Saturday 25 September 2021 19:00
MUSICOLOGY CONFERENCE - CLOSING CONCERT
University of Debrecen, Faculty of Music, Great Hall (4032, Debrecen, Nagyerdei krt. 82)
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Programme:
Dávid Popper – Jenő Hubay: Tarantella Op. 33 Jenő Hubay: Evening Prayer Op, 79 No. 8 László Lajtha: Prélude László Lajtha: Six Piano Pieces Op. 14 – excerpts: Ostinato, Fugue, Toccata Ernő Dohnányi: Ruralia hungarica Op. 32/c – 2nd movement: Andante rubato alla zingaresca Jenő Hubay: Csárda Scene no. 2 Op. 15
INTERVAL
Sándor Albrecht: Mass in C (Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, Benedictus, Agnus Dei) Lajos Rajter: Iustorum animae Jenő Szíjjártó– György Dénes: Csallóköz Jenő Szíjjártó – Sándor Weöres: A meséről [Of Tales] Béla Bartók: Four Slovak Folk Songs Aurél Tillai – Imre Pécseli Király: In Glorious Places Zoltán Kodály: Geneva Psalm 114
Performed by: Ferenc Szecsődi – violin József Balog – piano Mária Híves - soprano Dániel Szűcs - piano, organ The Lajos Vass Hungarian Teachers’ Choir from Slovakia The musicians of the Kodály Philharmonic
Conducted by: Mónika Józsa Zoltán Kocsis-Holper Albertina Szíjjártó
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In this two-part closing concert to the conference held as part of the programme of the First Carpathian Basin Classical Music Festival, we shall hear works primarily by the composers discussed during the conference papers: Hubay, Dohnányi, Bartók, Kodály, and Lajtha. In the first part violinist Ferenc Szecsődi and pianist József Balog play compositions written by important instrumental virtuosos who lived at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, who were also teachers at the Academy of Music. The Tarantella by Prague-born Dávid Popper suggests to the modern listener why this cellist composer was so admired as a virtuoso on his instrument. Popper founded a string quartet with the brilliant violinist Jenő Hubay. The Evening Prayer by Hubay (from the series Ten Character Pieces) has a religious atmosphere, which constrasts sharply with the bravura of the Csárda Scene No. 2. Hubay was legendary as a violin teacher, and created an entire school of teaching. He directed the Academy of Music for a decade and a half, and his successor in this position was Ernő Dohnányi from Pozsony (Pressburg), one of the leading figures of music life in Hungary and also one of the most versatile, brilliant figures, who was a first-rank pianist, conductor, composer, and teacher. One of Dohnányi’s most successful works is the Ruralia hungarica of 1924, which is better known in the symphonic version, although the original was written for piano, and there are two other versions. The ‘Gypsy andante’ is the central, slow movement for violin and piano . Though the composers above leaned mostly towards Romanticism, László Lajtha, born in Budapest in 1892, was a modern, twentieth-century composer with an individual voice. He was admired as a composer throughout Europe, but particularly in France, where he was elected a member of the Académie des Beaux Arts. Alongside Bartók and Kodály, he was one of the finest Hungarian ethnomusicologists, and a greatly influential teacher at the National Music School. József Balog, who has recorded all of Lajtha’s piano works to an extremely high standard, performs a selection from them. The brief Prélude has no opus number (this prelude is a self-standing piece just like the preludes of Chopin or Debussy), and was published in 1918 in Lajos Kassák’s journal Ma. At the time, Lajtha (who as a young man was preparing for a career as a pianist) was hardly composing at all, since from 1914 to 1918, during the Great War, he was on the front. The Six Piano Pieces are from 1930, and the titles of the movements and their style show the composer’s affinity for the Baroque period, particularly Johann Sebastian Bach (e.g. Fugue, Toccata). The Lajos Vass Hungarian Teacher’s Choir from Slovakia performs choral works mainly of a religious nature and a lofty character, such as Kodály’s Geneva Psalm 114, movements of a Mass by Sándor Albrecht, who studied with Bartók, and Iustorum animae by Lajos Rajter the excellent Hungarian conductor from Slovakia who studied with Albrecht- and Dohnányi; and the composition for mix choir In Glorious Places by the Kossuth Prize-winning conductor Aurél Tillai from Pécs. We will hear Béla Bartók’s popular piece written for choir with piano accompaniment, to a Slovak text, whose original title is Négy tót népdal. [Four Slovak Folk Songs]. The first folk song is a wedding banquet, the second is related to collecting the hay, while the third and fourth are dance songs accompanied by bagpipes. The choir is conducted by artistic director Mónika Józsa, Zoltán Kocsis-Holper, (leading conductor of the Kodály Choir from Debrecen), and also Albertina Szíjjártó, under whose baton we shall hear works by her grandfather Jenő Szíjjártó, a composer, conductor, ethnomusicologist and musical director from Pozsony who followed Kodály’s guidance consistently.
