Conductor, Erno Dohnanyi
Bela Bartok (pianoforte) from Budapest
Hungary can boast of at least four great composers-Liszt, Dohnanyi, Kodaly, and Bartok. The names of the last two composers are usually linked together, not, however, because their styles necessarily resemble each other-each has a distinctive individuality-but because they are contemporaries and have joined forces in the collection and revival of Hungarian or Magyar folk song.
While Bartok's music is all strongly nationalistic in colour and idiom, particularly from a rhythmic point of view, it shows the stamp of a powerful and original musical mind, which, if sometimes challenging in its love of crude rhythms and dissonant harmony, commands respect and arouses intense interest.
On this occasion listeners will hear
Bartok himself as soloist in one of his earlier major compositions, the Rhapsody for piano and orchestra. The programme begins with the brilliant and gay suite in F sharp minor of Dohnanyi, who represents the romantic school of Hungarian music. Kodály's ' Dances of Galanta ', the final item, are drawn from his native folk-tunes.