Intermezzi / Improvvisazioni / Invenzioni Sul B-A-C-H / Sonata No. 3 / Three Pieces / Sounds

MHV recording Made in Hungary Total time Side A: 30:58 Side B: 30:48 This recording presents six piano works by six Hungarian composers. All six originated between 1971 and ’73, growing out of the common tradition of Hungarian piano literature hallmarked by Béla Bartók, and revealing the common aim to utilize the qualitites inherent in the instrument in the most versatile manner possible. At the same time the six pieces also show differences, not only as far as the individual profile of their composers is concerned but in the technique of their realization as well, embracing a broad scale ranging from Baroque stylization to the electronic „distortion” of pianistic sound. Intermezzi (1972) by István Láng (b. 1933) consists of an uninterrupted chain of ten short movements, with the various movements representing different musical characters and varying piano textures. Nevertheless, the movements with fast tempos (I: Impetuoso – IV: Presto – V: Con fuoco – X: Tumultuoso) constitute the pillars of the composition. The musical material is lent versatility by the alteration of the metrical and the completely free, ametrical movements. In the 8th movement the direct plucking of the piano strings produces a singular effect. Improvisazioni by Miklós Kocsár (b. 1933) originated in 1972. Although the title would allow for a certain structural looseness, the work actually reveals a strictly woven fabric with three kinds of musical character: there unfolds a rather grave complementary combination, a lighter, strongly rhythmic but not metrical material, and a formulation with rapid, running passages, illuminated from several apsects. Invenzioni sul B-A-C-H composed by József Soproni (b. 1930) in 1971, is based on the well-known four-note motive which offers inexhaustible possibilities both in melody and resonance for the composer’s imagination in variation and development. The composition is constructed in pairs of variations, which include the „al rovescio”, that is, „cancrizans” motion of the musical material employed, and reach their emotional peak in the quotation of Bach’s chorale „Es is genug”. Endre Székely (b. 1912) composed his Piano Sonata No. 3 in 1971, for Ádám Fellegi. The three-movement work centres around a fiery, fast movement of giusto character, dominated by the strongly rhythmical, but asymmetrical musical material. The first movement, with its „Molto rubato, quasi recitativo” character, plays an introductory role, with the equally slow closing movement, bearing the inscription „Misterioso”, rhyming to it. A fast moving section is built, one might say as a trio, into the musical fabric containing special tonal effects. These effects are produced by sounding the piano strings directly, in various manners: with timpani sticks, the fingers, the nails, the palms, etc. Three Piano Pieces (1973) by László Kalmár (b. 1931) forms part of a series of numerous small pieces. The three pieces on the present record, whose sequence of playing, incidentally, is not prescribed, are each a miniature expression of a musical idea. Sounds (1972) by László Sáry (b. 1940) is an aleatoric piece; the composer fixed only certain sound combinations, leaving their musical motion and development to be improvised by the performer, with consideration for the time proportions set by the composer. The work whose first section centres round C natural, and the second round E flat, gains its peculiar tone by means of a socalled Ringmodulator tuned to C and natural E flat respectively, which modulates the natural tone of the piano in an electroacoustical sense. János Kárpáti Ádám Fellegi graduated from the piano faculty of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Budapest in 1963. Since 1969, he has been a soloist at the National Philharmonia. He has attended a number of international piano contests. In 1966 he was given the special prize awarded by the jury of the Liszt-Bartók International Piano Competition in Budapest, and within the framework of the Vienna Festival Weeks, he won first prize at the master course of Paul Badura-Skoda, Jörg Demus and Alfred Brendel. In 1969, he reached the finals of the Munnich competition. He has given many concerts in Austria, Britain, the Federal Republic of Germany, the German Democratic Republic, Italy, Holland, the Soviet Union, Poland, Bulgaria and Cuba. Ádám Fellegi’s repertoire includes a large number od works by 20th century Hungarian and foreign composers.