Sunday 3 October 2021, 19.00

‘BUT LET THAT SOURCE BE PURE, FRESH, AND WHOLESOME...’
Uránia National Film Theatre  (1088 Budapest, Rákóczi út 21.)

Violinist István ‘ Szalonna’ Pál, with fellow folk musicians and alongside violinists Barnabás Kelemen, Katalin Kokas, their son Gáspár Kelemen, and pianist Gábor Farkas play the pure source of folk music, and art music works springing it.

The programme is introduced by music historian Emőke Solymosi Tari

Programme:

Béla Bartók: Forty-four Duos for Two Violins – No. 37 and 26
Music from Somogy County
‘My mother’s rose tree’ - Music from Kalotaszeg based on Bartók’s field trip to Körösfő
Béla Bartók: Forty-four Duos for Two Violins – No. 35 and 32
Rusyn and Romanian music from Máramaros
The folk music sources for Zoltán Kodály’s work Kállai kettős (Couples Dance from Kalló)
Béla Bartók: For Children – series 1 and 2
The folk music sources for Zoltán Kodály’s work Székely fonó (The Spinning Room)
Béla Bartók: Forty-four Duos for Two Violins – No. 36
Bagpipe tunes from the Uplands – horn music
Versions of the Peacock melody from the Carpathian Basin
Franz Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody no. 12
Béla Bartók: Forty-four Duos for Two Violins – No. 17 and 18
Music from the Upper Tisza region
Béla Bartók: Romanian Folk Dances

Performed by:
Katalin Kokas – violin
Barnabás Kelemen – violin
Gáspár Kelemen – violin
Gábor Farkas - piano
Eszter Pál - voice
István ‘Szalonna’ Pál and his band

‘My true guiding principle, however, which I have been fully aware of ever since I found my voice as a composer, is the principle of the brotherhood of peoples, in spite of all war and strife. This is the principle I aim, as far as I am able, to serve in my music; this is why I do not shield myself from any influence, whether its origin be in Slovak, Romanian, Arab, or any other source. But let that source be pure, fresh, and wholesome!’ wrote Bartók in a letter of 1931. In this unusual programme, violinist Barnabás Kelemen, his son Gáspár Kelemen, pianist Gábor Farkas, and violinist István ‘Szalonna’ Pál and his fellow folk musicians play music from the pure source of folk music and the art music arising from it. The evening gives a taster of the rich folk music tradition of the Carpathian Basin, and gives a special place to Bartók’s Forty-four Duos for Two Violins, written in 1931-32 for educational purposes. The basic material for most of the pieces heard in the concert is Hungarian. Another piece written to help learners on an instrument is the original version of For Children written in 1908-09 (subtitled: Small pieces for beginners at the piano). In the first and second books Bartók arranged Hungarian folk songs, and in the third and fourth, Slovak ones. His friend and fellow composer Zoltán Kodály’s world-famous composition Kállai kettős (Couple’s dance from Kálló) written for the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble and choreographed by Miklós Rábai in 1951 used four folk songs collected in Nagykálló, which we can enjoy in their original form, alongside the Szekler folk songs and ballads which formed the basic folk music sources for the stage work The Spinning Room, premiered in 1932. The first version of the piece originally called Romanian Dances from Hungary was made for piano in 1915; in its six movements Bartók made arrangements of seven Romanian dance melodies. One of the most famous transcriptions of the work was made by violinist Zoltán Székely for violin and piano.

Performers

"The world-famous Hungarian pianist Gábor Farkas is one of the most outstanding musicians of his generation. A widely acclaimed interpreter of the Romantic repertoire, he is the winner of several international piano competitions and a regular guest at the world’s most important music festivals and concert halls. He has released several solo albums on the Warner Music Hungary, Hungaroton, Toccata Classics London and Steinway & Sons Records labels. His outstanding talent and career to date have been recognized by the Hungarian state with the Liszt Prize and the Junior Prima Prize. Gábor Farkas is also a Steinway Artist and recipient of the Aoyama Music Award.

Since 2017, he has been a professor at the Tokyo College of Music (Japan), and from the academic year 2020/21 he will be Head of the Keyboard and Harp Department at the Liszt Academy of Music.

Barnabás Kelemen is one of the best violinists in the world.  He had enormous success even when young: he won the first prize in the International Mozart Violin Competition in Salzburg in 1999, and in the Indianapolis International Violin Competition in 2002. In 2001 he won third prize in the Queen Elisabeth International Violin Competition in Brussels.

He regularly performs in the most prestigious concert halls, including Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw, the Royal Festival Hall, the Palais des Beaux Arts, Suntory Hall, and the Berlin Philharmonie. He is a frequent guest performer with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra, and many other famous orchestras throughout the world.