Performers
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József BALOG has given over 1000 concerts as soloist and chamber musician in more than 25 countries in three continents of the world. In addition to the standard piano repertoire, he enjoys playing lesser-known masterpieces, contemporary music, and jazz-inspired classical music, and has also premiered many works of contemporary music.
He is a regular participant in the Hungarian and international music scene and, in addition to performing, he gives masterclasses at prestigious institutions around the world. During his career he has performed with many great orchestras under the batons of such distinguished conductors as Gilbert Varga, David Nimrod Pfeffer, Zoltán Kocsis, Kristjän Järvi, Jesús Medina, and Vitaly Protasov.
His first solo disc ‘Hungaricum’ was the only CD to win the Liszt Ferenc International Grand Prize for Recordings in 2005, and his ‘Transcendental Etudes’ was named Record of the Month in June 2015 on allmusic.com, one of the most prestigious classical music websites. He was awarded the Liszt Prize in 2018 and the Lajtha Prize in 2019.
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Dr. Mónika JÓZSA, choir conductor, music and voice teacher is Assistant Professor at the Teacher Training Institute of the Central European Studies Faculty of the University of Constantinus the Philosopher in Nitra (Slovakia). She is an honorary member of the Hungarian Kodály Society and a non-academician member of the secretariat of the Hungarian Academy of Arts. She began studying choral conducting at the Higher Choral Conductor Training Institute in Budapest in 1985. She graduated in conducting in 1992 at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, and as a voice and music teacher and choir conductor in 2003 at the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest. In 2013 she obtained a doctoral degree in the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, her field of research being the work and relationships of Kodály Zoltán in Slovakia. From 1981 to 1994 she was choral conductor of the Girls’ Choir of the Hungarian Language Grammar School in Galanta, and from 1986 to 1993 the conductor of the choir of the Ifjú Szivek Hungarian Arts Ensemble in Bratislava. From 1982 she has directed the Kodály Zoltán Chorale in Galanta, and from 1992 the Hungarian Choir in the University of Constantinus the Philosopher in Nitra. From 1980 she was a singer and later conductor of the Vass Lajos Choir of Hungarian Teachers in Slovakia, where from 2006 she was artistic director. She has an important role in training Hungarian music teachers in choral conducting in Slovakia. From 2006 she has been a regular guest speaker and leader of choral conducting courses at the Jókai Mór Summer School organized by the Alliance of Hungarian Teachers in Slovakia. The choirs she directs interpret choral music at an extremely high artistic level, and have achieved outstanding results in several contests, in choir competitions in Hungary and abroad. She has received many awards for her concert activity and her work in education, e.g the Silver Plaquette of the Slovak Republic (2002), the Prize of the Alliance of Hungarian Teachers in Slovakia (2009), the St. László Cross of Merit (2011), the Mikola Anikó Prize (2011), the Hungarian Golden Cross of Merit (2013), the Prize of the Rector of the University of Constantinus the Philosopher in Nitra (2015), the Pro Urbe Prize of the town of Galanta (2017), the Csemadok Education Prize (2020), and the Music Prize from the Hungarian Academy of Arts (2020).
