Hungarian Songs: Bartók, Kodály & Ligeti Katalin Károlyi & Klára Würtz

• György Ligeti (1923 - 2006): Három weöres-dal, 3 Songs on Poems by Sándor Weöres:
• 1Ligeti: Három weöres-dal, 3 Songs on Poems by Sándor Weöres: I. Táncol a hold00:51
• 2Ligeti: Három weöres-dal, 3 Songs on Poems by Sándor Weöres: II. Gyümölcs-fürt02:13
• 3Ligeti: Három weöres-dal, 3 Songs on Poems by Sándor Weöres: III. Kalmár jött nagy madarakkal01:58
• Öt Arany-dal, 5 Songs on Poems by János Arany:
• 4Ligeti: Öt Arany-dal, 5 Songs on Poems by János Arany: I. Csalfa sugar01:42
• 5Ligeti: Öt Arany-dal, 5 Songs on Poems by János Arany: II. A legszebb virág01:49
• 6Ligeti: Öt Arany-dal, 5 Songs on Poems by János Arany: III. A csendes dalokból00:55
• 7Ligeti: Öt Arany-dal, 5 Songs on Poems by János Arany: IV. A bujdosó02:57
• 8Ligeti: Öt Arany-dal, 5 Songs on Poems by János Arany: V. Az ördög elvitte a fináncot01:46
• Zoltán Kodály (1882 - 1967): Magos kősziklának (Magyar népzene K.49, V. No. 1):
• 9Kodály: Magos kősziklának (Magyar népzene K.49, V. No. 1)04:04
• Ifjúság, mint sólyommadár (Magyar népzene K.49, V. No. 3):
• 10Kodály: Ifjúság, mint sólyommadár (Magyar népzene K.49, V. No. 3)02:09
• Az hol én elmegyek (Magyar népzene K.49, I. No. 2):
• 11Kodály: Az hol én elmegyek (Magyar népzene K.49, I. No. 2)03:23
• Csillagom, révészem (Magyar népzene K.49, V. No. 5):
• 12Kodály: Csillagom, révészem (Magyar népzene K.49, V. No. 5)02:55
• Magos a rutafa (Magyar népdalok K.22, No. 12):
• 13Kodály: Magos a rutafa (Magyar népdalok K.22, No. 12)02:58
• Béla Bartók (1881 - 1945): Nyolc magyar népdal BB 47, 8 Hungarian Folk Songs:
• 14Bartók: Nyolc magyar népdal BB 47, 8 Hungarian Folk Songs: I. Fekete főd01:13
• 15Bartók: Nyolc magyar népdal BB 47, 8 Hungarian Folk Songs: II. Istenem, istenem01:19
• 16Bartók: Nyolc magyar népdal BB 47, 8 Hungarian Folk Songs: III. Asszonyok, asszonyok00:58
• 17Bartók: Nyolc magyar népdal BB 47, 8 Hungarian Folk Songs: IV. Annyi bánat az szűvemen01:08
• 18Bartók: Nyolc magyar népdal BB 47, 8 Hungarian Folk Songs: V. Ha kimegyek01:06
• 19Bartók: Nyolc magyar népdal BB 47, 8 Hungarian Folk Songs: VI. Töltik a nagy erdő útját01:20
• 20Bartók: Nyolc magyar népdal BB 47, 8 Hungarian Folk Songs: VII. Eddig való dolgom01:39
• 21Bartók: Nyolc magyar népdal BB 47, 8 Hungarian Folk Songs: VIII. Olvad a hó01:00
• Öt magyar népdal BB 97, 5 Hungarian Folk Songs:
• 22Bartók: Öt magyar népdal BB 97, 5 Hungarian Folk Songs: I. Elindultam szép hazámból00:58
• 23Bartók: Öt magyar népdal BB 97, 5 Hungarian Folk Songs: II. Által mennék én a tiszán ladikon00:46
• 24Bartók: Öt magyar népdal BB 97, 5 Hungarian Folk Songs: III. A gyulai kert alatt01:00
• 25Bartók: Öt magyar népdal BB 97, 5 Hungarian Folk Songs: IV. Nem messze van ide kis Margitta02:12
• 26Bartók: Öt magyar népdal BB 97, 5 Hungarian Folk Songs: V. Végigmentem a tárkányi00:42
• Tíz magyar dal BB 43, 10 Hungarian Songs:
• 27Bartók: Tíz magyar dal BB 43, 10 Hungarian Songs: I. Tiszán innen, Tiszán túl02:01
• 28Bartók: Tíz magyar dal BB 43, 10 Hungarian Songs: II. Erdők, völgyek, szűk ligetek01:48
• 29Bartók: Tíz magyar dal BB 43, 10 Hungarian Songs: VIII. Sej, mikor engem katonának visznek01:26
• 30Bartók: Tíz magyar dal BB 43, 10 Hungarian Songs: X. Kis kece lányom00:30
• Falun BB 87, Village Scenes:
• 31Bartók: Falun BB 87, Village Scenes: I. Szénagyűjtéskor01:05
• 32Bartók: Falun BB 87, Village Scenes: II. A menyasszonynál01:18
• 33Bartók: Falun BB 87, Village Scenes: III. Lakodalom02:39
• 34Bartók: Falun BB 87, Village Scenes: IV. Bölcsődal03:51
• 35Bartók: Falun BB 87, Village Scenes: V. Legénytánc01:52
• Total Runtime01:01:31

