Kodaly - Te Deum, Psalmus Hungaricus; Bartók - Cantata Profana, Transylvanian Dances
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Label: Pentatone
Cat No: PTC5187071
Format: Hybrid SACD
Number of Discs: 1
Release Date: 3rd November 2023
Contents
Works
Cantata Profana, BB100 Sz.94 'The Nine Splendid Stags'Dances of Transylvania, BB102b, Sz96
Psalmus Hungaricus, op.13
Te Deum of Buda Castle
Artists
Luiza Fatyol (soprano)Roxana Constantinescu (mezzo-soprano)
Marius Vlad (tenor)
Ioan Hotea (tenor)
Bogdan Baciu (baritone)
Junior VIP
Transylvania State Philharmonic Choir
Transylvania State Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor
Lawrence FosterWorks
Cantata Profana, BB100 Sz.94 'The Nine Splendid Stags'Dances of Transylvania, BB102b, Sz96
Psalmus Hungaricus, op.13
Te Deum of Buda Castle
Artists
Luiza Fatyol (soprano)Roxana Constantinescu (mezzo-soprano)
Marius Vlad (tenor)
Ioan Hotea (tenor)
Bogdan Baciu (baritone)
Junior VIP
Transylvania State Philharmonic Choir
Transylvania State Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor
Lawrence FosterAbout
The Transylvania State Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra and conductor Lawrence Foster present choral-orchestral works by Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály. They join forces with a remarkable group of soloists – including Luiza Fatyol, Roxana Constantinescu, Marius Vlad, Ioan Hotea and Bogdan Baciu – as well as the Junior VIP children’s choir.
The album opens with Kodály’s Budavári Te Deum and Psalmus Hungaricus, followed by Bartók’s Transylvanian Dances and culminating in the composer’s Cantata Profana. The latter work, based on ancient myth, was originally conceived in Romanian, but the piece is usually performed in a Hungarian version. This recording reinstates the Romanian original version, retouched by choir conductor Cornel Groza. In general, this recording by Romanian ensembles of works by Hungarian composers linked to Romanian sources can be seen as an exploration of Romania and Hungary’s shared roots, and of the bicultural nature of Transylvania in particular.
Sound/Video
Paused
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1Kodály: Budavári Te Deum (1936): 1. Te Deum laudamus
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2Kodály: Budavári Te Deum (1936): 2. Pleni sunt coeli et terra
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3Kodály: Budavári Te Deum (1936): 3. Te gloriosus Apostolorum chorus
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4Kodály: Budavári Te Deum (1936): 4. Te per orbem terrarum
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5Kodály: Budavári Te Deum (1936): 5. Tu Rex gloriae
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6Kodály: Budavári Te Deum (1936): 6. Tu ad dexteram Dei sedes
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7Kodály: Budavári Te Deum (1936): 7. Te ergo quaesumus
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8Kodály: Budavári Te Deum (1936): 8. Et rege eos
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9Kodály: Budavári Te Deum (1936): 9. In te Domine speravi
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10Kodály: Budavári Te Deum (1936): 10. In aeternum
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11Kodály: Psalmus Hungaricus, op.13 (1923): 1. Mikoron Dávid nagy búsultában
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12Kodály: Psalmus Hungaricus, op.13 (1923): 2. Te azért lelkem
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13Kodály: Psalmus Hungaricus, op.13 (1923): 3. Igaz vagy Uram
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14Bartók: Transylvanian Dances (Erdély táncok), Sz.96 (1931): 1. Allegretto
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15Bartók: Transylvanian Dances (Erdély táncok), Sz.96 (1931): 2. Moderato
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16Bartók: Transylvanian Dances (Erdély táncok), Sz.96 (1931): 3. Allegro vivace
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17Bartók: Cantata Profana, Sz.94 (1930), Part I: Cel uncheş bătrânu
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18Bartók: Cantata Profana, Sz.94 (1930), Part I: Hei hei, prin codri umblară
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19Bartók: Cantata Profana, Sz.94 (1930), Part I: Până şi-au d’aflatu
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20Bartók: Cantata Profana, Sz.94 (1930), Part II: E-hei, şi drag tăicuţul loru
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21Bartók: Cantata Profana, Sz.94 (1930), Part II: Tăicuşoru loru din grai şi-o strâgatu
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22Bartók: Cantata Profana, Sz.94 (1930), Part III: Cel uncheş bătrânu
Europadisc Review
Anyone at all familiar with the lands of east-central Europe will know the special allure of Transylvania, a region encompassing the centre of present-day Romania and enfolded by the vast swirl of the Eastern Carpathians. Associated in the popular imagination with Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and steeped in ancient myths and legends, this is a corner of Europe rich in history which has seen it change hands between Hungary and Romania, between Romans and barbarians, Christians and Ottoman Turks. Its folk culture, like its natural beauties, is particularly bountiful, and in the early 20th century, when the region was still part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, both Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály eagerly collected its traditional music (Bartók amassed a staggering 3,500 tunes in the decade between 1907 and 1917).
