I didn't find thread for Erkel so I think I create a new one. He is the composer of the Hungarian national anthem and he created the Hungarian opera style. He is the greatest Hungarian opera composer before Bartók. His main works are regularly played by the National Opera and other operas in Hungary. Unfortunately he is lesser known by foreigners (as far as I know his operas are not translated to other languages) but he is the 4th most important Hungarian composer after Bartók, Kodály and Liszt (not to mention the modern composers like Ligeti and Kurtág).
I don't think there will be a lot of posts in this tread but I think he deserves one.
Here is the overture of his opera "Hunyadi László": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnGG6DxCaPQ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnGG6DxCaPQ)
Dance from the opera "Hunyadi László": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cZFHrnGvbc (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cZFHrnGvbc)
Wine song from the opera "Bánk bán": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKZro7PcXbA (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKZro7PcXbA)
Tenor aria from the opera "Bánk bán": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pw2qi_QxZGM (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pw2qi_QxZGM)
Wiki article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferenc_Erkel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferenc_Erkel)
"Hunyadi László" is available at BRO on a 1960 mom recording
Any relation to....? :laugh:
Quote from: springrite on July 16, 2013, 08:39:31 AM
"Hunyadi László" is available at BRO on a 1960 mom recording
There is a debate over Hunyadi and Bánk bán because second rate composers highly revised these in the 1930's because of its old-fashioned texts and sometimes wrong prosody. (The original texts sometimes use terms which seems funny to the modern listener.)
Almost every opera house perform the revised version and almost every recording use the revised version currently. That 1960 recording too.
The Academy started to issue original scores for all Erkel's opera after 2000. And there are musicoligists and enthusiasts who said: the original versions are much better even if they are use old texts. There were recordings of original versions before 2000 too but these are hardly known even in Hungary. Hungarian State Opera decided to issue recordings of Hunyadi and Bánk based on the original score issued by the Academy. These are issued at 2011 and 2012. I have these albums and I must admit: the original version unambiguously better than the revised. Unfortunately the singers are mostly inferior than the "legendary" singers of the old recordings.
So some listener prefer the old recordings because of the good singers some listener prefer the original version.
The new recordings:
(http://p2.grando.hu/photos/f7/41/aab5_1_280.jpg)
(http://www.digitalpro.hu/spaw2/uploads/images/Bank%20ban_CD_cover.jpg)