Only a really grumpy listener could fail to enjoy this. Here
is a well-chosen potpourri of 20th century Hungarian
and Romanian showpieces, some famous and others slightly off
the beaten track. Zoltán Kodály’s Dances of Galánta get
a reading of gratifying vigor and allure, his Háry János
Suite is very satisfyingly shaped, and shorter works by
Béla Bartók and György Ligeti provide a more balanced picture
of the nuances of the folk music movement.
Ligeti’s name might be a surprise inclusion, so we should start
there. The Romanian Concerto is early Ligeti, dating
from his 28th year, and it’s an extremely charming
work which will instantly appeal to any admirer of Kodály or
Enescu (or even Dvorák). Its two slow movements are in very
different moods, complete with Bartókian violin solos, and the
finale is a madcap folk dance with a catchy tune and truly zany,
brilliant orchestration. The only hints of the sound-world we
associate with mature Ligeti are in the tangy dissonances which
occasionally give the concerto its color. The soloists are,
unusally, two natural horn players, who bring the work to an
unforgettable finish as a lone violin plays fiendish harmonics.
Indeed, there are quite a few soloists on this album. Orchestra
leader Mihaela Costa supplies marvelously idiomatic violin solos
in the short Bartók works, the First Violin Rhapsody
and the Two Portraits, and also has a heavy workload
in the Ligeti. Cyril Dupuy delivers a really delicious cimbalom
performance in the Háry János suite — I’ve loved the
cimbalom since first hearing it in a Hungarian expatriate club
in Australia, years ago, and Dupuy’s playing is really as good
as it gets. In fact, nearly everyone in the Gulbenkian Orchestra
gets to chip in with a solo at some point. Sometimes they seem
over-prominent (as in the opening of the Dances from Galánta),
but the clarinets and horns, especially, really get into the
rustic spirit of the music. The brass are suitably raucous in
the battle scene of Háry János, too. Can the Gulbenkian
Orchestra do Kodály’s Concerto for Orchestra next?
Conductor Lawrence Foster, who, despite his very English name,
has Romanian parents, is an energetic, devoted exponent of this
music. He and the Gulbenkian Orchestra, which he has led since
2002, work together with flawless rapport: these are clearly
artists thriving on each other’s presence. The Ligeti concerto,
the least familiar music on the disc, is also the most thrillingly
alive. The sound picture is wide and realistic (one can hear
the violins divided), though it takes a while to adjust to the
prominence of the solo players. Bass is gratifyingly present.
There’s a weird buzzing sound at the start of Bartók’s first
Portrait, but it is nearly inaudible and goes away before
the music begins. If the program intrigues you - and, if you
enjoy having fun, it should! - you have no reason whatever to
hesitate. A solid 75 minutes of pure pleasure.
Brian Reinhart
Mihaela Costa (violin) 
