‘Szinergia’ is the title of a new album from Accentus, which takes the listener on an exhilarating journey through deep European musical roots. All of the tracks, in one way or another, channel aspects of Hungarian folk music through works by composers Karl Amadeus Hartmann, Paco de Lucia, Leo Weiner, Zoltán Kodály, and Béla Bartók.
Clarinetist Pablo Barragán, with the Sárközy Trio of violinist Lajos Sárközy, bassist Rudolf Sárközy, and Gyula “Julius” Csik on cimbalom, provide significant solo power backed by the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra led by cellist István Várdai. This mix of outstanding musicians shines on a high level of technical engagement while invoking deep love of the material they’ve assembled. Anchoring everything on this disc are the superb arrangements by Jonas Dominique, L. Sárközy, Barragán, Csik, and Vardai.
After the first track’s introduction of indigenous and spirited Hungarian folk rhythms through Kodály’s ‘Kálló Double Dance’, we are suddenly plunged into the fascinating musical mind of Hartmann, whose all-too-short life (1905-1963) was filled with existential angst, due to the two world wars involving his own country, Germany.
On track 2, Hartmann’s Chamber Concert for Clarinet, String Quartet and String Orchestra (1930-35), opens with a beautifully orchestrated Introduction, followed by six Variations, and ending with a Fantasie, all of which paint a starkly emotional canvas that time-travels through his consciousness. This remarkable work, which was dedicated to Kodály, didn’t receive its world premiere until 1969 in Zürich, thirty-four years after his death, and two years after Kodály’s.
Weiner, like Kodály and Bartók, also searched the Carpathian Basin’s towns and villages to find the folk tunes and dances with which to shape his suite of ‘Old Hungarian Dances, Opus 20.’ In it we hear the Fox Dance for young, unmarried men, the Csardas, the Verbunkos, the Marosszek Waltz and the thrilling Csűrdön¬gölo, a dizzying Romani romp for men joyously stomping on the fresh floor of a new barn. Kudos to the dare-devil violinist Sárközy, whose fiery performance of this is thrilling.
Bartók’s popular Romanian Folk Dances, a suite of seven pieces originally written for violin and orchestra, and in this recording rearranged for clarinet, cimbalom, and strings (by Dominique, originally for clarinetist Martin Fröst), is a real gem. The clarinet’s voice lends an almost theremin-like quality to much of the melodic content. Barragán’s rendition, with the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Várdai, is unforgettable.
De Lucia’s thoughtful and improvisatory ‘Callejón del Muro,” for solo clarinet provides a fanciful segue into Kodály’s ‘Epigrams No. 3 and No. 6’ arranged by Várdai, who also opens No. 3 with a sonorous cello solo. The final short Epigram leaves us with a rich and melancholic portrait of a bygone world, but beautifully resurrected here with inspired synergy. This is an album you’ll want to play on Repeat, continuously.
Nota bene: cellist István Várdai will perform Elgar’s Cello Concerto on Friday, November 22nd at the Franz Liszt Academy, with maestro Gergely Madaras conducting the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège. Várdai’s cello is the same legendary Stradivarius that Jacqueline du Pré played on her famous recording of the Elgar.
