Jerusalem's International Chamber Music Festival: secret lair of great pianists

By Alexandra Ivanoff, 03 September 2016

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.

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Liszt, Kodály and Bartók organ transcriptions in Budapest

By Catherine Ennis, 22 May 2016

Transcriptions by Hungarian composers was presented at Müpa's organ festival.

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Cleveland

Andrés Orozco-Estrada makes spectacular Cleveland Orchestra debut

By Timothy Robson, 05 May 2016

Kirill Gerstein displayed not just virtuosity in Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto no. 1, but a beautiful sense of musical line.

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Tasty morsels from Fabien Gabels and BBCSO

By Chris Garlick, 26 February 2016

In a programme of mostly tasty morsels, Fabien Gabel and the BBCSO found a freshness and rhythmic vitality that made for a most enjoyable evening.

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Leamington Spa

Webern on the Lake: the Kodály Quartet at Leamington Music's chamber series

By Hedy Mühleck, 06 November 2015

The Kodály Quartet fascinates with strong ensemble and blind trust.

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MacMillan’s Second Percussion Concerto a pale imitation of his First

By Gavin Dixon, 11 December 2014

Colin Currie played with passion and verve, but James MacMillan's new Percussion Concerto was a disappointment.

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Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra at the Proms: melodies from the Habsburg Empire

By Lorenzo Fiorito, 25 August 2014

Fischer and his Budapest Festival Orchestra gave a breath-taking performance, with concentration and class.

*****

Detroit

Detroit Symphony in a triumphant return to Meadow Brook Music Festival

By Brian Wigman, 24 July 2014

The Detroit Symphony triumphantly returned to its summer home tonight after many years away, ending the 2013-14 season with a flourish.

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Auckland

Kelemen Quartet brings Hungarian fire to Auckland

By Simon Holden, 19 March 2014

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.

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Basingstoke

Muscular Rachmaninov forged at the Anvil

By David Truslove, 05 March 2014

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.

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Gateshead

From Bohemia to the Black Sea: Royal Northern Sinfonia's Late Mix Cabaret

By Jane Shuttleworth, 12 December 2013

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.

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Fevered but not all that Balkan? Crossover at the Barbican with the LSO and the Theodosii Spassov Trio

By David Karlin, 31 January 2013

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".

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Los Angeles

LA Phil finds focus on Bartók, Kodály – but not on Eötvös

By Ted Ayala, 20 January 2013

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.

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New York City

A mighty wind: Opening night at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center

By Amanda Keil, 24 September 2012

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.

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Gateshead

Beginning with a Sneeze: The National Youth Orchestra Folk Explosion

By Jane Shuttleworth, 12 April 2012

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.

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Melbourne

Melbourne Symphony: Kodály, Liszt and Tchaikovsky

By Alan Yu, 22 February 2012

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.

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Edinburgh

Scottish Chamber Orchestra: "In The Steppes of Central Europe"

By Alan Coady, 21 January 2012

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.

*****

Utrecht

Nicola Benedetti and Diego Matheuz: succesful debuts with the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra

By Renée Reitsma, 18 November 2011

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.

Prom 65: "A riot of orchestral colour?"

By Tom Hancox, 03 September 2011

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.

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Prom 15: Liszt rules at the Hungarian Prom

By Nahoko Gotoh, 26 July 2011

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.

Bartók explained

By Helen Fraser, 23 June 2011

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.

Edinburgh

A Perfect Symmetry

By Alan Coady, 08 April 2011

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.

Un trio de feu et des mains de velours : Mintz, Golan et Wieder-Atherton à la salle Gaveau

By Wenceslas Godel, 12 June 2018

Un véritable écho a résonné à la Salle Gaveau, en compagnie de Shlomo Mintz, Itamar Golan et Sonia Wieder-Atherton.

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Justesse et évidence, Victor Julien-Laferrière à la Fondation Louis Vuitton

By Manuel Gaulhiac, 30 March 2018

Un programme osé pour un concert mémorable, dont la pièce maîtresse sera la Sonate pour violoncelle seul op.8 de Kodály.

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Kissin dans Bartók ou le vertige du rythme et de la force brute

By Manuel Gaulhiac, 28 September 2017

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.

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Berlin

Mit Liszt in die Falle gelockt

By Benedikt Zacher, 14 June 2017

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.

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Hinreißende Kammermusik von Kodály & Enescu an der Festival Academy Budapest

By Rolf Kyburz, 13 June 2017

Vilde Frang leitete das Ensemble vom ersten Pult aus – hochqualifizierte, hochkarätige Individuen der gleichen Generation, vereint im Willen, eine Spitzenleistung zu erbringen.

*****

Beethoven, Schubert und eine Gänsemutter an der Festival Academy Budapest

By Rolf Kyburz, 11 June 2017

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.

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Ein Strauss Musik von Brahms bis Kodály: Eröffnungskonzert der Festival Academy Budapest

By Rolf Kyburz, 10 June 2017

Bei den Metamorphosen waren die leisen Stellen total verinnerlicht, und in den intensiven Partien schien das Klangbild demjenigen der vollen Besetzung in nichts nachzustehen.

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La Coruña

Diego Zecharies reivindica el Concierto para contrabajo de Eduard Tubin

By Pablo Sánchez Quinteiro, 11 November 2016

Zecharies y la orquesta transmitieron a la perfección la angustia y la excitación que el Concierto de Tubin exuda de principio a fin

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Vienna

Tanzen im siebten Musikerhimmel: Hilary Hahn und die Wiener Philharmoniker spielen sich in einen wahren Klangrausch

By Simon Haasis, 22 June 2016

Die Wiener Philharmoniker als kongeniale Begleiter von Hilary Hahn beschließen ihre Konzerthaussaison mit Kodály, Vieuxtemps und Rachmaninoff

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Geneva

L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande sous le soleil vénézuélien

By Thomas Muller, 20 January 2016

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...

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