Hungarian composers

[Amphissa]

I've opened a folder for Hungarian composers, beginning with premier performances of a couple of pieces by Miklós Rózsa, who was one of the great composers of Hollywood movie scores.

[Lionel Harrsion]

Thanks very much, Amphissa, for the Miklós Rózsa Viola Concerto; I've only just listened to it - blimey, what a stonkingly good piece!  (Apologies for the slang but Rózsa has so wowed me that I've lost the power to write elegantly.)

[eschiss1]

The only recording of The Veil of Pierrette recently I can think of is a suite on Chandos, but maybe there's been something more complete even more recently...

[Alan Howe]

You are forgiven, Lionel. Rózsa was a stonking good composer, wasn't he?

[Lionel Harrsion]

You are forgiven, Lionel. Rózsa was a stonking good composer, wasn't he?

He surely was.  And while his music is as identifiably 'Hungarian' as Zoltán Kodály's, it has an individuality which delineates it from the older man's. 

[Amphissa]

Yes, I love the Rózsa Viola Concerto. In comparison, to my ears, the more famous Bartok is rather bland and uninspiring. Perhaps that is just me. I like the Bartok the string quartets, but everything else just seems tepid to me.

[Dundonnell]

Yes, I love the Rózsa Viola Concerto. In comparison, to my ears, the more famous Bartok is rather bland and uninspiring. Perhaps that is just me. I like the Bartok the string quartets, but everything else just seems tepid to me.

Not Bluebeard's Castle surely?? Nothing "tepid" about that, is there? When Bluebeard opens the Fifth Door to allow Judith to see his whole realm the orchestral representation is one of the most glorious passages in all music!!

[eschiss1]

The output of both Rozsa and Bartok (the moreso Bartok to my mind, but I have both early- opp. 1 and 2* , anyway... - and late Rozsa in my collection I think and can speak with some knowledge) is so diverse (in style, I mean) it's hard to get a handle on either from which to make such a comparison. But -that- is just me.

(Comparing works of the same composer each time, that is.)

*Reference Recordings tape with Pennario at the piano in Rozsa's piano quintet. There has been a more recent coupling- a natural one I think!- of both works - the quintet in F minor grave and dramatic, the string trio in D minor (recorded both times I think in its later revised form) more a mixture of moods with a capricious finale that always gets a chuckle out of me... but I have not heard the newer one. A very different Rozsa than some of his fans may be used to, but I recommend these pieces if you don't know them- and this time definitely in the Romantic orbit of the forum (despite the 1928-1929 dates. )

[eschiss1]

further on Moór: besides cello sonatas, some of his multiple-cello suites have had a very slight grasp on the very fringes of the concert and recorded (LP I think- maybe a CD or two...) repertoire i think (so his suite for 4 cellos op.95, and maybe his suite for 3 violins op.133, get a few more performances than his concertos and symphonies because of less competition... and among concertos that for 2 cellos more than those for piano or violin, likewise- though his trio and quartet concertos have not yet been the beneficiaries of this too-general argument! - then again there's a fair amount of competition for a piano trio and orchestra concerto now like his opus 70.

A list of his works is here at the Emanuel und Henrik Moor Stiftung. (Links to biography, etc.)

[Amphissa]

Not Bluebeard's Castle surely?? Nothing "tepid" about that, is there? When Bluebeard opens the Fifth Door to allow Judith to see his whole realm the orchestral representation is one of the most glorious passages in all music!!

I'm not really much attracted to atonal opera. Actually, my tolerance for opera is pretty low to begin with. So, I have only listened to small portions of this and have not been drawn in for more.

[eschiss1]

Atonal if you like, but it's relatively early Bartók (1910-11) and more or less in F-sharp (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluebeard's_Castle).

[JimL]

Not Bluebeard's Castle surely?? Nothing "tepid" about that, is there? When Bluebeard opens the Fifth Door to allow Judith to see his whole realm the orchestral representation is one of the most glorious passages in all music!!

I'm not really much attracted to atonal opera. Actually, my tolerance for opera is pretty low to begin with. So, I have only listened to small portions of this and have not been drawn in for more.

Bartok isn't actually atonal, although it can be pretty gritty stuff to listen to.  He's no more atonal than, say Hindemith.

[eschiss1]

tonality does get -really- stretched here and there especially in some works but that's true with Hindemith too...

[Dundonnell]

"Bluebeard's Castle" atonal?

Surely not? It is really late Romantic in style is is not?

Maybe it stretches tonality at times in the same way as Schoenberg's "Gurreleider" but to call it atonal would be misleading at best. Anyway there is absolutely nothing atonal about the quite glorious passage to which I referred

Everybody has different tastes of course but I find it hard to believe that the opening of the Fifth Door would not be accepted as one of the most viscerally exciting and almost overpoweringly grandiose moments in all opera.

[Amphissa]

The entire approach of parlando rubato discourages melody. True, Bartok was not entirely opposed to melody. But because of his use of this device and his interest in using patterns of speech in music, there just aren't many melodic passages in most of the Bartok that I've heard. I find this easier to assimilate in orchestral music and chamber music.

Perhaps polytonal would be more accurate way of describing what I hear in Bartok. But to my ears, multiple key centers is, in effect, atonal since there is no one key that anchors the music. This doesn't bother me in instrumental music. I don't love most Bartok music, but I don't find it particularly wonderful either. The string quartets are the exception. I like those quite a lot.

However, I don't really enjoy vocal music without melody or tonality.

But then, as I said, I'm not a real opera lover to begin with and my tolerance for vocal music is limited.