Sz 8.7.2023

In art, theory and practice often influence each other, and it is frequently impossible to establish which one comes first. In music, in particular, theorizations are most commonly an ex post formalization of what has been uncontroversially employed by performing musicians and “composers” (of written music or of improvised music). The relationship between improvisation, oral tradition and composition is also a multifaceted one: on the one hand, folk music can be more conservative than the “cultivated” repertoire, whose composers deliberately choose to explore new ways. On the other, however, folk tradition may be more open to new ideas, in the absence of written rules and of the dynamics of “academic” musicianship. (This does not imply, of course, that there are no rules in folk music, oral tradition, or improvisation: quite the contrary. A folk improviser is deeply rooted in a tradition made of implicit or explicit rules, which must be obeyed and can be transgressed only within a delicate balance of acknowledgment of the improviser’s genius and social approval).
One field in which the divergence between “cultivated” music and folk music can be very pronounced is that of modality. This technical word of the musical jargon refers to “modes” of organizing musical pitches.

‘From a musical point of view, but especially with regard to the stageworthiness of the work, these cuts represent an absolute improvement’ Bartok wrote to his publisher when he had finished his definitive revision of his Wooden Prince – cutting out much of the music relating to specific stage action, but also generally tightening the symphonic structure, making its large-scale mirror form appear clearer. Normally performed and recorded in its non-revised full-length version, it has been a joy now to follow Bartok’s inspired last wish revision of this mystic, vital, otherworldly, and grotesque fantasy music. (Thomas Dausgaard)

"Two important works dominate volume nine of this series. The first is Bartók's substantial and ambitious late-Romantic Piano Sonata, Op. 19, a very early work, composed when he was around 17 before his studies in Budapest. It was long considered lost and is heard in Goran Filipec's performing edition, prepared from the manuscript. Zongoraiskola or Piano Method' was devised in collaboration with composer, pianist and teacher Sándor Reschofsky who contributed the exercises. Bartók's 48 original pieces are perfectly formed and charmingly refined, allowing him an opportunity to explore his ideas of piano pedagogy."

The Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and its chief conductor Karina Canellakis continue their Bartók journey with the composer’s only opera, Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, starring mezzo-soprano Rinat Shaham (Judith) and bass-baritone Gábor Bretz (Bluebeard). One man, one woman, and a dark castle with seven mysterious doors are all it takes to create a psychological thriller full of suspense and intense emotion. Karina Canellakis and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra received a Grammy nomination for their recording of Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra and 4 Orchestral Pieces, which BBC Music Magazine praised as “enticing and brilliantly engineered”, while Gramophone lauded how orchestra and conductor “paint the soundscapes with both finesse and fire.” For Canellakis, Bartók’s opera recorded here is “an homage to life itself, to life’s brevity and fleeting beauty, to being human, to love, and to death.”

The three works on this recording bear witness to thechanges that took place at the dawn of musicalmodernism.

She is currently a member of the Novus Promusica team, a record label headed by the composer and music producer Manuel Ruiz del Corral, with whom she has developed both composition and production skills. Under this label she has recorded two albums, 'Jeux' and 'Reflets'. One of the facets that characterizes her is her commitment to contemporary music; in her discography there is absolutely inspiring music by Einojuhani Rautavaara, Manuel Ruiz del Corral, Miguel Bustamante, Ana Silva, José Buenagu and Brian Field.

Irene Cantos is currently a member of the Novus Promusica team, a record label headed by the composer and music producer Manuel Ruiz del Corral, with whom she has developed both composition and production skills. Under this label she has recorded two albums, 'Jeux' and 'Reflets'. One of the facets that characterizes her is her commitment to contemporary music; in her discography there is absolutely inspiring music by Einojuhani Rautavaara, Manuel Ruiz del Corral, Miguel Bustamante, Ana Silva, José Buenagu and Brian Field.

She is currently a member of the Novus Promusica team, a record label headed by the composer and music producer Manuel Ruiz del Corral, with whom she has developed both composition and production skills. Under this label she has recorded two albums, 'Jeux' and 'Reflets'. One of the facets that characterizes her is her commitment to contemporary music; in her discography there is absolutely inspiring music by Einojuhani Rautavaara, Manuel Ruiz del Corral, Miguel Bustamante, Ana Silva, José Buenagu and Brian Field.As a composer, she has explored various genres of film music and has composed and produced the music for the promotional video for the new building of the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Malaga created by the architect Eduardo Pérez Gómez. She is currently immersed in the composition of a commission for Lynn University (Florida).