Zoltán Kodály; Béla Bartók - Te Deum; Cantata Profana (Lawrence Foster)

Information

Composer: Zoltán Kodály; Béla Bartók

• Kodály - Budavári Te Deum
• Kodály - Psalmus hungaricus, Op. 13
• Bartók - Transylvanian Dances, Sz. 96
• Bartók - Cantata Profana, Sz. 94

Luiza Fatyol

Roxana Constantinescu

Marius Vlad

Ioan Hotea

Bogdan Baciu

Junior VIP (children's choir)

Transylvania State Philharmonic & Orchestra

Lawrence Foster, conductor

Date: 2023

Label: PentaTone

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Review

Béla Bartók once described the Cantata Profana as his ‘most profound credo’, yet it remains an under-appreciated part of his output. That may have something to do with the technical challenges of its writing for double chorus, tackled so strikingly well here. But what really sets this release apart is that it’s the first with a Romanian text close to what Bartók originally used before the work was published in Hungarian. It draws us back to the source of the piece, subtitled ‘The Nine Enchanted Stags’ and based on traditional Transylvanian ballads which tell of how a father loses his sons when, out hunting, they cross a haunted bridge and are transformed into stags. Dealing not only with personal loss but symbolising freedom and independence, it’s a key work of Hungarian-Transylvanian musical culture.

The conductor Lawrence Foster, a distinguished champion of Romanian music (Enescu in particular), draws a fierce performance from his choral and orchestral forces, and the tenor Ioan Hotea and baritone Bogdan Baciu. Underlining Bartók’s connections with Transylvania (the composer’s birthplace is in present-day Romania) he also shapes a vivid account of the Transylvanian Dances, the orchestral version of an earlier Sonatina for piano. The bagpipe-evoking woodwinds at its opening have special piquancy.

Zoltán Kodály’s Psalmus Hungaricus may be a better-known part of the choral repertoire, but the searing performance here (not least from the tenor Marius Vlad) will refresh anyone’s view of the work. His Budavári Te Deum, likewise written for a Budapest celebration, gets the album off to an imposing start, with Foster and his forces (including a quartet of vocal soloists) blazing away.

— John Allison

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Zoltán Kodály (16 December 1882 – 6 March 1967) was a prominent Hungarian composer. He was also an important figure who contributed heavily to music education in Hungary. As a composer, Kodály created an individual style that was derived from Hungarian folk music, contemporary French music, and the religious music of the Italian Renaissance. His notable works, many of which are widely performed, include Psalmus Hungaricus (1923), the opera Háry János (1926), Marosszék Dances (1930), Dances of Galánta (1933), Te Deum (1936), Concerto for Orchestra (1941), Symphony in C Major (1961), and chamber music.

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Béla Bartók (25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist and ethnomusicologist who is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century. As an ethnomusicologist, his fieldwork with the composer Zoltán Kodály formed the basis for all later research in the field. Bartók employed folk themes and rhythms into his own music, achieving a style that was nationalistic and deeply personal. His notable works include the opera Bluebeard's Castle (1911), 6 string quartets (1908–39), the Mikrokosmos piano set, Concerto for Orchestra (1943), and 3 piano concertos (1926, 1931 & 1945).

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Lawrence Foster (born October 23, 1941) is an American conductor of Romanian ancestry. Among his teachers and mentors are Fritz Zweig, Karl Böhm, Bruno Walter, Franz Waxman and Zubin Mehta. Foster has held music directorships with the Houston Symphony, the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic, the Duisburg Philharmonic, the Gulbenkian Orchestra, the Orchestre National de Montpellier, and the Polish National Radio Symphony, among others. He is particularly noted as an interpreter of George Enescu's works. Foster has recorded commercially for such labels as Deutsche Grammophon, EMI and Pentatone.

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