Bartók Béla - Concerto for Orchestra - Kodály Zoltán Psalmus Hungaricus Op. 13 / Hungarian Radio and TV Symphonic Orchestra / Cond. Tamás Vásáry / Audio CD

MADE IN HUNGARY 

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TOTAL TIME: 63:54 

Kozos Hullamhosszon 70 eve Magyar Radio

Bartók Béla - Concerto for Orchestra

"Maybe, it is the result of my improved state of health that I have managed to write a new orchestra piece (it was commissioned by the Koussevitzky Foundation ...), it’s quite a long piece, lasting approximately 40 minutes, in 5 move ments. I worked on it all September and it did not harm my health.” - wrote Béla Bartok in a letter in December 1943.
Serge Koussevitzky visited Bartok at his sick-bed and commissioned a work for his foundation for 1,000 dollars. The composer, taking advantage of his improving health, and the abatement of his fever, set to work and composed virtually day and night. Originally, when he accepted the com-
mission, Bartok had envisaged a work in the form of a cantata or an oratorio. Eventually - probably after persuasion
from Koussevitzky himself - he settled on composing a piece for orchestra He had written almost nothing during the
previous two years, and found himself almost overwhelmed by the flood of musical ideas that had germinated in his mind during those years of silence. This can be clearly seen from the surviving sketches. He had not written a work on this scale since his youth. Bartok even wrote a description of the Concerto for Orchestra for the premiere held in Boston on December 1, 1944. 

Psalmus Hungaricus, Op. 13, is a choral work for tenor, chorus and orchestra by Zoltán Kodály, composed in 1923. The Psalmus was commissioned to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the unification of Buda, Pest and Óbuda for a gala performance on 19 November 1923 along with the Dance Suite by Béla Bartók, and the Festival Overture by Ernő Dohnányi, who conducted the concert. The work's first performance outside Hungary took place under Volkmar Andreae in Zürich on 18 June 1926. This marked a turning point in the international recognition of Kodály as a composer, beyond his renown as an ethnomusicologist and music educator. The text is based on the gloss of Psalm 55, "Give ear to my prayer, oh God", by 16th-century poet, preacher, and translator Mihály Vég [hu]. Uncommonly, Kodály chose a sacred text to mark a secular occasion; the libretto's passages of despair and call to God provide opportunities for the composer to address Hungary's tragic past and disastrous post-Trianon Treaty predicament, when it lost over 70% of its national territory. The music reflects the nation's crisis during and after World War I (the partition of the historical Hungary), and the text draws a parallel between the sorrows of King David and the suffering of the Magyars in Ottoman Hungary. Thus, the Psalmus Hungaricus encompasses two and a half millennia of political distress.

Tracklist:

Bartók Béla - Concerto for Orchestra

1. I. Introduzione - Andante non troppo

2. II. Giuoco delle coppie - Allegretto scherzando

3. III. Elegia - Andante, non troppo

4. IV. Intermezzo interotto - Allegretto

5. V. Finale Pesante Presto

Hungarian Radio and TV Symphonic Orchestra 

Conducted by Tamás Vásáry

Kodály Zoltán - Psalmus Hungaricus Op. 13

6. Tenor szólóra, gyermekkórusra, vegyeskarra és zenekarra /

for tenor solo, chorus and orchestra

Words by Kecskeméti Vég Mihály

András Molnár Tenor

Hungarian Radio and TV Childrens choir

Budapest Symphony Orchestra

Conducted by Tamás Vásáry