MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger


REVIEW


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

alternatively
CD: Crotchet AmazonUS
Download: Classicsonline


The Near Past of the Hungarian Flute
János DECSENYI (b.1927) Sonatina pastorale for flute and piano (1956) [8:24]
Mátyás SEIBER (1905 - 1960) Pastorale and Burlesque (1952) [7:45]
György KOSA (1897 - 1984) Notturno (1966) [12:16]
Csaba SZABO (1936 - 2003) Sonata con ritmo di ballo (1963) [19:44]
Endre SZERVANSZKY (1911-1977) Sonatina for flute and piano (1952) [9:18]
Kamillo LENDVAY
(b.1928) Quattro duetti (1965) [8:37]
Ferenc FARKAS (1905-2000) Meditazione (1990) [4:22]
Pá JARDANYI (1920 - 1966) Sonatina (1952) [4:40]
Zoltan Gyöngyössy (flute); Zsuzsa Kollär (piano)
rec. 28-February-3 April 2008, Budapest Hungaroton Studio. DDD
HUNGAROTON CLASSIC HCD 32578 [75:23]
Experience Classicsonline




It is always enjoyable to discover new repertoire for my instrument, and this disc is mostly new to me, containing flute music written in Hungary in the second half of the twentieth century.

János Decsényi’s Sonatina pastorale is the first of the works, falling into three short movements which, as the title suggests, have a distinctly pastoral feel. This piece is of moderate difficulty and the simple lines flow well between the flute and piano. In traditional fast-slow-fast format, the sprightly and cheerful folk-influenced final movement is particularly enjoyable.

Mátyás Seiber is one of the better known composers on this disc, and I first encountered his music as a recorder player many years ago. His harmonic language is more modernist than Decsényi’s, and this Pastorale and Burlesque seems to contain influences of both his former teacher Kodály and a range of styles heard during his international travels - he lived in both Germany and London. Originally composed for flute and strings, the recording here is of a version made by the composer for flute and piano. The music has a strong character, particularly the Burlesque, which is light-hearted and energetic.

György Kósa’s Notturno is a following melodic work containing sections for alto flute and piccolo, providing darker and brighter sounds for contrast. This is a piece with a sorrowful feel, its contemplative lines twisting and floating over a low and heavy piano part. This relatively long work is ominous yet with some beautifully expressive lines, keeping the direction and momentum going through to the final notes.

Csaba Szabó’s Sonata con ritmo di ballo is the most substantial work on the disc, lasting almost twenty minutes in total. From the opening bars it bursts full of rhythmic energy, and the harmonic language is very different from the others on this disc, combining neo-classical structural and rhythmic ideas with twelve-tone influenced melodic constructs. The opening movement features strong dotted-rhythm motifs and relentless energy. By contrast, the central movement is more flowing, although the sense of aggression remains, with dissonant harmonies in the piano and dramatic leaps in the flute line. The movement gives way to a toccata-like section, with enticing dissonances and angular lines. The final movement features some exhilarating rhythmic energy, with the flute soaring above piano ostinati. The two instruments share some of the melodic material through imitation and linking of lines, and the textural variety maintains the work’s sense of development and determination.

Endre Szervánsky’s Sonatina is a pedagogical piece, composed for the students of Zoltán Jeney. This is a melodic work which has a cheerful opening movement, sonorous central movement and a fast paced folk-influenced finale. Although technically simple, this is a charming piece which has much to offer. From a more modern time, when the rigorous demands of the Communist regime were somewhat more relaxed, Kamillo Lendvay’s Quattro duetti of 1965 gives, as the sleeve-notes state, a “rough idea of un-ideological and atonal but “nevertheless” comprehensible modern music as it was conceived by the powers that be of the time”. These four modernist pieces are well conceived and contrast well with each other. The pieces are expressive, dramatic and demonstrative of the varied capabilities of the flute and piano.

The Meditazione by Ferenc Farkas is a short and expressive melodic work, which is charming and well constructed, with a simplicity that is well-placed after the modernism of Lendvay. The final work on the disc, Pál Járdányi’s Sonatina is a short educational piece, which is perhaps best known by a British audience through its inclusion on the Associated Board’s exam syllabus. This is enjoyable writing and contains folk influences, a nostalgic central movement and a rhythmically biting finale.

Zoltán Gyöngyössy and Zsuzsa Kollár form an excellent duo and play well together to give a good representation of the music of their native country. Their playing is passionate, expressive and dramatic as the music demands. This disc provides a fascinating insight into Hungarian flute repertoire.

Carla Rees 
 

 
 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.