Ferenc Farkas: Orchestral Music, Volume Five
Previous releases in the Toccata Classics survey of the music of the Hungarian composer Ferenc Farkas (1905–2000) have generally presented its lighter side, with quasi-Baroque textures and buoyant good humour. This album shows Farkas working on a larger scale and in generally darker mood, using the full resources of the symphony orchestra in a number of powerful and dramatic works, including two movements from a symphony that he later withdrew – but with a lighter bonne bouche to rounds things off.
Gábor Farkas, piano (Tracks 3 – 5)
MÁV Symphony Orchestra
Gábor Takács-Nagy, conductor
Listen To This Recording:
- Symphonic Overture (1952)*
- Elegia (1952)*
- Concertino for Piano and Orchestra: I Allegro
- Concertino for Piano and Orchestra: II Andante
- Concertino for Piano and Orchestra: III Allegro
- LISZT orch. FARKAS Funérailles (1974)*
- Planctus et consolationes: I Introduzione
- Planctus et consolationes: II Marcia funebre I
- Planctus et consolationes: III Consolatio I
- Planctus et consolationes: IV Marcia funebre II
- Planctus et consolationes: V Consolatio II
- Planctus et consolationes: VI Consolatio III
- Planctus et consolationes: VII Furioso
- Planctus et consolationes: VIII Consolatio IV
- Dances from the Matra: I Legenyes (‘Young Men’s Dance’)
- Dances from the Matra: II Leanytanc (‘Young Women’s Dance’)
- Dances from the Matra: III Ciganycsardas (‘Gipsy Dance’)
Concertino for Piano and Orchestra (1947)*
Planctus et consolationes (1965)
Dances from the Mátra (1968)*
*First Recording in this Version
MusicWeb International :
‘Come to think of it, there’s a panoramic energy to the overture that reminds me of Franz Waxman at his most vivid and vital. Even the elegy has its fiery flourishes. Thrilling stuff!
The sound here is big and beefy, but then that fits well with the widescreen feel of these impassioned openers. The recording is warm and fairly detailed […] Ditto this band and conductor, who dispatch these pieces with commendable thrust and enthusiasm. […]
Farkas’s colouristic skills are really quite striking.’
—Dan Morgan, MusicWeb International
Classical Lost and Found :
‘Judging from the overwhelmingly positive reader response to the first four Toccata volumes of Hungarian composer Ferenc Farkas’ (1905-2000) orchestral music, this fifth installment will be a welcome follow-on. […]
The Budapest MÁV (Hungarian State Railways) Symphony Orchestra under Gábor Takács-Nagy, who was its music director between 2010 and 2012, give superb accounts of this rare repertoire. They’re joined by pianist Gábor Farkas (no relation to the composer) for the concerto, which he delivers in dazzling fashion.
The recordings were made on three occasions in June 2016 and April 2017 by Hungarian Radio at an unidentified location in Budapest. Like the ones on the three more recent Toccata releases (see above), they project consistently robust, well defined sonic images in warm, reverberantly enriching surroundings. The piano is well captured, and balanced against the orchestra, as are the other solo instruments. […]
Farkas fans will love this disc, and for those not knowing his music it’s an ideal starting point to investigate some exceptional, romantic, Eastern European fare. What’s more, audiophiles will find these expressively scored works a good test of their sound systems.
—Bob McQuiston, Classical Lost and Found