This afternoon we serve up a feast of musical dishes from Eastern Europe, pierogi to palacsinta, old favourites and delicacies never yet tasted.

In 1919, Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) was living in New York, and had established a reputation as a brilliant pianist and composer of piano music.  His Overture on Hebrew Themes was the result of a commission by Zimro, an ensemble of Russian Jewish emigré musicians (under the leadership of clarinettist Simeon Bellison) who were undertaking a concert tour to raise funds for the founding of a conservatory of music in Jerusalem.  They wanted a composition in a style that would reflect their mission, and which would combine all the members of their group (piano, clarinet and string quartet).  As source material they gave Prokofiev a collection of Eastern European Jewish tunes, what would nowadays be called “klezmer music”, though in North America in the early 20th century that term was shunned since it connoted lack of sophistication and formal musical education.  Though he initially turned down the commission, Prokofiev changed his mind when he played the tunes and was carried away by their nostalgic beauty.  The Overture, based on two of the melodies, was premiered in its original sextet form in New York the following year, and its enthusiastic reception encouraged Prokofiev to transcribe it for orchestra.  Its melodic appeal and evocative spirit have kept both versions of the piece firmly in the concert repertoire ever since. 

Rezsö Kókai (1906-1962) was born into the tradition of Liszt and Brahms, was educated in the shadow of Bartók and Kodály, and worked in the atmosphere of government-fostered nationalism and populism in art in Hungary.  Born and spending his bulk of his life in Budapest, he attended the Academy of Music there, where his composition teacher was János Koessler, with whom Bartók, Kodály and others of their generation also studied; his graduate studies were undertaken in Germany.  As a condition of winning a composition prize, he was required to spend a period collecting folksongs in the Hungarian countryside; Hungarian folk materials were subsequently incorporated into his work, though he disagreed with the orthodox interpretation of such music as presented by Bartók and Kodály, reverting instead to 19th century models.  From 1945 to 1948 he was director of music for Hungarian radio, and he taught at the Academy of Music until 1962.  He was untouched by the radical change in Hungarian "serious" music in the late 1950s, which opened up the field to broader western influences and thoroughly repudiated the previous, nationalistic, easily accessible approach of which Kókai is an example. 

Along with his violin concerto which likewise dates from 1952, the Quartettino for clarinet and strings is one of Kókai’s best known works, relatively speaking.  There is no disguising the country of origin; folk-like melodies, modes and rhythms are heard throughout the four movements - Sonatina, Scherzino, Canzonetta and Finaletto - of this concentrated and highly entertaining romp. 

Originally from Kraków, Poland, Norbert Palej has been increasingly recognized for his “first-rate and genuinely original work” (American Composers Orchestra), and a musical language that generates “visceral excitement” (The Boston Globe).  He has been Assistant Professor of Composition at the University of Toronto since 2008, and he serves as the director of the University of Toronto gamUT chamber orchestra, and as coordinator of the annual New Music Festival.  The recipient of numerous awards and commissions, he holds composition degrees from Cornell University (DMA), the Juilliard School (MM), and the New England Conservatory (BM). He studied conducting at the Academy of Music in Kraków and at the Juilliard School.  Palej is also an active concert pianist.

Táncház (literally "dance house") is a casual Hungarian folk dance event (as opposed to stage performances), an aspect of the Hungarian roots revival of traditional culture which began in the early 1970s, which remains an active part of the national culture in Hungary and in émigré communities elsewhere. 

The tárogáto, which along with the cimbalom is emblematic of Hungarian musical culture, was originally a fierce, keyless single reed shawm, as much a ceremonial noisemaker and a battlefield signalling device as a musical instrument.  The modern tárogáto, designed in the 1890s, is quite different, having a single reed mouthpiece and German clarinet-style keywork; it could be described as either a clarinet with a conical bore, or a soprano saxophone with a wooden body.  The hope of its original maker was that it would be embraced by composers of “serious” music of a nationalistic character; sadly, for the most part that never happened, but instead it was adopted by folk musicians (mostly in Romania rather than Hungary), and, in recent years, by klezmer musicians.  Occasionally it makes its way onto the “classical” music stage, and we are pleased to add to its repertoire with the Táncház Fantasy for tárogató, violin and piano.

