György KURTÁG (b.1926)
Splinters, Op. 6 (1978) [6:55]
György LIGETI (1923-2006)
From Etudes, Book II: Fem (1988-1994) [3:03]
Zoltán KODÁLY (1882-1967)
Méditation sur un motif de Claude Debussy (1907) [4:59]
Seven Pieces for Piano (1917-1918) [25:57]
László LAJTHA (1892-1963)
De l’automne et du champ (1914) [2:27]
Bela BARTÓK (1881-1945)
Trois Burlesques pour piano, Op. 8 (1908-11) [7:43]
Zoltán JENEY (b.1943)
Ricercare * (1992) [4:13]
Arthur Rimbaud in the Desert * (1976) [5:16]
Gyula CSAPÓ (b.1955)
The Ultimate Goal * (1986) [8:04]
Mariann Marczi (piano)
rec. 14 October 2013, location not specified
* first recordings
ODRADEK RECORDS ODRCD307 [68:41]
Mariann Marczi was born in Hungary in 1977 and started playing the piano
at the age of four. After receiving her Doctorate of Music at the Ferenc
Liszt Academy in Budapest, Marczi won several national and international
competitions. For this CD Marczi chose works that have played an important
role in either her concerts or her academic research. When talking about
compiling this CD, she states:-
“I was fortunate to work with György Kurtág at several
of his master-classes - during the International Bartók Seminar
we did an intense and detailed analysis of his Splinters together.
I have also worked several times with Zoltán Jeney and Gyula Csapó
on their compositions. My doctoral thesis was the first complete survey
to analyse all 18 of Ligeti's Piano Etudes. I selected my favourite, Fém
(which means ‘metal’), for this CD. I have presented at conferences
on the piano works of Zoltán Kodály and László
Lajtha, and I won a prize at the 27th International Smetana
Piano Competition Plzen for my performance of Bartók's Three Burlesques.”
This CD offers an assortment of Hungarian piano pieces, from Bartók’s
celebrated Burlesques to Gyulo Csapó’s lesser known
Ultimate Goal.
As the two pillars of the Hungarian standard repertoire, the music of
Bartók and Kodály seems to have incorporated every off-beat
quirk of the Hungarian people and has subsequently influenced every other
composer in this selection.
Both born in Transylvania, studied in Budapest in the 1940s, influenced
by Stockhausen, multilingual and then exiled, Ligeti and Kurtág
feature here. Kurtág is perhaps more conventional, borrowing his
influences from the past; whereas Ligeti dared to invent a new language
containing chromatic tone-clusters and glimmers of parody.
However, with all of the composers on this CD elements of Hungarian folk
music, or ‘verbunkos’, can be heard both in the pieces themselves
and in Marczi’s performance. This style consists of a slow dance
followed by a faster one. The juxtaposition in pace represents the two
contrasting aspects of the Hungarian character and serves to keep the
listener on the alert.
Maximising the effect and impact of every note and gesture, Marczi plays
Kurtág’s Splinters with expressive intensification.
These shard-like sections, lasting mere seconds - a few minutes at most
- form a compositional journey where each fragment is a deconstructed
element, not a conclusive reduction, but a sliver of expansive possibility.
Both Marczi and Kurtág speak with a paradoxically quivering directness
that absorbs musical tradition, but does not become suffocated by its
heaviness. In this way, untrammelled, the unmediated joys and despairs
of life are given centre-stage.
Ligeti’s eighth etude, Fem is based on chords with short,
irregular, asymmetrically grouped melodic fragments playing off one another.
Marczi renders this short piece a chilling pitter-patter of falling raindrops
on an uneven surface. Ligeti’s three books of etudes are remarkable
additions to piano literature and are canonic masterpieces of allusion
and originality.
Kodály’s Méditation sur un motif de Claude Debussy
and Seven Pieces for Piano are majestically ethereal and otherworldly.
Blending Hungarian folk with French impressionism, Kodály’s
compositions are performed with subtle intelligence and heartening gravitas.
In de l’automne du champ, from Contres, Lajtha’s
sensibilities are unshackled by Marczi’s sensitivity, astonishing
openness and clarity. However, in Lajtha’s music one always hears
an intense struggle for revelation and freedom. Debussy’s influence
can also be heard in this piece. In an interview when Lajtha was seventy
years old, he commented that Debussy was the greatest master of our time
and had opened windows for composers to convey their thoughts. This piece
enables the listener to gaze out of such a window.
Bartók’s Trois Burlesques pour piano, composed shortly
after his Elegies, sees Bartók returning to a relatively
simplistic and sparse texture. This folk-inspired composition has a directness
of gesture and in its angularity, has numerous ‘modern’ qualities.
Marczi’s interpretation dramatises the dialogue between traditional
lyricism and sudden, unexpected accents. It might well make the listener
recall Bartók’s quip that: ‘It’s no good asking
why I wrote a passage as I did. I can only reply that I wrote down what
I felt. Let the music speak for itself.’ If Marczi has whetted your
appetite for Bartók’s piano pieces, do try Annie Fischer’s
recording of his Fifteen Hungarian Peasant Songs. Fischer’s
performance will certainly not disappoint.
Jeney’s works are often characterized by an extremely sparse and
static quality. Ricercare is a minimal piece, captivatingly symbolic
and utterly poetic. The influence of Pierre Boulez can be heard in Arthur
Rimbaud in the Desert. This piece sounds as if we’re three men
on Rimbaud’s drunken boat, as we rock listlessly with Jeney and
Marczi. To quote from Arthur Rimbaud’s poem entitled ‘The
Drunken Boat’, one could say that Jeney takes his listeners:
Where, suddenly dyeing the blueness, delirium
And slow rhythms under the streaking of daylight,
Stronger than alcohol, vaster than our lyres,
The bitter redness of love ferments!
Csapo’s The Ultimate Goal startles with a crashing opening
and elemental sounds. His mathematical compositional technique is not
cold or mechanically constructed, but organically moulded. Marczi’s
notes seem to hang, suspended in a muted, timeless world. More accessible
than Cage and Feldman, Csapo’s music is also largely influenced
by literary figures: Beckett, Rumi, Racine, Kafka, Artaud and the Hungarian
poet Janos Pilinsky.
In short, this CD merits high praise both for its exposé of modern
day composers and Marczi’s nuanced, intelligent interpretations.
Lucy Jeffery
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