KODALY: Choral Works; BARTOK: Cantata Profana - Kertesz, Solti (2 CDs)

Zoltán Kodály and Béla Bartók were Hungary’s two most important composers in the 20th century. They were both friends and colleagues, working separately and together to document and preserve folk music from Hungary and its surrounding regions. The music they collected strongly influenced their own compositions. Decca was one of the first major record companies to invest in recordings of the choral music of Kodály. Perhaps spurred by the success of István Kertész’s recording of ‘Psalmus Hungaricus’, they continued to record a number of the composer’s choral works under the direction of László Heltay. All of these recordings are collected over a double-CD, coupled with Bartók’s ‘Cantata Profana’, one of Sir Georg Solti’s last recordings, for which he provides very moving commentary in the booklet.

CD1
ZOLTAN KODÁLY
Psalmus Hungaricus, Op. 13
Lajos Kozma, tenor
Wandsworth School Boys’ Choir
Brighton Festival Chorus
London Symphony Orchestra
István Kertész

Missa Brevis
Pange Lingua
Psalm 114, from the Geneva Psalter

Elizabeth Gale, Sally le Sage, Hannah Francis, sopranos
Alfreda Hodgson, contralto
Ian Caley, tenor
Michael Rippon, bass
Christopher Bowers-Broadbent, organ
Gillian Weir, organ
Brighton Festival Chorus
László Heltay

CD2
Hymn of Zrinyi

Benjamin Luxon, baritone
Brighton Festival Chorus
László Heltay

Laudes Organi – Fantasia on a 12th century sequence

Gillian Weir, organ
Brighton Festival Chorus
László Heltay

BELA BARTÓK
Cantata Profana, BB. 100 (Sz. 94)

Tamas Daroczy, tenor
Alexandru Agache, baritone
Choir of Hungarian Radio & TV
Budapest Festival Orchestra
Georg Solti