Starker:Seattle Symphony - Dances Galanta/ Konzertstuck

When Kodaly constructed a suite of music from his opera Hary Janos, he further immortalised the braggart soldier of the title. Dreamlike and fantastic, the six scenes are imbued with imaginative writing of sweeping intensity, embracing a love-duet, a mock-epic battle, a folk song, and a vigorous recruiting dance. In the Dances of Galanta he again employed the Hungarian verbunkos recruiting dance tradition to celebrate the eightieth anniversary of the Budapest Philharmonic Society. The Konzertstuck of his compatriot and near-contemporary Erno Dohnanyi is a full scale cello concerto of considerable lyric beauty.