Only one year and a half after their first meeting in Budapest in early 1905, BartÃ³k and KodÃ¡ly were eager to jointly publish their first settings of Hungarian folk songs. In their foreword to the volume Magyar nÃ©pdalok (Hungarian Folk Songs), they declare their goal thus: "... to get the general public to know and appreciate folk songs." The Ten Hungarian Folk Songs from 1906 (BB 43), BartÃ³k's earliest and still quite rudimentary but imaginative and very sensitive folk-song arrangements, were collected by the 25-year-old himself mostly in three regions of the Hungarian countryside: near Budapest, BÃ©kÃ©scsaba, and the lake Balaton. This set, from which we can listen to four arrangements on this CD, has never been offered by BartÃ³k to be published. Having collected peasant music from regions of the Hungarian Kingdom where significant Romanian and Slovak minorities lived, BartÃ³k immediately became intrigued by the peculiarities - and from his point of view, musical freshness - of both nations' songs and instrumental dances. His reverence for the folklore of the Slovaks can be felt in the five arrangements of the FalÃºn (Village Scenes) series (BB 87a), composed in 1924 and based on folk songs from the ZÃ³lyom (in Slovakian: ZvolenskÃ¡) region of what was then Upper Hungary (now Slovakia) he collected in 1917 from village women. These arrangements of bursting energy, enchantingly deep emotionality and transcendence also bear testimony to BartÃ³k's discovery of Stravinsky's music which he was galvanised by in the early 1920s. The texts are sung by Katalin KÃ¡rolyi in Hungarian here, not in their original Slovak-language version. Before leaving Hungary for Austria and West Germany after the fall of the 1956 revolution, GyÃ¶rgy Ligeti (1923-2006) not only collected folk music in his native Transylvania but also worked for the Institute for Folklore in Bucharest and KolozsvÃ¡r in the late 1940s. Thus, in his twenties and thirties, he followed the footsteps of his idols, BartÃ³k and KodÃ¡ly. In the last months of 1952, Ligeti set to music five poems by JÃ¡nos Arany, a leading figure of 19th-century Hungarian poetry. Both text and music are deeply rooted in Hungarian folk songs; indeed, most of Ligeti's melodies, or parts thereof, could be actual folk songs, just like Arany's texts from almost a century earlier could be folk-song texts. The last piece is an exception, being a daring musical setting of Arany's 1868 Hungarian translation of Robert Burns' humorous song The Deil's Awa Wi' Th' Exciseman (1792).

Tracklist:

No.
Tancol a Hold [00:51]
No.
Gyumolcsfurt [02:13]
No.
Kalmar Jott Nagy Madarakkal [01:58]
No.
Csalfa Sugar [01:42]
No.
a Legszebb Virag [01:49]
No.
a Csendes Dalokbol [00:55]
No.
a Bujdoso [02:57]
No.
Az Ordog Elvitte a Financot [01:46]
Vol. 5: No. 2
Magos Kosziklanak (Love's Anodyne) [04:04]
Vol. 5: No. 2
Ifjusag Mint Solyommadar (A L Ittle Sad Song) [02:09]
Vol. 1: No.
Az Hol en Elmegyek (I Rove) [03:23]
Vol. 5: No. 2
Csillagom Reveszem (The Ferryman) [02:55]
Magyar Nepdalok (Hungarian Folksongs): No. 1
Magos a Rutafa (Green Rue) [02:58]
No.
Fekete Fod (Black Is the Earth) [01:13]
No.
Istenem, Istenem (My God, My God) [01:19]
No.
Asszonyok, Asszonyok (Wives, Let Me Be One of Your Company) [00:58]
No.
Annyi Banat (So Much Sorrow) [01:08]
No.
Ha Kimegyek (If I Climb) [01:06]
No.
Toltik a Nagyerdo Utjat (They Are Mending the Great Forest Highway) [01:20]
No.
Eddig Valo Dolgom (Up to Now My Work) [01:39]
No.
Olvad a Ho (The Snow Is Melting) [01:00]
No.
Elindultam Szep Hazambul (I Left My Fair Homeland) [00:58]
No.
No.
a Gyulai Kert Alatt [01:00] 2
No.
Nem Messze Van Ide... (Not Far from Here Is Little Margitta) [02:12]
No.
Vegigmentem a Tarkanyi (I Walked to the End...) [00:42]
No.
Tiszan Innen, Tiszan Tul (On This Side of the Tisza, on That Side of the Tisza) [02:01]
No.
Erdok, Volgyek, Szuk Ligetek (Woods Valleys, Narrow Parks) [01:48]
No.
Sej, Mikor Engem Katonanak Visznek (Alas, When They Take Me to Be a Soldier) [01:26]
No. 1
Kis Kece Lanyom (My Dear Daughter) [00:30]
No.
No.
Pri Neveste (A MenyasszonynÃ¡l, at the Bride's) [01:18]
No.
Svatba (Lakodalom, Wedding) [02:39]
No.
Ukoliebavka (BÃ¶lcsodal, Lullaby) [03:51]
No.

UPC: 5028421969268
Label: Brilliant Classics
Release Date: 7.28.23
Format: CD

Bartok / Kodaly / Wurtz - Hungarian Songs (CD)