HELEN HENSCHEL (Mezzo-Soprano), with her own accompaniment
HARY JANOS is a Comic
Opera produced in Budapest in 1926. The composer told Lawrence Gilman (from whose notes, written for the Philharmonic Society of New
* York, the following information is drawn) that Hary Janos is a national hero of folk-lore, an ex-soldier, who tells long-bow tales of his great adventures. There is, too, in Hary a symbol of Hungarian aspirations.
There are six sections in the Suite. Háry's tale is launched, in the first Movement, with a sneeze by one of the hearers (this, in Hungary, is regarded as a confirmation of what has just been said).
In the Second Movement
Hary tells of finding himself in the Imperial Palace in Vienna, and describes a wonderful mechanical musical clock he saw there.
The Third Movement suggests the old home of Hary and his sweetheart, and the songs that are sung there.
In the Fourth Movement
Hary performs prodigies of valour against the French army, massacring his thousands, and finally.so terrifying Napoleon himself that he pleads, on his knees, for mercy.
Next comes an Intermezzo that has no story.
The last Movement is a triumphal march, during which Hary tells of seeing the entry of the Austrian Emperor and his court; again, we have the countryman's quaint ideas of the glories of the city.