Hungarian Songs: Bartok, Kodaly & Ligeti

Listen on Presto Music. Free thirty day trial. Find out more.

Katalin Károlyi sings with ravishing tones, her bright mezzo often asked to navigate the soprano range. Her pitch is generally right on, so when a few surprise “off-color” notes do occur in two... — Fanfare, Jan/Feb 2024 More…

Release Date: 28th Jul 2023
Catalogue No: 96926
Label: Brilliant Classics
Length: 61 minutes

In stock

Usually despatched within 1 working day

Ligeti: Harom Weöres dal

Work length5:02

$3.00

$3.90

Katalin Károlyi, Klára Würtz

No. 1, Tancol a hold

Track length0:51

$1.00

$1.30

No. 2, Gyumolcsfurt

Track length2:13

$1.00

$1.30

No. 3, Kalmar jott nagy madarakkal

Track length1:58

$1.00

$1.30

Ligeti: Five Songs on Poems by János Arany

Work length9:09

$5.00

$6.50

Katalin Károlyi, Klára Würtz

No. 1, Csalfa sugar

Track length1:42

$1.00

$1.30

No. 2, A legszebb virag

Track length1:49

$1.00

$1.30

No. 3, A csendes dalokbol

Track length0:55

$1.00

$1.30

No. 4, A bujdoso

Track length2:57

$1.00

$1.30

No. 5, Az ordog elvitte a financot

Track length1:46

$1.00

$1.30

Kodály: Hungarian Folk Music (Magyar népzene)

Work length12:31

$4.00

$5.20

Katalin Károlyi, Klára Würtz

Vol. 5: No. 25, Magos kosziklanak (Love's Anodyne)

Track length4:04

$1.00

$1.30

Vol. 5: No. 27, Ifjusag mint solyommadar (a little sad song)

Track length2:09

$1.00

$1.30

Vol. 1: No. 2, Az hol en elmegyek (I rove)

Track length3:23

$1.00

$1.30

Vol. 5: No. 29, Csillagom reveszem (the ferryman)

Track length2:55

$1.00

$1.30

Kodály: Hungarian Folk Songs

Work length2:58

$1.00

$1.30

Katalin Károlyi, Klára Würtz

No. 12, Magos a rutafa [Green rue]

Track length2:58

$1.00

$1.30

Bartók: Hungarian Folk Songs (1947), Sz 42

Work length9:43

$8.00

$10.40

Katalin Károlyi, Klára Würtz

No. 1, Fekete fod (Black Is the earth)

Track length1:13

$1.00

$1.30

No. 2, Istenem, Istenem (My God, my God)

Track length1:19

$1.00

$1.30

No. 3, Asszonyok, asszonyok (Wives, let me be one of your company)

Track length0:58

$1.00

$1.30

No. 4, Annyi banat (so much sorrow)

Track length1:08

$1.00

$1.30

No. 5, Ha kimegyek (If I climb)

Track length1:06

$1.00

$1.30

No. 6, Toltik a nagyerdo utjat (They Are mending the great forest highway)

Track length1:20

$1.00

$1.30

No. 7, Eddig valo dolgom (Up to now my work)

Track length1:39

$1.00

$1.30

No. 8, Olvad a ho (the snow Is melting)

Track length1:00

$1.00

$1.30

Bartók: 5 Hungarian Folksongs, BB 97, Sz. 33

Work length5:38

$5.00

$6.50

Katalin Károlyi, Klára Würtz

No. 1, Elindultam szep hazambul (I left my fair homeland) [Version for voice and piano]

Track length0:58

$1.00

$1.30

No. 2, Által mennék én a Tiszán ladikon (Version for voice and piano)

Track length0:46

$1.00

$1.30

No. 3, A gyulai kert alatt (Version for voice and piano)

Track length1:00

$1.00

$1.30

No. 4, Nem messze van ide … (Not far from here Is little Margitta) [Version for voice and piano]

Track length2:12

$1.00

$1.30

No. 5, Vegigmentem a tarkanyi (I walked to the end … ) [Version for voice and piano]

Track length0:42

$1.00

$1.30

Bartók: 10 Hungarian Folksongs, Series 2, BB 43

Work length5:45

$4.00

$5.20

Katalin Károlyi, Klára Würtz

No. 1, Tiszan innen, Tiszan tul (On This side of the Tisza, on That side of the Tisza)

Track length2:01

$1.00

$1.30

No. 2, Erdok, volgyek, szuk ligetek (Woods valleys, narrow parks)

Track length1:48

$1.00

$1.30

No. 8, Sej, mikor engem katonanak visznek (Alas, when they take me to be a soldier)

Track length1:26

$1.00

$1.30

No. 10, Kis kece lanyom (My dear daughter)

