One of the most difficult areas of Béla Bartók's worklist are his songs, of which there are very many; they are significant, as one aspect of this very modern composer's late romantic heritage was his approach to melody, and this remained a constant as long as he lived. The songs, however, are written in the inaccessible language of Hungarian, and given their grounding in folk song, it is typical for native Hungarian singers to render them in a sobby, emotionally overextended manner, part Italian tradition and part the time ...
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One of the most difficult areas of Béla Bartók's worklist are his songs, of which there are very many; they are significant, as one aspect of this very modern composer's late romantic heritage was his approach to melody, and this remained a constant as long as he lived. The songs, however, are written in the inaccessible language of Hungarian, and given their grounding in folk song, it is typical for native Hungarian singers to render them in a sobby, emotionally overextended manner, part Italian tradition and part the time-honored tradition of Magyar singing found yet as this is written in Hungarian cabarets and restaurants. Tenor Thomas Bogdan is a respected new music interpreter and academic who has done the groundwork to master the difficult Hungarian tongue; he sings the 25 selections on Centaur Records' Hungarian Folksongs by Bartók and Kodály in a light, lyric tenor with no fuss and no muss, though including some restrained emotional characterization in his delivery of the lyrics. The lyrics...
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