Verbunkos

Description

Placed under the sign of Verbunkos, this military recruitment dance, sometimes slow, sometimes frenzied, which became the symbol of Hungarian identity in music by the end of the 18th century, the album by cellist Volodia van Keulen is a tribute to the two main figures of 20th-century Hungarian music: Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály. Their works gathered here rarely blend attachment to roots with a concern for experimentation. "The expression of wild outbursts or endless hypnotic states is somewhat more foreign to his personality, which leans more towards introverted contemplation," Bartók writes about his companion, in terms that could apply to himself. "Only those for whom it is not the outer veneer or the clothing that matters, but the inner essence, the man himself, can appreciate his works. I emphasize strongly, Kodály's music is not modern in the sense that this word may have today. [...]. But his musical discourse is new; it expresses thoughts that have so far been unprecedented in music." And which remain so a century later. (J.F. Boukobza)