Topic: Hungaroton Fan Club

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

My favorite Hungaroton discs. What are yours? 

[Mandryka]

And maybe this, though it’s a long time since I heard it.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

^
They all look cool and hip, Mandryka! I will check them out. Especially the Cziffra and the Bakfark (never heard of him) look interesting.
Have a nice weekend!

[Mirror Image]

Let's see...

Certainly the Bartók Complete Edition:



But also these:

[Mandryka]

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

^

Yes the Ferenczy album has an aura! It’s a charismatic performance. The Kurtag and Stravinsky albums look very interesting. I will check them out.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Let's see...

Certainly the Bartók Complete Edition:



But also these:

They are excellent recordings! Do you have the physical box set of Bartok? I would be envious if you own the box. I just don’t know the Respighi album, and the cover art looks wonderful (purple, black and gray are my fav colors). I must check it out.

[Mandryka]

^

Yes the Ferenczy album has an aura! It’s a charismatic performance. The Kurtag and Stravinsky albums look very interesting. I will check them out.

The Ranki/Rollo Mozart PC 27 is very good. I played it for the first time in a long time this morning and was very impressed. Andrianne Csengeri in Kurtag is special -- the one in the pic is good, but they're all good. Cziffra made several recordings in for Hungaroton -- they're all outstanding. Ranki's Haydn is quite distinctive -- I like what he does with the music more than anyone else who uses a modern piano.

I also listened to the Faidit CD last night -- the singers are very fine I think. And some of the Bakfark - I have the whole set and it's too much for more than half an hour, but it's fine music, committed and characterful playing and the lute sounds slightly like a banjo, which is good.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

The Ranki/Rollo Mozart PC 27 is very good. I played it for the first time in a long time and was very impressed. Andrianne Csengeri in Kurtag is special -- the one in the pic is good, but they're all good. Cziffra made several recordings in for Hungaroton -- they're all outstanding. Ranki's Haydn is quite distinctive -- I like what he does with the music more than anyone else who uses a modern piano.

Yes, you seem to like Ranki. I am embarrassed to say that I don’t know about him. I will check the recordings. I will comment on Cziffra and others later.

[Mirror Image]

They are excellent recordings! Do you have the physical box set of Bartok? I would be envious if you own the box. I just don’t know the Respighi album, and the cover art looks wonderful (purple, black and gray are my fav colors). I must check it out.

Yep, I own the physical set. Everything I post on this forum in the "Listening" thread, here or anywhere is actually from my own CD collection. I only buy CDs unless I absolutely cannot find the recording I'm looking for and I have no other choice but to buy it as a digital download. Thankfully, this has only happened a few times.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Yep, I own the physical set. Everything I post on this forum in the "Listening" thread, here or anywhere is actually from my own CD collection. I only buy CDs unless I absolutely cannot find the recording I'm looking for and I have no other choice but to buy it as a digital download. Thankfully, this has only happened a few times.

That’s nice! Please be careful about the storage of discs. Some of my box sets got mold a few years ago!

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

And maybe this, though it’s a long time since I heard it.

The Sweelinck album sounds excellent. Great compositions, vivid performance, and cool/elegant sound of the instrument. This is a great recording IMO. While I am not familiar with Frescobaldi, the organ album sounds very good as well. The performance was lyrical and the organ sound was warm and atmospheric. I knew some Cziffra recordings from Hungaroton, but not this one. The album is great with interesting arrangements and characteristically opulent performance by Cziffra. The Brahms-Hungarian Dance, his arrangement, is so wild and crazy! I love it. This is a significant/unique album. The Bakfark sounds too old and medieval to me personally though the sound of lute is very attractive. But I may change my mind in near future as I do always. Due to the distinctive rhythm, I could see that you like it a lot.  Unexpectedly I was fascinated by the Faidit. Such a noble, playful, and enigmatic music! Is this a palace/court music in the 12/3th century? Is this a music of the Byzantine Empire or Holy Roman Empire? The songs spoke, and smiled, to my heart. Thank you for posting this album and I will explore the genre.

Also I saw some recordings by Ranki and Beethoven sonatas by Annie Fischer on the streaming services. I will check them out this week. Have a great week, Mandryka!

[Mandryka]

Yes, there’s a lot to enjoy in Hungaroton. But my reason for posting is to say that if you really want to hear the Hungarian dances played in a jaw dropping way, you need to find this



One thing which makes the Faidit so nice is the singing of Gérard Le Vot. He’s got a couple of other Troubadours recordings.