Info for Hungarian Songs: Bartók, Kodály & Ligeti

Only one year and a half after their first meeting in Budapest in early 1905, Bartók and Kodály were eager to jointly publish their first settings of Hungarian folk songs. In their foreword to the volume Magyar népdalok (Hungarian Folk Songs), they declare their goal thus: “…to get the general public to know and appreciate folk songs.”

The Ten Hungarian Folk Songs from 1906 (BB 43), Bartók’s earliest and still quite rudimentary but imaginative and very sensitive folk-song arrangements, were collected by the 25-year-old himself mostly in three regions of the Hungarian countryside: near Budapest, Békéscsaba, and the lake Balaton. This set, from which we can listen to four arrangements on this cd, has never been offered by Bartók to be published. Having collected peasant music from regions of the Hungarian Kingdom where significant Romanian and Slovak minorities lived, Bartók immediately became intrigued by the peculiarities – and from his point of view, musical freshness – of both nations’ songs and instrumental dances. His reverence for the folklore of the Slovaks can be felt in the five arrangements of the Falún (Village Scenes) series (BB 87a), composed in 1924 and based on folk songs from the Zólyom (in Slovakian: Zvolenská) region of what was then Upper Hungary (now Slovakia) he collected in 1917 from village women. These arrangements of bursting energy, enchantingly deep emotionality and transcendence also bear testimony to Bartók’s discovery of Stravinsky’s music which he was galvanised by in the early 1920s. The texts are sung by Katalin Károlyi in Hungarian here, not in their original Slovak-language version.

Before leaving Hungary for Austria and West Germany after the fall of the 1956 revolution, György Ligeti (1923–2006) not only collected folk music in his native Transylvania but also worked for the Institute for Folklore in Bucharest and Kolozsvár in the late 1940s. Thus, in his twenties and thirties, he followed the footsteps of his idols, Bartók and Kodály. In the last months of 1952, Ligeti set to music five poems by János Arany, a leading figure of 19th-century Hungarian poetry. Both text and music are deeply rooted in Hungarian folk songs; indeed, most of Ligeti’s melodies, or parts thereof, could be actual folk songs, just like Arany’s texts from almost a century earlier could be folk-song texts. The last piece is an exception, being a daring musical setting of Arany’s 1868 Hungarian translation of Robert Burns’ humorous song The Deil’s Awa Wi’ Th’ Exciseman (1792).