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Zoltán Kocsis-Holper is an Artisjus and KÓTA prize-winning conductor, solo singer and music teacher, principal conductor of the Kodály Choir Debrecen, member of the Artistic Committee of the Association of Hungarian Choirs, Orchestras, Folklore Ensembles (KÓTA), and between 2016 and 2020 he will be the Deputy Conductor of the National Choir of Hungary.
He is the founding conductor of the Sopron-based choir Spontánusz, with which he has worked since 2001. He has been the artistic director of several ensembles over the past two decades. Szent Mihály Choir (2005–2011), Gárdonyi Zoltán Reformed Choir (2004–2017), MGV Doborján Franz Liszt Raiding (2011–2017), and the Vass Lajos Chamber Choir of Budapest (2017–2020). He has worked and performed with several amateur choirs, the Hungarian Radio Choir, the Hungarian National Choir, the Budafok Dohnányi Orchestra and at the 6th Eric Ericson Masterclass with the Netherlands Radio Choir and the Netherlands Chamber Choir. He has taught conducting at the Liszt Ferenc University of Music - Béla Bartók School of Music and taught for eight years at the Horváth József Elementary Arts School in Sopron, where he was deputy director for two years.
In addition to his own Avizo Conducting Courses, in 2017 he was invited to the Hungarian Cultural Centre in Beijing, where he gave a three-day series of lectures on the Kodály method in China. He led one of the courses at the European Choral Federation’s 2018 Europa Cantat Choral Festival in Tallinn.
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Ferenc Szecsődi was born in 1954 in Budapest. His teachers were István Bodonyi at the Béla Bartók Secondary School of Music and Mihály Szűcs at the Academy of Music. Simultaneously with receiving his diploma, he was awarded the Grand Prize of the Liszt Academy.
He began his teaching career in 1977 at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Szeged, and since then he has had countless students performing and teaching throughout Hungary and abroad. He has been a habilitated university professor since 2000. His international solo career began in 1984 when he was awarded the Cziffra Foundation Grand Prize. Since then, he has appeared on concert stages in many of Europe’s major cities, from Paris to Vienna, Bologna to Madrid, Prague to Zurich, and Kiev. Many composers, including Zsolt Durkó, Pál Rózsa, Miklós Kocsár and Lajos Huszár, have dedicated concertos to him. In 1992 he was voted Best Performer of the Year, and the following year he received the Liszt Prize. He was awarded the Weiner Prize in 1996 in recognition of his pedagogical work. Since 2005 he has been President of the Jenő Hubay Society. In 2009 he was awarded the title of Artist of Merit of the Republic of Hungary. Since 2012 he has been a full member of the Hungarian Academy of Arts. In 2015 he was awarded the Klebersberg Kuno Prize. In 2017 he was elected president of the Hungarian Instrumentalists’ Alliance, and in 2020 he became Artist of Excellence of the Republic of Hungary.
Of his recordings, a significant proportion of them are of the classic Hungarian violin repertoire. The album The Great Hungarian Violin School has been well received by both the recording community and critics. The 13-CD set of works for violin and piano by Jenő Hubay, published by Hungaroton Classic, is a unique undertaking, and has been highly acclaimed by the national and international press.
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Albertina Szijjártó was born on 31 August 1993 in Budapest, into a family of musicians. Her paternal grandfather, choirmaster, composer, and folk song collector Jenő Szíjjjártó was a leading figure in the Hungarian choral life in the Highlands in Slovakia in the 20th century. Although she did not know him personally, his intellectual heritage had a great influence on the development of her musical career. From 1999 to 2005, Albertina Szíjjártó studied piano at the Solti György Music School in Budapest, and in 2006 she was admitted to the preparatory piano course at the Béla Bartók Music Secondary School. In 2008, she also took up the music theory-solfege course and graduated as a two-year student with a secondary music certificate in 2012.
