Bartók • Kodály
Bartók: Cantata Profana; Transylvanian Dances; Kodály: Te Deum; Psalmus Hungaricus
Transylvania State Philharmonic Orchestra & Choir/Lawrence Foster
Pentatone PTC 5187 071 (CD/SACD) 64:14 mins
Béla Bartók once described the Cantata Profana as his ‘most profound credo’, yet it remains an under-appreciated part of his output. That may have something to do with the technical challenges of its writing for double chorus, tackled so strikingly well here. But what really sets this release apart is that it’s the first with a Romanian text close to what Bartók originally used before the work was published in Hungarian. It draws us back to the source of the piece, subtitled ‘The Nine Enchanted Stags’ and based on traditional Transylvanian ballads which tell of how a father loses his sons when, out hunting, they cross a haunted bridge and are transformed into stags. Dealing not only with personal loss but symbolising freedom and independence, it’s a key work of Hungarian-Transylvanian musical culture.
The conductor Lawrence Foster, a distinguished champion of Romanian music (Enescu in particular), draws a fierce performance from his choral and orchestral forces, and the tenor Ioan Hotea and baritone Bogdan Baciu. Underlining Bartók’s connections with Transylvania (the composer’s birthplace is in present-day Romania) he also shapes a vivid account of the Transylvanian Dances, the orchestral version of an earlier Sonatina for piano. The bagpipe-evoking woodwinds at its opening have special piquancy.
Zoltán Kodály’s Psalmus Hungaricus may be a better-known part of the choral repertoire, but the searing performance here (not least from the tenor Marius Vlad) will refresh anyone’s view of the work. His Budavári Te Deum, likewise written for a Budapest celebration, gets the album off to an imposing start, with Foster and his forces (including a quartet of vocal soloists) blazing away.John Allison