Bartok - Kodály - Ligeti

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players. ----- A solid 75 minutes of pure pleasure, highlighted by a surprising Ligeti folk concerto. Only a really grumpy listener could fail to enjoy this. Here is a well-chosen potpourri of 20 th century Hungarian and Romanian showpieces, some famous and others slightly off the beaten track. Zoltán Kodály’s Dances of Galánta get a reading of gratifying vigor and allure, his Háry János Suite is very satisfyingly shaped, and shorter works by Béla Bartók and György Ligeti provide a more balanced picture of the nuances of the folk music movement. Ligeti’s name might be a surprise inclusion, so we should start there. The Romanian Concerto is early Ligeti, dating from his 28 th year, and it’s an extremely charming work which will instantly appeal to any admirer of Kodály or Enescu (or even Dvorák). Its two slow movements are in very different moods, complete with Bartókian violin solos, and the final