The only other thing I’ve enjoyed from Peter Ella is an Art of Fugue on harpsichord - I’m not sure where I got it from.

[Roy Bland]

I can't understand absence of Pal Kadosa

[amw]

Offhand:

Kurtág - Works for soprano and ensemble; Kafka-Fragmente - Adrienne Csengery
Brahms - Chamber music for strings; piano and clarinet quintets - Bartók Quartet, György Konrád, Ede Banda, Desző Ránki, Béla Kovacs
Schubert - String Quintet - Bartók Quartet, Miklós Perényi
Chopin - Complete mazurkas - Gábor Csalog
Schubert - Complete piano sonatas - Malcolm Bilson
Brahms - Cello sonatas - Miklós Perényi, Zoltán Kocsis
Bartók - String quartets - Mikrokosmos Quartet
Bartók - String quartets - Takács Quartet
Stravinsky - Les Noces 1917 and 1923 versions - Péter Eötvös
Schumann - String quartets, with Schubert Trout Quintet - Takács Quartet, Zoltán Kocsis
Veress - Symphony No. 1, Clarinet Concerto - Tamás Pál et al.
Balassa - Music for string orchestra - Budapest Strings, Béla Drahos

Plus a lot of other stuff like András Schiff playing Scarlatti and Beethoven, the Lajtha string quartets, the Kocsis conducting Bartók series, Ránki playing Mozart and so on that I have somewhere (not to mention the Annie Fischer Beethoven cycle)

[Mirror Image]

That’s nice! Please be careful about the storage of discs. Some of my box sets got mold a few years ago!

No problem here. We run two dehumidifiers in our house and they're set to automatic. They only come on during the warm months, so May through early September. They're an enormous help, especially where I live where the humidity is rather in-your-face.

[MusicTurner]

Some favourites:

- Liszt, Christus Oratorio/Dorati
- Liszt, some of the choral music (Faust etc), Psalm 13, orchestral songs
- Bartok & Kodaly editions generally
- Lajtha, Symphonies 4+9/Ferencsik
- Lajtha, Harp Quintet etc.
- Andras Mihaly, Cello Concerto/Perenyi
- Gyorgy Kosa, Miniatures, Cello Sonata etc.

I bought quite a few of their contemporary, Hungarian LP stuff in the old days, but it's been a long time since revisiting the music (Balassa, Weiner, Sary, Kadosa, Istvan Lang, Soproni, Gyula David, Tardos, Szervansky, Viski, Kosa, Mihaly, Sarkozy, Farkas and others). I might dig into it again.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Yes, there’s a lot to enjoy in Hungaroton. But my reason for posting is to say that if you really want to hear the Hungarian dances played in a jaw dropping way, you need to find this



One thing which makes the Faidit so nice is the singing of Gérard Le Vot. He’s got a couple of other Troubadours recordings.

The only other thing I’ve enjoyed from Peter Ella is an Art of Fugue on harpsichord - I’m not sure where I got it from.

Just ordered the cd! I am in the middle of international travel, but will get the disc next month.

Yes, I like the vocalist- spontaneous and unpretentious singing. Will check his other recordings.

[Holden]

Just ordered the cd! I am in the middle of international travel, but will get the disc next month.

Yes, I like the vocalist- spontaneous and unpretentious singing. Will check his other recordings.

Isn't the 'Senlis' available as part of the 40 CD box set or am I wrong here?

[Mandryka]

Does anyone know the connection between the Brahms waltzes and the Liszt Rhapsodies? Presumably one inspired the other, or was this sort of stuff common at the time?

Astonishing that Cziffra could think of giving a concert with 21 Hungarian Waltzes! Who would do that now? In a way, it’s too much - like the world’s greatest display of fireworks which goes on slightly longer than it should. After a while you feel the need for an introspective intimate spiritual slow movement, but there ain’t one!

I listened to quite a bit of the Senlis box last night. In addition to the Brahms there’s a fabulous Couperin recital, a Chopin recital which didn’t have an impact on me, though it could be excellent. There’s also a Liszt recital, but I couldn’t possibly listen to the Brahms AND the Liszt in the same week, so I didn’t play it.

Sound is listenable, in a way rather good in that the piano timbre is caught - but clearly old live recordings. I think that old sound has its own charms actually, all part of the experience.