How good, then, to welcome a new disc from the Transylvania State Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra devoted to these two composers, and recorded in the region’s unofficial capital (and Romania’s second-largest city), Cluj. Recorded under the veteran American conductor Lawrence Foster on the Pentatone label for which he has made an impressive number of recordings in recent years, it includes accounts of three major choral works which exude an idiomatic earthiness and evident love and enthusiasm for the music, with an impressive array of local soloists.
The programme opens with an exhilarating account of the Te Deum which Kodály composed in 1936 to mark the 250th anniversary of the liberation from Turkish rule of Buda Castle, on the western bank of the Danube just downstream from the Hungarian Parliament in what is now Budapest. It’s a work which combines an interesting tonal structure with elements of folk music, but which has an unmistakable celebratory atmosphere and Kodály’s compositional thumbprints. In the glorious tutti passages, the Transylvanian chorus sings as if their collective life depended on it, and the orchestral contribution matches it in splendour. The mysteriously subdued opening of the seventh section, ‘Te ergo quaesumus’, is particularly haunting, and the solo quartet – soprano Luiza Fatyol, mezzo-soprano Roxana Constantinescu, tenor Marius Vlad and baritone Bogdan Baciu – add singing of great expressivity and radiance. If some of the quiet passages don’t have quite the magic of Kodály’s own 1958 recording, the immediacy and vividness of this new account, and the thrill of its closing pages, more than compensate.
The same urgent commitment is evident in the following performance of Kodály’s large-scale breakthrough, the Psalmus Hungaricus. This was commissioned to mark the 50th anniversary of unification of Buda, Pest and Óbuda, and its grittily involving paraphrase of Psalm 55, alternating between anger and despair, reflects the national crisis confronting Hungary in the wake of World War I and the postwar Trianon Treaty. The same qualities have also made it a favourite with choruses around the world. Much of the vocal burden rests on the shoulders of the tenor soloist, and here Marius Vlad’s slightly baritonal tinge and granitic timbral edge deliver in spades as surrogate for the biblical King David, resolute in the face of assailants on all sides. The central climax (at the words ‘Smite them with destruction, O Lord’ in Edward J. Dent’s familiar translation, but sung here in the original Hungarian) is immensely gripping, while the following consolatory passage (‘So in Jehovah I will put my trust’) is beautifully traced by the orchestra, including delicate harp roulades, and caressing woodwind solos surrounding the tenor soloist. After a return to more forthright mood, the closing paragraphs are particularly radiant, the pacing and balance expertly handled by Foster, before mists descend at the end.
It's something of a wrench to then plunge into the rustic mood of Bartók’s three Transylvanian Dances of 1931 (a breezy orchestration of his 1915 Sonatina for piano), but the enjoyment of the players in this close-miked performance is palpable, as if they were finally allowed to let their hair down in a rural celebration of their homeland.
The respite is brief, however, as we then enter the mysterious, mythical world of the Cantata Profana composed a year before the Dances were orchestrated. Recounting the Christmas folk legend of the ‘Nine Enchanted Stags’ (an old man’s nine sons are raised to hunt deer but, entering a mysterious realm, they are transformed into stags and are unable to return home when he discovers them), this work was originally conceived with a Romanian text before appearing with its better-known Hungarian text. On this recording, some valuable detective work has allowed Foster and his forces to perform the work in Romanian, and it’s another performance of fierce commitment, with excellent choral singing, an imposing impersonation of the old man by Bogdan Baciu, and, as the eldest son/stag, the more youthful tenor of Ioan Hotea – a little nasal, perhaps, but more than equal to the staggering requirements of this technically demanding high tenor role. Imbued with Bartók’s highly individual modernism, this is a splendid performance that stands up very well to more illustrious competition. As with the whole of the disc, the performance exudes a deep familiarity with and love for the music, and Foster doesn’t short change the listener in spikiness. In sum, an unusually rewarding disc, essential listening for lovers of both composers, and a real feather in the cap for these Transylvanian forces.
Reviews
Composers with shared Hungarian-Romanian roots who were lifelong friends with a love of the region’s folk music – an obvious pairing, perhaps, but an inspired one, beautifully realised by the Transylvania State Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra and some superb soloists under Foster. Kodaly’s Te Deum is wonderfully lush, turbulent and devotional, while his Psalmus Hungaricus – expertly sung – are both universal and inescapably local. Bartok’s lighthearted Transylvanian Dances canter and frolic to playful effect, drawing superb performances from the Philharmonic. In Cantata Profana, by contrast, orchestra and choir dig down into the murky depths.The Sunday Times 12 November 2023
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