He has worked with conductors such as Lorin Maazel, Sir Neville Marriner, Zoltán Kocsis, Péter Eötvös, and Iván Fischer. He is also happy to take up the baton himself, and in recent seasons he has conducted the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, among others. He is an outstanding chamber musician, and artists such as Dezső Ránki, Isserlis Steven, Miklós Perényi, and José Gallardo are keen to play alongside him.

He has released a total of 17 solo CDs, and one double DVD containing live recordings of all the Mozart violin concertos. His recordings of Bartók, Brahms, and Liszt have garnered important international awards.  He has also made three albums with his quartet.

He is a professor at the Academy of Music in Budapest and at the University of Cologne.

His artistry has won the highest accolades of the music world and the state: he has been awarded the Liszt Ferenc, the Kossuth, the Prima, and the Gramophone prizes, and has been decorated with the Knight’s Cross of the Republic of Hungary.

He currently plays on a 1742 Guarneri del Gesù violin, lent to him by the Hungarian state.

Ten-year-old Gáspár Kelemen is the son of first-class musicians: his father Barnabás  Kelemen is a Kossuth prizewinning violinist, and his mother Katalin Kokas, violinist and violist, holds the Liszt Prize, and is an Artist of Merit of Hungary.   Gáspár is the second of their four children, and became famous in 2016 in the talent contest Virtuózok on Hungarian Television. Despite his young age, he has won many awards both in Hungary and abroad. In 2015 in the Gianluca Campochiaro International Music Competition in Sicily he won first prize, and in 2019 in the 16th National János Koncz Violin Competition he won the Grand Prix.

Violinist and violist Katalin Kokas is one of the most outstanding figures on the music scene in Hungary. As well as solo concerts, an important place is given in her life to chamber music and teaching. Since 2004 she has been an associate professor at the Liszt Academy of Music. She has, since 2002, regularly given masterclasses all over the world.

After winning competitions in Hungary, in 1994 she came first in the International Violin Competition in Ušti nad Orlice in Czechia, in 1996 she won the Concerto Competition prize in the Toronto Conservatory, in 1977 she came first in the Bartók Violin Competition in Semmering and in 1998 in the Martinů Violin Competition. In 1999 she won first place in the International Flesch Károly Violin Competition, and in 2002 she gained first prize in the International Szigeti József Violin Competition.

She has worked with artists such as Zoltán Kocsis, Miklós Perényi, and Michael Stern, and has played with orchestras such as the Israel Chamber Orchestra and the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra, and has also played with ensembles in Bratislava, Košice, Târgu Mureș, Poznań, and with many symphony orchestras in North and South America, South Africa, and Hungary.

She is a founder of the Kelemen Quartet, which whom she performs in many countries in Europe, America, and Australia. In 2011 they won first prize in the 4th Beijing International Quartet Competition, and second prize in the 6th Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition, as well as the public prize, and the ‘Musica Viva’ special prize. In 2015 they performed in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and in Carnegie Hall in New York.

She has released eight CDs on the Hungaroton and BMC labels.

She has been the beneficiary of the Fischer Annie Scholarship three times, and her artistry has been recognized with the Halász Ferenc Prize, the ‘For the Town of Kaposvár’ Award; she has received the Liszt Ferenc Prize from the state of Hungary, and in 2009 she was awarded the Junior Prima Prize.

István ‘Szalonna’ Pál is one of the best folk first violinists of our time, and one of the most sought-after folk musicians. He is at home in the folk music of all the regions of the Carpathian Basin. 

He was born in Visk (Vyshkove) in Subcarpathia, in the foothills of the Máramaros mountains. His parents Katalin Jancsó and Pál Lajos are music teachers, and to this day are active musicians in the land where they were born. He began studying music in the music in the music school at Tiszapéterfalva, then continued in the neighbouring village with Gyula Murzsa, where he could learn the craft according to the old traditions of Gypsy music. He completed secondary studies at the Reformed College Grammar School in Debrecen. In 2007 he graduated as a teacher in voice-music and folk music from the College in Nyíregyház. In 2012 he completed a teaching degree as a folk string instrument teacher at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music.

He was second violinist in the Galga orchestra, and then the Fonó orchestra. Since 2002 he has worked in the orchestra of the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble, where in a couple of years he became the leading first violin in the orchestra, and is currently the artistic director.

He formed his own band (Szalonna and his band) whose repertoire ranges from the finest melodies of the Carpathian Basin to folk music arrangements. The ensemble has performed in many places in the world, in Europe, America, and Asia. They have released three important CDs.

As well as making music, he collects much folk music from Transylvania and Subcarpathia, takes part in teaching talented young musicians, and he is also active as a composer.

He has been awarded many prestigious prizes in recognition of his work: in 2010 he received the Silver Cross of Merit of the Republic of Hungary, in 2013 he won the Hungarian Heritage Prize, in 2015 the Liszt Ferenc Prize, and in 2019 he became Artist of Merit of Hungary.