Kodály: Chamber Works

On this CD:

1. Sonata for cello & piano, Op 4
Composed by Zoltan Kodaly
Performed by Niels Ullner

2. Duo for violin & cello, Op 7
Composed by Zoltan Kodaly
Performed by Anton Kontra, Niels Ullner

3. Adagio for violin (or viola or cello) & piano Violin version
Composed by Zoltan Kodaly
Performed by Anton Kontra

4. Sonata for cello solo, Op 8
Composed by Zoltan Kodaly
Performed by Niels Ullner

Tracks:

Fantasia
Fugue
Allegro
Allegretto
Presto
No. 1 In B Major
No. 2 In E Major
No. 3 In G Sharp Minor
No. 15 In A Flat Major
Ritual Fire Dance
Nocturne No. 4 (Bal Fantome) In C Minor, Op. 56
The Girl With Flaxen Hair
Mazurka in E Minor
Nocturne No. 13 In C Minor
Mephisto Waltz No.1
Allegretto
Scherzo
Allegro Molto
Sostenuto
Allegro Moderato
Sostenuto E Pesante
Allegro Molto
Allegro Barbaro

Tracks:

1. = 112
2. Adagietto
3. = 112
1. Un Poco Allegro
2. In Slow Blues Tempo
3. Allegretto
4. Allegro Molto
Molto Moderato
2. Vivace
3. Andante Sostenuto
Marosszeker Tanze
1. Lento
2. Szekely Keserves: Rubato, Parlando/ Szekely Lament/Sxekler Klage/Complainte Szekely
3. 'Il Pleut Dans Mon Coeur Comme Il Pluet Sur La Ville'(Verlaine): Allegretto Malinconico
5. Tranquillo
6. Szzekely Nota: Poco Rubato/Szekely Folksong/Szekler Volkslied/Chanson Populair Szekely
Circus Polka For A Young Elephant
Ragtime Bass In C Sharp Major
Tango In D Major, Op. 165 No.2

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Beautiful Christmas Music

Sing, Choirs of Angels
Anonymous , Guillaume Dufay , Tylman Susato , Christmas Traditional , Vincent Lubeck , Johannes Brahms , Franz Xaver Gruber , Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck , Michael Praetorius , Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina , Zoltan Kodaly , Gustav Holst , Jacques Arcadelt , Johann II Strauss , Arnold von Bruck , Unspecified , John Francis Wade , George Frideric Handel , Felix Mendelssohn , Malle Babbe Women's Choir , and Leny van Schaik
Manufacturer: Sony
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Sacred & Religious | Classical | Styles | Music

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General | Folk | Styles | Music

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Motets | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Musical Theater | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Noels | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Oratorios | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

General Christmas | Holiday | Miscellaneous | Styles | Music

General Christmas | Holiday Music | Special Features | Music

Classical Music | The Sony BMG Masterworks Store | Amazon.com Label Stores | Stores | Music

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Paradise Road
Songs of Angels - Christmas Hymns and Carols
Christmas at Trinity
A Robert Shaw Christmas - Angels on High

ASIN: B00000DD8Z
Release Date: 1998-10-06

Tracks:

Come, Let Us Sing Together
Hail, Queen Of Heaven
O Joyous One
Sonata From Christmas Cantata
Silent Night
Glory To God In The Highest
O Christmas Night, More Beautiful Than Any Day
Silent Night
Praise The Virgin Mother Of Christ
Behold, Mary
Come, Ye Shepherds
Silent Night
Hail, Holy Queen
Queen Of Heaven
Hail, Mary
Mary Walked Through A Forest
Ave Maria
Ave Maria
Nonnenchor (From The Operetta Casanova)
Grant Us Peace
Ave Maria
Lo, How A Rose E'er Blooming
Mary Had A Baby
I Saw Three Ships
Yodeler Prayer/Glory To God In The Highest/OCome, All Ye Faithful
Silent Night
Christmas Medley From Song Of Survival

Customer Reviews:

Beautiful Christmas Music.......1999-12-11

We first heard this CD on NPR while returning home from a business trip. We ordered the CD as soon as we could. The music is as close to perfect as choral music can be. The songs are short, so the pace changes appropriately. Most of the selections are familiar Christmas carols with a few surprises. We've sent copies to our friends to enjoy.

