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Gyulai Gaál János
featuring Marta Sebestyen and Marta Rubin

'Inspirations'

(BGCD096)

Musicians:
János Gyulai Gaál - composer
Márta Rubin - piano
Márta Sebestyén - voice

with
Myra van Campen-Balint - violin
Eszter Horgas - flute
Gábor Varga - clarinet
and
Áron Eredics - tambura
Béla Szerenyi - hurdy-gurdy
Balázs Szokolay Dongo - bagpipe

This project combines classical music and folk music, where the inspirational folk songs are followed by pieces composed by János Gyulai Gaál.

It is a collection of Christmas songs set to music, mainly on piano, violin etc. The songs being sung in their original languages: Polish, Hungarian, English etc.

Marta Sebestyen can be heard on tracks 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, and 17. It is certainly a wonderful recording at any time of the year.

'The works of János Gyulai Gaál are characterised by a melodic structure of great dimensions and sequences of jazzy harmonies as well as demanding instrumental virtuosity. As Hubay Prize winner violinist he prefers to write for the violin, but he knows and fully uses the possibilities of the other instruments, too - he gives the performers a lot to do with his technical bravura and the joyful realisation of his multi-colour switches of atmosphere.
The artistic level of the record is enhanced by the rich tone of the violin of Myra van Campen-Bálint who came home for this recording from Germany; Eszter Horgas and her golden master-flute; the international clarinet competition winner Gábor Varga - and a Steinway piano, my true partner.
Preceding each piece we can hear the inspiring folk song, thus fulfilling the author's dream. We won MÁRTA SEBESTYÉN to sing them - she sings in the original languages on her inimitably natural, sweet voice of gentle liveliness. She possesses the unique gift to get to the essence of each nation: to interpret, with her intonation of voice and language, the soul of those peoples.'
Márta Rubin

'The story of the birth of these pieces had started when Ludwig Könemann German publisher had established a German-Hungarian affiliated company in Budapest, and being a person of creativity began to realise a series of his original ideas. One of these was collecting Christmas songs of different nations and making compositions based on the most liable of these melodies.
Thus my commission was to use the melodic material of the songs as main theme of the pieces and to develop during the composition all that I "heard into it". This gave the arrangement a compositional character, and at the same time gave me a possibility to develop the style of each piece thinking of a prominent composer of the given country, give form to my own feelings alluding to their way of musical thinking. You can recognise for example the flavours of Chopin in the Polish, Rahmaninov in the Russian, Beethoven in the German, Kodály in the Hungarian, Albeniz in the Spanish piece.
I hope listening to our CD will be a pastime as gently harmonious as beautiful had been the hours of its creation for me.'
János Gyulai Gaál

USD 16.99

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Gyulai Gaál János
featuring Marta Sebestyen

'Inspirations'

(BGCD096)

This symbol  indicates an mp3 sound clip for that track. Click on the symbol and wait for the clip to start. For more information click here. Tracks

1. Jezus malusienki (Poland) (1'25")

2. Plaintive Waltz / Panaszos keringo (5'18")

3. Pujdem Spolem do Betlema (Bohemia) (1'54")

4. Merry Christmas Rondo / Boldog karácsonyt - rondó (5'54")

5. What Child is this - Greensleeves (English-speaking countries) (3'15")

6. Devotion and Rejoicing / Áhítat és örvendezés (6'30")

7. Oh Tannenbaum (Germany) (2'00")

8. Pinewood by Moonlight / Fenyves a holdfényben (6'45")

9. Karácsonyi dal (Hungary) (1'10")

10.Theme and Variations / Téma és variációk (7'09")

11. No onkos tullut kesä (Finland) (1'27")

12. Prayer / Imádság (3'40")

13. Russian Folk Song (Russia) (2'51")

14. Meditation / Elmélkedés (5'51")

15. Quanno nacette ninno (Italy) (1'40")

16. Dance of Joy / Örömtánc (6'34")

17. Khanta zagún goúziek (Basque province) (2'09")

18. In Joy and in Sorrow / Örömben és bánatban (6'57")

Duration (73'27")

Our mp3 samples are approximately 30 seconds long and of low(ish) quality for a fast download (file size app 300KB)

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