Katalin Karolyi, mezzo-soprano
Klara Würtz, piano

Katalin Karolyi
Born in Hungary, began her musical studies on the violin before studying singing with Noëlle Barker and Julia Hamari. She went on to set up the Studio Versailles Opéra with Rachel Yakar and René Jacobs. Since then she has concentrated on repertoire from baroque opera, chamber music, and contemporary music.

Katalin Károlyi has sung under the direction of conductors such as Yehudi Menuhin (Jeney’s Funeral Rite), William Christie (Charpentier’s Médée, Les Plaisirs de Versailles, and La descente d’Orphée aux enfers; Monteverdi madrigals; Rameau’s Hippolite et Aricie; and Landi’s Il sant’Alessio), Phillip Herreweghe (Stravinsky’s Mass), Laurence Equilbey (vocal music of Debussy, Ravel, and Poulenc), Paul van Nevel (music of the 15th century), Peter Srottner (Strauss’ Elektra), Bernard Tétu (German chamber music of the 19th and 20th centuries), Roland Hayrabedian (Stravinsky’s Les noces), and David Robertson (contemporary music).

She has performed at many festivals including Aix-en-Provence, Ravinia, and Ile de France, and at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. She has also appeared with leading opera companies worldwide including the Opéra National de Paris, Teatro alla Scala, and Teatro Colón, and in concert at Carnegie Hall, Wigmore and Barbican Halls, London, and the Cité de la Musique, Paris.

In 2000 György Ligeti composed Síppal, dobbal, nádihegedüvel for her and the Amadinda Percussion Group; she has given numerous subsequent performances, including with the London Sinfonietta, with Asko|Schönberg, and at the Salzburg Festival, Carnegie Hall, NDR Hamburg, Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, the BBC Proms at Royal Albert Hall, the Wiener Konzerthaus, and the Cheltenham Music Festival. Her performance with Amadinda was recorded by Teldec Classics and released as part of their ongoing Ligeti Project.

For William Christie she has sung Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria at the Opéra Comique Paris, Wiener Festwochen, Opéra de Lausanne, Opéra de Bordeaux, Barbican Centre London, Brooklyn Academy of Music, and at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. This was followed by a double bill of Charpentier’s Les Arts Florissants and La descente d’Orphée aux enfers with Les Arts Florissants throughout Europe.

Other notable engagements include Ligeti’s Aventures and Nouvelles aventures at Lincoln Center in New York and the Opera National de Paris (Bastille), Berio’s Folksongs with Psappha at the City of London Festival and with the London Sinfonietta throughout the U.K., Reich’s Tehillim with the RIAS Kammerchor in Berlin, works by Brown and Harvey with the Ensemble InterContemporain, Les noces at the Kultur Ruhr Festival in Germany, Sciarrino’s Infinito nero for Almeida Opera and also with the Schönberg Ensemble, Berio’s Calmo with MusikFabrik, the world premiere of John Woolrich’s The Sea and its Shore for Almeida Opera and with Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, and Kyriakides’ An Ocean of Rain for Theatre Cryptic at the Aldeburgh Festival and in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. She gives regular concerts throughout Europe with Amadinda and the Ictus Ensemble.

Katalin Károlyi has broadcast and recorded with Les Arts Florissants, the Groupe Vocal de France, Le Parlement de Musique, and La Chapelle Royale.

During the 2010/11 season she sings Berio and Ligeti with the Seoul Philharmonic, a new work by Jos van de Putte with Asko|Schönberg, and Síppal, dobbal, nádihegedüvel with Ars Nova. She also appears with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in this festival curated by Thomas Adès, which includes performances of Síppal, dobbal, nádihegedüvel and a new opera by Gerald Barry based on The Importance of Being Earnest.

Booklet for Hungarian Songs: Bartók, Kodály & Ligeti