Farkas: Orchestral Music Vol. 6

Ferenc Farkas (1905–2000) is often regarded as a gifted miniaturist who scoured Baroque and popular Hungarian sources to create brilliant orchestral dances of exhilarating energy. This Farkas presents the suite from the ballet "The Sly Students", but this album also reveals a completely different side of his musical personality. In his "Preludio e fuga" he experiments with twelve-tone music – albeit with one caveat: 'In the twelve-tone theme of the fugue I did not use Schoenberg's orthodox model, but rather a softer, more euphonious form with a rounder and more attractive sonority – I am thinking of works by Luigi Dallapiccola or […] Frank Martin.' His only symphony fell victim to communist orthodoxy and was so harshly criticized at meetings of the Composers' Union that Farkas consigned the score to the archives. This first complete recording reveals a work that is both large-scale and generous – one of the most beautiful Hungarian symphonies ever. This album follows recordings of Farkas' orchestral works, chamber music pieces, music for wind instruments and choral music. The renowned conductor Gábor Takács-Nagy leads the MÁV Symphony Orchestra.