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The Life and Works of Joseph Haydn

Manufacturer: Naxos
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Quartets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

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General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

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General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

German | Languages | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Oratorios | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Masses | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Oratorios | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

General | Instructional | Miscellaneous | Styles | Music
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Life & Works
Life & Works of Bach
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Brahms: Life & Works

ASIN: B0000BXBXT
Release Date: 2003-10-21

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Kodály: Works for Mixed Choir, Vol. 2

Manufacturer: Hungaroton
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Noels | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Psalms | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

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A Cappella | Folk | Styles | Music

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Kodály: Choral Works for Male Voices

ASIN: B000BUEGLS
Release Date: 2005-11-29

Tiszta forrás (Pure Springs): Hungarian Folk Tunes and Their Arrangements in Works by Bartók and Kodály

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Tiszta forrás (Pure Springs): Hungarian Folk Tunes and Their Arrangements in Works by Bartók and Kodály

Manufacturer: Hungaroton
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Dances | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

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Csardas Hungarian Gypsy Music

ASIN: B00007138S
Release Date: 2002-10-29

Bartók in the Desert: The Art of Irén Marik

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Golden Voice
Living Room Concert Hall in California
No Mirage
Review of "Bartok in the Desert"
Yet another Arbiter discovery worth hearing - repeatedly

Bartók in the Desert: The Art of Irén Marik
Irén Marik
Manufacturer: Arbiter
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Richter Rediscovered
Iren Marik: From Bach to Bartók
Rediscovered Master
Two Hands

ASIN: B0006B983S
Release Date: 2004-11-30

Customer Reviews:

Golden Voice.......2006-06-17

Arbiter's first Marik cd not only re-discovers an artist the calibre of Tiegerman, Feinberg, and Valmalete, but, ipso facto, one of the great pianists of the 20th century.

The natural quality of her playing and golden tone remind immediately of Gieseking, Moiseiwitsch and Rubinstein; her sensitivity, projection, and humanity of Fiorentino; her Liszt playing surely of the composer himself.

Her difficult life remarkably generates a bitter-free spirit that kindles great warmth in all she plays, Benediction de Dieu dans le solitude truly a blessing upon the listner, the Liszt Berceuse pure magic, the rare first version of the Vallee d'Obermann ( not played by Horowitz at his 1966 Carnegie recital or Berman in his complete L'Annes for DDG) not only more interesting than the usual, but Marik proceeds to upstage the other two. These Liszt readings are surely some of the most distinguished Liszt playing ever. Her Liszt sound is so compelling, many-hued , bell-ringing higher registers, with an organ-like sonority in the bass,great technique, convincing rhetoric and vision.

In Kodaly's Dances from Marossszek , she is able to draw parallels to Liszt's music, in compelling,emotional readings.

Bartok in her hands takes on Debussian qualities,the Mikrokosmos selections reminding of the Frenchman's Preludes,further emphasized by several sensitively played selections from Debussy's Images and Preludes, and Ravel's Miroirs.

The Beethoven Op.109 Sonata again exudes warmth, color, equanimity, and an improvistory spirit, yet care to detail, reminding again how timeless, and contemporary, this music can be in the right hands, a worthy companion reading to my Schnabel,Ashkenazy,Uchida,Fiorentino,Richter of the same.

From the liner notes,by her friend, the Canadian author Evelyn Eaton:

"One summer in New Hampshire, in the studio...on the edge of woods overlooking a hillside and a pool, there had been three years of desolate silence.All the birds were gone,after an orgy of misdirected spraying.Iren came there ' on vacation', to practice,her usual five hours a day, more often seven, since she was free of teaching.The Beethoven Sonatas, Liszt's Benediction, his Saint Francis and the Birds,Debussy,Ravel, Bartok could be heard two miles away.Presently the woods filled with birds, madly answering.They sang so loud for certain pieces that she could hardly hear herself play. Nature responds,how gratefully,to beauty,to truth. Humans answer,too.Poets write poems,painters paint,dancers dance,gardeners garden, with renewed zest.Notes and letters and flowers and wine arrive.Iren responds. She gives parties.People look forward to her parties,avidly.They come to her home for comfort and never leave forlorn..."

