Sándor Veress - Hommage à Paul Klee; etc. (András Schiff)

Information

Composer: Sándor Veress

• Hommage à Paul Klee
• Concerto for Piano, Strings and Percussion
• Six Csárdás

András Schiff, piano

Dénes Várjon, piano

Budapest Festival Orchestra

Heinz Holliger, conductor

Date: 1998

Label: Teldec

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Review

Initial impressions are misleading: a comfortably crescendoing string chord followed by simple keyboard chiming, a bit like a fragment from a soap-opera soundtrack. But then the fun really starts: the two pianos combine or converge, the ray of string tone finds some pizzicatos for company, and the chiming starts to sound like a page out of Lou Harrison. “Mark in Yellow” had me phoning round my musical friends with the good news of some accessible music that has real quality (not a daily happening, you will agree).

The first of the “Fantasies for two pianos and string orchestra” that comprise Sandor Veress’s 1951 Hommage a Paul Klee strikes a tone that could as well have been achieved within the last two or three years by, say, Rautavaara, Hovhaness or indeed Harrison. The second piece, “Fire Wind”, blows in like a hurricane, shivering or snapping to col legno strings and pizzicatos; the third is an “Old Sound” that superficially resembles the slow movement of Rodrigo’s much-loved Concierto de Aranjuez (the soloists open with the principal melody and the strings plunge in with their passionate response at 1'37''), then there’s the dry weaving of “Below and Above”, the guitar-like strumming of “Stone Collection”, the textural richness of “Green on Green” and a lively “Little Blue Devil” to close. Andras Schiff and Denes Varjon leave no phrase open to question, and the Budapest Festival strings under Heinz Holliger play brilliantly – and lusciously – throughout. Teldec thoughtfully reproduce photographs of the original Klee pictures, so you can check your own visual reactions against those of the composer.

So, who exactly was Sandor Veress? He was born in Hungary in 1907, assisted Laszlo Lajtha at the Budapest Ethnological Museum, worked with Bartok in the folk music department of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, emigrated to the West, received various prizes towards the end of his life, and died in 1992.

He evidently enjoyed concocting sweet-toned first subjects: the Concerto for piano, strings and percussion (1952) again opens with disarming lightness and simplicity. The first two movements are in ternary form, while in the third, “the scurrying writing is controlled by a twelve-note row” (as Andreas Traub’s excellent notes remind us). Bartok is a strong influence, especially in the first movement’s driving rhythms and the atmospheric music of the central Andante (very reminiscent of Bartok’s Second Piano Concerto). The string writing is highly distinctive, though the percussion part tends occasionally to be of the crash-bang-wallop variety (witness the finale’s opening).

Schiff’s performance is naturally sympathetic, while his droll accounts of the six pre-war Csardas – contrapuntal miniatures that possess something of Copland’s boldness and candour – round off a rare and unexpected musical treat. The recordings are excellent.

— Gramophone

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Sándor Veress (1 February 1907 – 4 March 1992) was a Swiss composer of Hungarian origin. Born in Klausenburg, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Cluj-Napoca, Romania), he studied and later taught at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest. Among his teachers were Zoltán Kodály, with whom he studied composition, and Béla Bartók, with whom he studied piano. Among the composers who studied under him are György Ligeti, György Kurtág and Heinz Holliger. As a composer, Veress wrote numerous chamber music pieces and symphonic works, as well as an opera named Hangjegyek lázadása (1931).

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András Schiff (born 21 December 1953) is a Hungarian-born British classical pianist and conductor. Born in Budapest to a Jewish family, studied piano at the Franz Liszt Academy with Pal Kadosa, György Kurtág, and Ferenc Rados; and in London with George Malcolm. Schiff has performed cycles of complete Beethoven sonatas and the complete works of J.S. Bach, Haydn, Schubert and Bartók, which constitute an important part of his work. Having collaborated with the world's leading orchestras and conductors, he now focuses primarily on solo recital, play-conducting appearances, and exclusive conducting projects.

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