The Bartok Album

Muzsikas - The Bartok Album

The Bartok Album
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CD Details

Artist: Muzsikas
Composer: Hungarian Traditional
Composer: Bela Bartok
Composer: Romanian Traditional
Performer: Zoltan Farkas
Performer: Zoltan Juhasz
Performer: Alexander Balanescu
Performer: Alexander Baleanescu
Performer: Ignac Veres
Performer: Marta Sebastyen
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 1999-09-21
Music Label: Hannibal
Soundtracks:
  1. Dunantuli Friss Csardasok
  2. Jocul Barbatesc
  3. Violin Duo No.32, 'Dance Of Maramaros'
  4. Maramaros Dances
  5. On The River Bank
  6. Swineherds' Dance
  7. Dunantuli Ugrosok
  8. Shepherd's Flute Song
  9. Forgacskuit Lads' Dance
  10. My Horse's Shoe
  11. Violin Duo No.28, 'Sorrow'
  12. Bonchida: Slow Lads' Dance
  13. Magyarbecei Oreges Csardasok
  14. Pe Loc
  15. Bota Dance
  16. Torontal Dances
  17. Ardeleana
  18. Vioiln Duo No.44, 'Transylvanian Dance'
  19. Fuzes: Lads' Dance
  20. The Churchyard Gate
  21. Kalotaszeg Dances
  22. I Left My Homeland

Music reviews of The Bartok Album

Music Review: Returning to Bartók's sources for folk inspiration
Rating: 5 Stars

This appears to be the most recent CD from the leading Táncház ("dance house") musical ensemble, who kickstarted the Hungarian revival of folk music in later decades-- much as Bartók pioneered it earlier last century. Excellent liner notes by the group narrate the classical musician's determination to expose middle classes in Europe to folk traditions that the urban audiences had forgotten even existed. Like Zoltán Kodály within Hungary at the same time, Bartók went into the field, with primitive recording equipment, to capture what enchanted him. This disc recreates what he found: snippets of found sound, variations on the original themes that Bartók would have heard as played by Muzsikás and friends, and their elaborations that as dances and violin duos would have inspired Bartók's own Romanian- and Hungarian-based classical works.

The marvelous singer Márta Sebestyén can capture the ranges of many female vocalists from a variety of regional styles. Her voice, although I prefer it on the band's own records when it's smoother, here tends towards a harsher, more staccato, rougher texture. She's reproducing the delivery of the rawer ethnic heritages. The band's often playing one or two instrumentalists rather than as a full line-up on many tracks; they are often accompanied by featured Romanian violinist Alexander Balanescu. The addition of the cimbalom and percussion from Gypsy or Rom influences colors some songs, as typical of many Hungarian albums.

For me, track 15 (see Amazon for the Magyar-English renderings of these title) stands out. It's sweet, to the point of heartbreaking. Following this, tracks 16-19 show how Bartók may have found source material that led to his Violin Duo #44. The classical versions that the composer produced, by the way, as played on tour in recent years by Muzsikás with the Tákacs Quartet are not included on this CD. This would certainly be welcome, however, for a follow-up from a band that's been has not been heard from with "old-new" material in the West this past decade.

It's the simpler, more plangent, and rather primitive vibrancy within much of the contents here that endures. As the band concludes its note, they share their countryman's fascination with their land's musical legacy: rather than a musicologist's dissection, their tribute album returns to the same sources that refreshed the composer. They wonder: "what is it in folk music, that attracted Bartók like a magnet? It is a question that applies equally to ourselves."

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Description of The Bartok Album

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Hungarian composers were among the world's most diligent in using folk resources to inform their classical compositions, and no composer was more involved in his nation's folk music than Bela Bartók. His recording expeditions into the Hungarian countryside in the early years of the 20th century preserved a musical heritage that might have otherwise been lost. While his main interest was finding inspiration for radical new music, his recordings lived on to inspire generations of modern folk revivalists. This album is a tribute to Bartók's work. The songs he recorded are born anew in the strings of Muzsikás and singer Márta Sebestyén. They play and sing these old songs in a traditional style but never fail to stamp a strong personal mark on the material. In addition to Muzsikás's own renditions, the CD includes a few special tracks of the original Bartók recordings that let you hear the old style of playing and singing in the purest form. There are also a few Bartók compositions, performed by Muzsikás fiddler Mihaly Sipos and Romanian classical violinist Alexander Balanescu. The old recordings and the Bartók works add a unique perspective to the folk songs, offering us a timeline from the oldest sources to the most modern interpretations. --Louis Gibson

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