With these cd's , two for modest $17, you too will receive much comfort. Highly reccomended.

Living Room Concert Hall in California.......2006-03-03

I heard a review of this CD on NPR and decided to check it out. Iren Marik made most of these recordings in the living room of her California home. They are unretouched and unedited and as such provide a very intimate experience. Even the range of dynamics of the CD attests to a living room experience. Playing the music of Bartok, Liszt and others, Marik provides music that is soothing but complex. I am not a classical music lover, jazz being my first love, but the music was as stirring as any jazz piano artists I have listened to.

No Mirage.......2006-01-21

Allan Evans, the Indiana Jones of the classical piano world who previously unearthed lost recordings by the likes of Ignace Tiegerman, Etelka Freund and Madeleine de Valmalete, is sharing with us his most precious treasure yet. Professional reviewers and ardent amateurs have lauded these performances, but I truly believe Marik's playing defies description. At its heart -- in Liszt, Debussy and Bartok -- there is a unique stillness. Whether it derives from the California desert or simple, honest musicianship devoid of ego, this stillness, this wholeness in Marik's otherwise ravishing playing has all the mystery of innocence. You must hear these recordings, and Evans -- who was bequeathed Marik's archive -- must be encouraged to share even more.

Review of "Bartok in the Desert".......2005-07-20

I am not particularly knowledgeable about music, but I have always loved piano music. What has been wonderful about this is the variety of composers represented, the powerful and yet subtle inflections of the music, and the seeming sponteneity of some of the musical interpretations. It does not have the plastic sound of a recording studio. The personality of Iren Marik is not erased with studio tricks.
The experience is a revelation each time I listen to it.

Yet another Arbiter discovery worth hearing - repeatedly.......2005-01-13

"Bartok in the Desert: The Art of Irn Marik"
Arbiter 143
2 mid price CDs

Yet another Allan Evans discovery - yet another pianist transplanted to an unlikely area because of the social and political horrors abroad, and yes, another historical pianist who deserves a listen. In my opinion, this is a "discovery" at least as important as that of Ignace Tiegerman, and Iren Marik left us many, many more recordings to enjoy. I keep returning to her Liszt "Benediction de Dieu dans le solitude", her "Jeux d'eau a la Villa d'Este", and her Bartok.

Those of you who may have been underwhelmed by the recordings of Michal Hambourg in her old age should not overlook Iren Marik - many of these performances are from stereo recordings made in the 50s and 60s, and she was on top of her form. Her playing is vital and rhythmic - with just a touch more rubato than we are accustomed to hearing in Bartok today.

I would like to share some impressions on some of the performances included. The disc opens with Liszt's "Benediction de Dieu dans le solitude". Now, I must admit that I do not care for Liszt when he got in his religious mode and wrote things such as "Jesus takes a bubble bath" - but this piece caught me off guard. Her playing is spacious, her tone rich and full, with beautiful voicing. This work is taken from an old LP on the little-known Zodiac label, and the recording earned some strong praise from none other than Harold C. Schonberg, who said "This kind of singing line, with such an accurate mechanism to boot is not too common nowadays. It is to be hoped that Miss Marik is heard in more Liszt - or indeed anything she feels like playing". I also enjoyed her "Harmonies du soir", and ESPECIALLY her "Les jeux d'eau a la Villa d'Este", which I may dare to rank close to Arrau. Her attention to the inner voices here is especially nice.

She studied with Bela Bartok, but admitted that she only played one of his works for him - "he said it was fine, so there was no need to spend more time on his music." Bartok is represented here with the first Rondo on Folk Themes, the Suite op. 14 (a personal favorite), Allegro Barbaro, and a selection from Mikrokosmos. The Suite is an especially fine performance, and the Mikrokosmos selections are colorful. At first I did not like her Allegro Barbaro. It is a previously unpublished take (for good reason - there is at least one misreading and measures are left out) but after having lived with this CD for a couple of weeks, I have decided that there is much to learn from this performance otherwise, and I am glad that it was included.

