Kodaly

The Naxos recordings by the Kodály Quartet are outstanding in every way and would. The performances are superbly shaped, naturally paced and alive; the playing is cultivated, yet it has depth of feeling too, and the group readily communicate their pleasure in this wonderful music. …The digital recording has vivid presence and just the right amount of ambience: the effect is entirely natural.

The Naxos recordings by the Kodály Quartet are outstanding in every way and would. The performances are superbly shaped, naturally paced and alive; the playing is cultivated, yet it has depth of feeling too, and the group readily communicate their pleasure in this wonderful music. …The digital recording has vivid presence and just the right amount of ambience: the effect is entirely natural.

Bach showed that the cello can dance, but composers from Rossini to Shostakovich have favored it as an instrument of pensive reflection and brooding melancholy. The playful cover photo notwithstanding, SOLO features Yo-Yo Ma in five 20th century cello works of a serious nature, all with folk influence and all echoing at least a bit of the troubles of the times in which they were written.

The wedding in 1568 of Renate of Lorraine to Wilhelm V, heir to the throne of the Duke of Bavaria, was a sumptuous, 18-day spectacular designed to rival those of the Italian courts. Orlande de Lassus had been the court’s maestro di cappella since 1556. Using an eye-witness account of the event, Ensemble Origo presents a hypothetical reconstruction of some of his musical contributions – a Te Deum, the moresca (a genre related to the villanella), and an improvised comedy – thereby shedding light on some of the various meanings that the music had for its 16th-century listeners.

“An absolute must for children young and old (Háry János)”– Grammophone
“The Psalmus Hungaricus receives a bright and forceful performance under Kertész, dramatically sung by tenor Lajos Kozma.”– Gramophone Classical Good CD Guide
"Committed and idiomatic performances recorded in three-dimensional sound. The highlights from the collection are the Suite, the sets of orchestral dances and the Peacock Variations – one of the finest sets ever written; but there is interest too in the rarer Concerto for Orchestra – earlier than Bartók’s and equally nationalistic – and the three-movement Symphony of 1961. – George Hall, BBC Music Magazine
"It’s marvellous to have Kertész’s brilliantly idiomatic performances of Kodály’s best-known works. Peter Ustinov’s narration of Háry János threads the whole together." – Jan Smaczny, BBC Music Magazine
"In Dorati's hands the passionate Andante [from the Symphony] is strong in gypsy feeling and the jolly, folk-dance finale is colourful and full of vitality." – Penguin Guide

In the chamber works recorded here, spanning Kodály’s career, we can hear an unwavering desire to place genuine Hungarian folk music (rather than the ‘style hongrois’ espoused by the Strauss family and many other composers) within classical music traditions. Bartók wrote of his compatriot that ‘if I were to name the composer whose works are the most perfect embodiment of the Hungarian spirit, I would answer, Kodály’.