In the composer’s words:

“Inspired by the Táncház concept, the Táncház Fantasy explores many different quasi-Magyar musical styles, ranging from a slow tempo rubato ballad to a quick-paced dance in craggy rhythms, exploring the tárogató’s ‘exotic’ timbre and embedding it within a musical language infused with stylistic elements derived from Eastern European folklore.  More specifically, it focusses on the commonalities encountered amongst Hungarian, Polish and Slovakian music making in the Northern part of the Carpathian mountain range.  My own Polish heritage and intimate knowledge of the music of the Tatras are a point of departure.  Though I have in the past written music based on North Carpathian folklore, never before have I incorporated an original instrument from that region.”

If ever a composer deserved to be called inexplicably neglected, it would have to be Hans Gál (1890-1987).  The composer of a large body of music in many genres (around 120 published works, plus many unpublished), finely crafted, intellectually satisfying and completely accessible to traditional ears, he is little known to the listening public. 

Born into a Hungarian-Jewish family living in Vienna, Gál studied there under Eusebius Mandyczewski and became established as a teacher and opera composer (his best known opera is entitled Die heilige Ente, "The Holy Duck"), first in Vienna and later in Mainz.  The coming of the Nazis led to his dismissal, the banning of his music and subsequently his exile.  After a period in England which included a stint in an alien internment camp, he eventually settled in Edinburgh and lived there for the rest of his life, working as a lecturer, conductor and composer; he was one of the founders of the Edinburgh Festival. 

Gál’s music is so firmly grounded in the classical Germanic tradition that it might seem familiar even when it is not; however, although affinities with other composers can be detected in his work, it would not be correct to say that he imitated anyone.  He remained true to a musical language established in the 1920s, while the musical world around him underwent several generations of upheaval.  This anachronistic attitude possibly accounts in part for the public neglect of his work.  

The Serenade Op. 93, for the uncommon but welcome combination of clarinet, violin and cello, was composed in Vienna in 1935, though not published until 1970.  The four movements - Cantabile, Burletta, Intermezzo and Giocoso - might contain echoes of Strauss, perhaps Nielsen and other composers, but they display Gál’s distinctive voice, and show masterful handling of compositional technique, lyricism and wit. 

The career of Bohuslav Martinu (1890-1959) did not have an auspicious beginning.  The son of a shoemaker in rural Bohemia, and a promising young violinist, he was sent to the Prague Conservatory with funds raised by donations in his home village, but was expelled for “incorrigible negligence”.  A second attempt several years later was more successful, and he embarked on a career both as a composer and as a violinist in the Czech Philharmonic.  Dissatisfied by the conservatism of Prague and by the Romantic musical style, he subsequently moved to Paris, where he was able to develop his compositional voice, which included elements of impressionism, neoclassicism and occasionally jazz; throughout his career he also incorporated Eastern European folk elements in his music, in particular Bohemian and Moravian nursery rhymes.  He went on to become one of the 20th century’s most prolific composers, producing nearly 400 works in all genres.  After being forced to leave France in 1941 because of his connections with the Czech resistance, he moved to the U.S.A. where he taught at the Mannes College and at Princeton University (among his students was a certain Burt Bacharach), but returned to Europe in 1956.

The Duo No. 2 for violin and viola - an example of Martinu’s particular predilection for the use of string instruments in his chamber music - was one of three works (along with the Three Madrigals and the Viola Sonata) written for the brother and sister team of Joseph and Lillian Fuchs, whom Martinu met at the Musicians’ Guild chamber concerts in New York in the late 1940s, and was premiered by them in 1951.

Zoltán Kodály (1882-1967) spent the early decades of his multifaceted career - composer, collector and analyst of folk music and educator - struggling against entrenched conservatism and the bureaucracy of various regimes, until the public acclaim for his Psalmus Hungaricus in 1923 established him as a national figure and propelled him to international prominence.  Shortly afterwards, in 1925-6, came one of his landmark creations, the comic folk opera Háry János.  Based on the exaggeratedly boastful reminiscences of an old soldier in the early 19th century (who was a real person, however fanciful the embroidery of his tales), it incorporated a considerable amount of the authentic folk music which Kodály had collected.  Though productions of the complete opera are sadly very rare outside Hungary, the instrumental suite extracted from it is firmly established in the orchestral repertoire.

Here we present our transcription for chamber ensemble of one of the movements from the suite, given the simple title Dál (“song” in Hungarian) by the composer.  It is a setting of the folksong Tiszán innen, Dunán túl (“This side of the Tisza, beyond the Danube”), sung in the opera by János and his girlfriend Örzse as they reminisce wistfully about simple country life in their native land.

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