Book the date of 16th December in your calendar and enjoy the “Kodály 138” anniversary concert from the comfort of your home on the birthday of Kodály. Immerse yourself in the beauty of Kodály's music and get enchanted by the splendour of the famous Grand Hall of the Liszt Academy of Music.
On the 16th of December, 2020 at 7.30 pm (CET) the Liszt Academy of Music and its Kodály Institute pay a tribute to Zoltán Kodály with a magnificent concert featuring world class Hungarian musical artists, Liszt Academy professors.
The programme brings you the diversity of Kodály’s oeuvre of solo singing, instrumental and chamber music. The evening offers a real rarity to start with, Kodály’s ever first song cycle titled “Énekszó Op.1.”* performed by world class baritone Gábor Bretz and Zsuzsanna Gráf, the outstanding choral conductor who reveals her pianist self in this concert. Sixteen songs (out of which eleven will be sung on the concert) whose words come from folk-poetry, however, the musical composition is Zoltán Kodály’s original work from the years 1907 – 1909. The cycle was dedicated to Emma as a proposal gift, the couple married not long after, in 1910. “All that which is rooted in the folk song stands before us to behold as universal, final, complete and perfect, it becomes presence and motion, inspiration, personal experience, individual rhythm.” – praised the composition distinguished Hungarian musicologist Bence Szabolcsi.
Owing to the extremely wide range and the technical challenges of the songs it is very rare to have a single male singer do the whole cycle. Bretz’s and Gráf’s endeavour means a true birthday gift and comforting moments amidst the coronavirus threat to the audience from all over the world who follow the streaming.
The vocal part will be followed by presenting cello and piano pieces from the heartwarming Adagio, the Sonatina for Cello and Piano to the powerful Sonata for Cello and Piano, Op. 4, his popular solo piano piece Méditation sur un motif de Claude Debussy. The internationally acclaimed instrumentalists of the second part of the concert are László Fenyő cellist and Gábor Farkas pianist.
Please, join the concert under the link provided in the article here https://zeneakademia.hu/all-programs/2020-12-16-kodaly-138-9467 . The concert is free of charge.
*approx. 'Resounding songs' - no official translation was ever made with Kodály's consent
Kodály and Emma playing shadows (Kodály's own photography, illustration from the Énekszó CD cover)