Bartok's contemporary Zoltan Kodaly is also represented, with a rhythmically vital performance of the Dances from Marosszk. Brahms is represented with the second of the op. 116 pieces, Beethoven with an impressive op. 109, Bach with a Sinfonia in D minor, ...and Debussy.

Her performance of the second book of Images is simply lovely. The sound of the 1974 vintage recording is quite good, and her variety of touch and immersion in the idiom make this a performance I will listen to repeatedly.

The transfers are all quite good - presumably from the original master tapes.

She was a contemporary of Etelka Freund, and if this is the only recording of hers that sees the light of day (Arbiter promises more), it alone is a more impressive legacy than what Freund left behind, in my opinion.

I recommend this release highly. Especially if you admire Liszt and Bartok.

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Andor Földes, Piano

Manufacturer: Hungaroton
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Suites | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B00005TND6
Release Date: 2001-11-27

Tracks:

15 Hungarian Peasant Songs Sz. 71, BB 79
15 Hungarian Peasant Songs Sz. 71, BB 79
15 Hungarian Peasant Songs Sz. 71, BB 79
15 Hungarian Peasant Songs Sz. 71, BB 79
15 Hungarian Peasant Songs Sz. 71, BB 79
15 Hungarian Peasant Songs Sz. 71, BB 79
15 Hungarian Peasant Songs Sz. 71, BB 79
15 Hungarian Peasant Songs Sz. 71, BB 79
15 Hungarian Peasant Songs Sz. 71, BB 79
15 Hungarian Peasant Songs Sz. 71, BB 79
15 Hungarian Peasant Songs Sz. 71, BB 79
15 Hungarian Peasant Songs Sz. 71, BB 79
15 Hungarian Peasant Songs Sz. 71, BB 79
15 Hungarian Peasant Songs Sz. 71, BB 79
15 Hungarian Peasant Songs Sz. 71, BB 79
Sonatina, BB 69, Sz 55
Sonatina, BB 69, Sz 55
Sonatina, BB 69, Sz 55
Sonata BB 88, Sz 80
Sonata BB 88, Sz 80
Sonata BB 88, Sz 80
7 Piano Pieces Op.11.
7 Piano Pieces Op.11.
7 Piano Pieces Op.11.
7 Piano Pieces Op.11.
7 Piano Pieces Op.11.
7 Piano Pieces Op.11.
7 Piano Pieces Op.11.
Pastorale - Hungarian Christmas Song
Two Miniatures
Two Miniatures
Two Little Piano Pieces
Two Little Piano Pieces
Suite Hary
Suite Hary
Suite Hary

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Kodály: The Complete Organ Works

Manufacturer: Bis
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Preludes | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000027F0V
Release Date: 1994-03-25

Tracks:

Pange Lingua, Praeludium
I. Intro
II. Kyrie
III. Gloria
IV. Credo
V. Sanctus
VI. Benedictus
VII. Agnus Dei
VIII. Ite, Missa Est
I. Lento
II.
III.
IV. Moderato
V. Allegretto
VI. Andantino
VII. Con Moto
VIII.
IX.

Rautavaara: Complete Works for String Orchestra

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It all started with his 3rd Symphony and "Cantus Arcticus."

Rautavaara: Complete Works for String Orchestra

Manufacturer: Ondine
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Polkas | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

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Rautavaara: Piano Concerto No. 3 "Gift of Dreams", Autumn Gardens / Ashkenazy

ASIN: B00005BIJ7
Release Date: 2001-07-24

Tracks:

Pelimannit-Fiddlers, Op. 1: Narbolaisten braa speli
Pelimannit-Fiddlers, Op. 1: Kopsin Jonas
Pelimannit-Fiddlers, Op. 1: Klocker Samuel Dikstrom
Pelimannit-Fiddlers, Op. 1: Pirun polska
Pelimannit-Fiddlers, Op. 1: Hypyt
Divertimento: Allegro
Divertimento: Adagio
Divertimento: Allegretto ma energico
Suite For Strings: Presto
Suite For Strings: Andante
Suite For Strings: Vivace assai (Alla giga)
Hommage a Liszt Ferenc
An Epitaph For Bela Bartok (Prelude and Fugue)
Hommage a Kodaly Zoltan

