Hungarian String Trios (SACD)

This recording brings together four Hungarian composers who each contributed in their own way to the development of a new national musical style at the beginning of the 20th century. They succeeded in writing internationally recognized music, which promoted them and raised the general level of music in Hungary. Although Leó Weiner's (the "Hungarian Mendelssohn") and Ernő Dohnányi's string trios were composed during their student days, both works have become significant milestones in the limited repertoire of this instrumental combination. They are elegant and sometimes reminiscent of Brahms, but also have subtle echoes of local folklore. Zoltán Kodály, one of the most important Hungarian musicians of the century alongside Béla Bartók, composed little chamber music, but his equally early Intermezzo is reminiscent of the folk music that the composer began to collect for his ethnomusicological research. The least known and youngest of the composers represented here, László Weiner, suffered a tragic fate. His Serenade, which he composed while studying with Kodály, reveals the extraordinary talent of a composer whose oeuvre remained too small. His Serenade is less "Magyar" than the other works presented here and is reminiscent of the intense and concentrated atmosphere of Viennese modernist works.