Track length0:30

$1.00

$1.30

Bartók: Falun (Dedinske sceny, Village Scenes), BB 87a

Work length10:45

$5.00

$6.50

Katalin Károlyi, Klára Würtz

No. 1, Pri hrabaní [Szénagyüjtéskor, Haymaking]

Track length1:05

$1.00

$1.30

No. 2, Pri neveste [a menyasszonynál, At the bride's]

Track length1:18

$1.00

$1.30

No. 3, Svatba [Lakodalom, Wedding]

Track length2:39

$1.00

$1.30

No. 4, Ukoliebavka [Bölcsődal, Lullaby]

Track length3:51

$1.00

$1.30

No. 5, Tanec mládencov [Legénytánc, Lads' dance]

Track length1:52

$1.00

$1.30

About
Reviews
Explore

About

Only one year and a half after their first meeting in Budapest in early 1905, Bartók and Kodály were eager to jointly publish their first settings of Hungarian folk songs. In their foreword to the volume Magyar népdalok (Hungarian Folk Songs), they declare their goal thus: “…to get the general public to know and appreciate folk songs.”

The Ten Hungarian Folk Songs from 1906 (BB 43), Bartók’s earliest and still quite rudimentary but imaginative and very sensitive folk-song arrangements, were collected by the 25-year-old himself mostly in three regions of the Hungarian countryside: near Budapest, Békéscsaba, and the lake Balaton. This set, from which we can listen to four arrangements on this cd, has never been offered by Bartók to be published. Having collected peasant music from regions of the Hungarian Kingdom where significant Romanian and Slovak minorities lived, Bartók immediately became intrigued by the peculiarities – and from his point of view, musical freshness – of both nations’ songs and instrumental dances. His reverence for the folklore of the Slovaks can be felt in the five arrangements of the Falún (Village Scenes) series (BB 87a), composed in 1924 and based on folk songs from the Zólyom (in Slovakian: Zvolenská) region of what was then Upper Hungary (now Slovakia) he collected in 1917 from village women. These arrangements of bursting energy, enchantingly deep emotionality and transcendence also bear testimony to Bartók’s discovery of Stravinsky’s music which he was galvanised by in the early 1920s. The texts are sung by Katalin Károlyi in Hungarian here, not in their original Slovak-language version.

Before leaving Hungary for Austria and West Germany after the fall of the 1956 revolution, György Ligeti (1923–2006) not only collected folk music in his native Transylvania but also worked for the Institute for Folklore in Bucharest and Kolozsvár in the late 1940s. Thus, in his twenties and thirties, he followed the footsteps of his idols, Bartók and Kodály. In the last months of 1952, Ligeti set to music five poems by János Arany, a leading figure of 19th-century Hungarian poetry. Both text and music are deeply rooted in Hungarian folk songs; indeed, most of Ligeti’s melodies, or parts thereof, could be actual folk songs, just like Arany’s texts from almost a century earlier could be folk-song texts. The last piece is an exception, being a daring musical setting of Arany’s 1868 Hungarian translation of Robert Burns’ humorous song The Deil’s Awa Wi’ Th’ Exciseman (1792).

Other information:

- Recorded at the Westvest Kerk, Schiedam, The Netherlands

- Booklet in English contains liner notes by László Stachó, and profiles of the artists

- This attractive song program brings together three composers who share a common language, as well as their search for the inclusion of folkloristic elements in their own, unmistakably personal style.

- The Hungarian language, with its unique rhythm and emphasis, has strongly stamped the country’s folk music, and the music of Bartók, Kodály and Ligeti is inseparable from its roots and inspiration. Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály both roamed the Hungarian and Rumanian countryside in search of near-lost songs and vocal traditions, notating and recording a wealth of folk music thus saved for posterity.

- This program presents songs in Hungarian, capturing the spirit of the Hungarian soul: playful, passionate, melancholy and joyful.

- Sung by Katalin Károlyi, one of Hungary’s foremost mezzo-sopranos, whose repertoire stretches from Renaissance to contemporary music. She sang and recorded with William Christie, and György Ligeti wrote for her his important work for voice and ensemble “Sippal, Dobbal..”. Klára Würtz’ extensive discography for Brilliant Classics and Piano Classics brought her many prizes and top reviews, among which a Gramophone Editor’s Choice and a 10/10 on Classicstoday.com.

Reviews

Jan/Feb 2024

Katalin Károlyi sings with ravishing tones, her bright mezzo often asked to navigate the soprano range. Her pitch is generally right on, so when a few surprise “off-color” notes do occur in two songs, one assumes they were written in semitones. Klára Würtz is always right with her and excels in Bartók’s excursions into virtuosity.

Hungarian Songs: Bartok, Kodaly & Ligeti

CD

Downloads

Contents

Download queue