Jonian Ilias Kadesha / Vashti Hunter A JOURNEY FOR TWO

A JOURNEY FOR TWO

Simon Smith / Clare Hayes / Paul Silverthorne / Katherine Jenkinson KODÁLY & DOHNÁNYI Chamber Works for Strings

CHAMBER WORKS FOR STRINGS

Julian Steckel KODÁLY

KODÁLY

Ditta Rohmann SOLO CELLO PORTRAIT

For the performing artist, a concert offers the possibility of freedom and spontaneity, the transient moment; while a sound recording, by capturing a crystallized production, makes it possible to record for posterity the current idea of the artist about the given piece of music. Ditta Rohmann chose the order of the works deliberately, fitting in a Kurtág piece as a bridge and also as an essential reflection between compositions by other composers. 

Her program gives a selection from about a hundred years of Hungarian cello literature.

I first met Ditta in the student orchestra of the Basel Music Academy. I have been following her career since, as her sound and technique were getting ever richer, and as her unwavering interest in everything important, valuable and special has grown. When I came across musical or technical difficulties that other musicians were unable to solve, I invited Ditta for concerts and first performances. Now, listening to this recording, I realized that when composing I always hear Ditta’s especially richly textured cello sound in my ears. (Péter Eötvös)

Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra / Jakub Hrůša BARTÓK & KODÁLY Concertos for Orchestra

Exuberant, colourful and edgy concertos for orchestra by Bartók and Kodály are brought together in spirited and vivid performances from the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by the podium sensation Jakub Hrůša on this PENTATONE release.

Bartók’s landmark Concerto for Orchestra is not only a thrilling orchestral tour de force; it’s also a striking and deeply expressive work which effortlessly assimilates Hungarian folk melodies and rhythms in its compelling and polished score. At times brooding and mysterious, it’s Bartók’s most popular and uplifting work, and it ends in a flurry of high spirits.

With its lush and vivid orchestration and a healthy rhythmic swagger, Kodály’s lesser-known Concerto for Orchestra is a captivating and buoyant work. Inspired by the Baroque concerto grosso but updated with a romantic sensibility, the result is a sure-footed, rousing and energetic showpiece for orchestra.

Natalie Clein / Julius Drake KODÁLY Sonata for Solo Cello - Adagio - Sonatina - Epigrams - Romance Lyrique

The wonderful young cellist Natalie Clein has been a familiar name since winning the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition in 1994. Since then, she has pursued a distinguished career performing with the most celebrated orchestras and conductors around the world. She has also made a number of recordings—generally concentrating on the most popular cello repertoire. For her Hyperion debut she turns to a composer who is extremely close to her heart, the great Hungarian national composer Zoltán Kodály, who by his discovery and creative use of his folk-music heritage forged the standard by which twentieth-century Hungarian music should be judged.

Kodály made a decision to concentrate on instrumental and chamber music in his composing career, and he seemed to achieve more powerful results the fewer instruments he dealt with. He displayed elegant formal grasp and structural sophistication in his two string quartets and sheer passion and epic sweep in the violin-cello Duo (1914). But above all towers the amazing, ardent, pugnacious Sonata for Solo Cello (1915), the greatest utterance in this most demanding of genres since J S Bach’s solo cello Suites. Calum MacDonald writes that ‘Had he written nothing else apart from this magnificent sonata, Kodály would still deserve to be accounted one of the greatest musical geniuses that Hungary has ever produced’. Natalie Clein’s performance of this highly emotional monlogue is a passionate, coruscating tour-de-force.

Also included are a delightful selection of Kodály’s other works for cello; performed here with Hyperion regular and Natalie’s frequent duo partner, Julius Drake. (Hyperion)

'I can remember first hearing the Kodály Solo Sonata, nearly 50 years ago, and being amazed at its scope and at the composer’s extraordinary resourcefulness. Something of this sense of wonderment returned on listening to Natalie Clein’s account; she produces an astonishing range of colours and evokes the widest variety of expressive styles. I find it admirable, too, how she’s able, in the recording studio, to maintain so much of the excitement and directness of live performance' (Gramophone)

Kim Kashkashian / Robert Levin ELEGIES

Kim Kashkashian is easily one of the finest violists to ever place her bow on the instrument. She shines just as effervescently in the company of an orchestra as she does solo or here alongside Robert Levin, a trusty accompanist with whom she shares a palpable musical bond, and puts the range of her talents on full display in this fine chamber program of mostly rarities.

On the whole, this album is very warmly recorded. Levin pulls from the piano an almost gamelan-like quality, while Kashkashian luxuriates in the plurivocity afforded to her. She interacts with her instrument as would fingers upon a spine and her tonal depth often breaches cello territory. For anyone who is curious to discover what her playing is all about but who is wary of her penchant for the contemporary, this is an ideal place to start. (ECM Reviews)

Andor Foldes WIZARD OF THE KEYBOARD

Andor Foldes was born in Budapest on Dec. 21, 1913, and began his studies privately with his mother, Valerie Ipolye, and with Tibor Szatmari. He made his public debut performing a Mozart concerto with the Budapest Philharmonic when he was 8 years old. The next year he entered the Budapest Academy of Music to study the piano, composition and conducting, but he continued to perform publicly.

During his student years, Mr. Foldes worked with several important Hungarian composers, among them Ernst von Dohnanyi, with whom he studied until 1932, and Bartok, whom he met in 1929. Bartok's music became a central part of his repertory. He gave the New York premiere of Bartok's Second Piano Concerto at Carnegie Hall in 1947. His 1948 recording of the work, prized by collectors, was recently reissued on compact disk, as was a set of Bartok works he recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, which won the Grand Prix du Disques and other prizes. A New York Premiere.

Mr. Foldes made his American orchestral debut in a radio concert in 1940 and his recital debut at Town Hall in 1941. He met his wife, a Hungarian journalist, in New York, and they became American citizens. In the 1950's, when Mr. Foldes's European concert engagements were more plentiful than his American ones, he and his wife moved to Europe, settling in Switzerland in 1961.

Besides a large discography, which includes not only the Bartok recordings but also works by Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Falla, Debussy, Poulenc, Liszt, Schubert and Rachmaninoff, Mr. Foldes was the author of "Keys to the Keyboard" (1948).

Among his awards are the Grand Cross of Merit, given by Germany in 1959 for his help in raising money to have the Beethoven Halle in Bonn rebuilt, and the Silver Medal of the City of Paris, given in 1969. (Allan Kozinn, The New York Times)