Tracks:

Canto I
Canto II
Canto III
Canto IV
Ballad for Harp and Strings
A Finnish Myth
Ostrobothnian Polska

Amazon.com

The music of Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara (b. 1928) is a wily mix of regional Romanticism and many of the European trends in atonality that began in the 1950s. Yet Rautavaara's music is both endurable by and accessible to the first-time listener. This two-CD set of works for string orchestra appeared on two Ondine discs, both released in 1995. It offers a wide range of works that highlight Rautavaara's compositional strengths and musical interests. Disc one contains his tone poems, works that tend toward the Romanticism of Sibelius, especially Pelimannit--The Fiddlers (1952) and the gorgeous Divertimento (1953). Disc two contains the more acerbic compositions of the latter part of the 20th century. Best here are Ballad for Harp and Strings (1973/1981) and Canto IV (1992). If you missed the original releases of this music, then track this one down. It's a must for Rautavaara fans. --Paul Cook

Customer Reviews:

It all started with his 3rd Symphony and "Cantus Arcticus.".......2001-10-24

It started innocently enough. Approximately a year and a half ago, I had barely - if that - a subliminal awareness of Einojuhani Rautavaara as a "contemporary" composer, one of a large number of present-day Finnish composers. (There is something weirdly wonderful about such a small country having such a large number of active - and recognized - composers, but that is a whole 'nother story.)

In the intervening 18 months, that initial hearing of Rautavaara's music (on a Naxos release which I review elsewhere at Amazon.com) led me to become pretty much a Rautavaara "compleatist." As I write this, there are very few holes in my library of his music, and I figure that those holes will be plugged rather quickly. He's had that kind of effect on me.

This double-CD album of Rautavaara's complete works for string orchestra is the latest release by Ondine, the Finnish label which has an exclusive contract for first recorded performances of his works. The compositional period covered almost matches Rautavaara's career, in that dates for the various works cover the period 1952 - 1993. The album provides, as a result, an excellent overview of how his style has changed throughout his career, from Stravinsky-like neoClassicism in the earlier works to his mature evocative "Angels" style of his later works.

The album begins - logically enough - with his Op. 1, Pelimannit ("The Fiddlers" [1952]), a whacky riot of fun with its occasional off-tune fiddling. The next two works (Divertimento [1953] and Suite for Strings [1952]) clearly suggest the neoClassicism of Stravinsky (an early idol of Rautavaara's), but it is also possible to read into these works the sound worlds of both Britten and Respighi in the ways that they evoked earlier styles. Taken together, these three youthful works capture Rautavaara's early style, which goes down very easily in its accessibility.

The next set of three works - homages to the three most famous Hungarian composers (Liszt, Bartók and Kodály) - may not have been intentionally meant to suggest the Ugric ties between the languages of these two countries (Finland and Hungary). These three pieces do capture, however obliquely, various aspects of the three composers' styles, with the Hommage à Kodály Zoltán being the most "Hungarian-sounding." A somewhat more challenging triptych than the first three works, but not at all inaccessible.

The four Cantos opening the second CD show how, over time, Rautavaara developed a post-modernist "late period" style that synthesized many of his earlier styles (including serial, or twelve-tone, efforts). The two earlier Cantos begin to show his unique approach to serialism that was more fully realized in his echt-Bruckner 3rd Symphony; they put the lie to twelve-tone music being "unlistenable." The two later Cantos show Rautavaara's evocatively rhapsodic "Angels" style in full bloom, as do the following two pieces (Ballad for Harp and Strings, and A Finnish Myth).

The album comes full-circle with the final work, Ostrobothnian Polksa, more good cheer in the vein of the Op. 1 opening work. I think that opening work will hook you, and that the balance of this comprehensive album will be equally enjoyable. I may be a Rautavaara compleatist, but this album will be immensely appealing to all who hear it. And do check out that Naxos album I mention at the outset of these comments. That's a great one as well.

Bob Zeidler