In the same year, she was admitted to the Liszt Academy of Music , where she obtained her first artist’s diploma in 2015 in orchestral and choral conducting. In the same year, she was admitted to the MA in Choral Conducting at the Liszt Academy, where she again obtained an Artist’s Diploma in 2017. In terms of the development of her career as a conductor, she owes a lot to the Budaörs Sapszon Ferenc Choir led by Gáspár Krasznai, where she served as a soloist and later as an assistant conductor between 2016 and 2020.
In 2017, she successfully passed the entrance exam for the Liszt Academy’s vocal music - choral conducting course, where she obtained her third, teaching diploma in spring 2020. Since September 2020 she has taught solfege and music repertoire at the Pászti Miklós Elementary Arts School in Biatorbágy. Her main long-term goal is to establish her own children's choir within the music school framework.
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Dániel Szűcs started playing the piano at the age of six at the Szent István Király Music School in Zugló. From 2006 to 2011, he continued his studies in composition at the Béla Bartók Conservatory of Music under the guidance of István Fekete Győr. He completed his MA studies at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in choir conducting and piano accompaniment. His teachers were Valér Jobbágy and István Párkai.
Since autumn 2015, he has been assistant conductor of the Vasas Art Ensemble's Lajos Vass Choir, and since 2016 conductor and piano accompanist.
He has participated in the masterclasses of conductor György Vashegyi, Peter Broadbent and Máté Szabó Sipos, and in the annual courses of the Kodály Choir of Debrecen and the Vándor Choir.
He regularly conducts choirs and plays chamber music for piano. Among other activities, he has worked with the Hungarian Radio Choir and the Anima Musicae Chamber Orchestra.
Since September 2017, he has been assistant conductor of the Musica Sonora Chamber Orchestra. As a music theory teacher he is a regular instructor at the Csomaközi Summer Music Camp in Transylvania.
In 2018 he was awarded first prize and audience prize at the Lantos Rezső National Conducting Competition.
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The Lajos Vass Hungarian Teachers’ Choir from Slovakia was formed in November 1964, under the name Central Hungarian Teachers’ Choir from Czechoslovakia (CHTCCZ), thanks to the persistent work of Jenő Szíjjártó, a composer awarded the Hungarian Heritage Prize. From the very beginning he was assisted in building up and training the choir by Tibor Ág, László Schleicher, and Iván Janda. A few years after the choir was formed, Jenő Szíjjártó had to relinquish leadership (for political reasons). His place was taken by Lajos Vass, who as guest conductor determined the choir’s musical profile until his death in 1992. He was followed by László Tamási from Debrecen, then Ferenc Sapszon snr., Árpád Tóth, and Balázs Stauróczky. Since 2019 the choir’s guest conductor has been Zoltán Kocsis-Holper. In November 1994 at its jubiliee concert, the CHTCCZ took on the name Lajos Vass Hungarian Teachers’ Choir from Slovakia. The ensemble’s artistic director until 2006 was Iván Janda, who was followed in the post by Mónika Józsa.
During the 57 years of the choir’s existence, it has had many successes at home and abroad. It is of outstanding quality in its own category, as proven by several awards (Pro Cultura Hungarica prize, 2000; Esterházy Memorial Medal, 2009; Prize of the Alliance of Hungarian Choirs, Orchestras, and Folk Music Ensembles [KÓTA], 2009; Harmónia Prize, 2015). Their programming is marked by diversity: the repertoire includes classical works by Hungarian composers and masterpieces of the international choral repertoire. The members of the choir are mostly Hungarian teachers from Slovakia, who meet one weekend a month in the place where they are due to perform, or nearby. The artistic director of the choir is Mónika Józsa, a teacher at the Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, and an honorary member of the Hungarian Kodály Society. The guest conductor is Zoltán Kocsis-Holper, leading conductor of the Kodály Choir Debrecen, and artistic director of Choir Spontánusz in Sopron. The repetiteur and assistant conductor is Dániel Szűcs, conductor of the Lajos Vass Choir of the Vasas Art Ensemble Foundation.
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