05/04/2017

'Ködellik a Mátra'

Over the past few decades, an extraordinary form of cooperation emerged between Liszt Prize-winning pianist and world-famous music educator Balázs Szokolay, and Balázs Dongó Szokolay, the Prima Prize-awardee natural and instinctive musician, who rose to appearance on the largest international stages without any formal training in music.

Together, they want to effect an approach to the work of Bartók and Kodály that is as authentic as possible. Their concerts set in strong relief the fact that the line between the genres is not all the sharply drawn.

In the first half of this show, timed for the Spring Festival and the Kodály anniversary, the composer’s works can be heard in a special instrumentation, with the piano accompanied by folk recorders and the tárogató. The second half is the world premiere of Sír az út előttem, Balázs Dongó Szokolay’s song cycle, whose inspiration came from archaic folk music.

“It is regrettable,” wrote Kodály, “that our composers do not make folk song arrangements more often. It would facilitate, more than anything else, the rapprochement of folk and composed music.”