The Bartok Album
Hungarian composers were among the world's most diligent in using folk resources to inform their classical compositions, and no composer was more involved in his nation's folk music than Bela Bartók. His recording expeditions into the Hungarian countryside in the early years of the 20th century preserved a musical heritage that might have otherwise been lost. While his main interest was finding inspiration for radical new music, his recordings lived on to inspire generations of modern folk revivalists. This album is a tribute to Bartók's work. The songs he recorded are born anew in the strings of Muzsikás and singer Márta Sebestyén. They play and sing these old songs in a traditional style but never fail to stamp a strong personal mark on the material. In addition to Muzsikás's own renditions, the CD includes a few special tracks of the original Bartók recordings that let you hear the old style of playing and singing in the purest form. There are also a few Bartók compositions, performed by Muzsikás fiddler Mihaly Sipos and Romanian classical violinist Alexander Balanescu. The old recordings and the Bartók works add a unique perspective to the folk songs, offering us a timeline from the oldest sources to the most modern interpretations.--Louis Gibson