Kodály: String Quartets, Intermezzo & Gavotte

In the chamber works recorded here, spanning Kodály’s career, we can hear an unwavering desire to place genuine Hungarian folk music (rather than the ‘style hongrois’ espoused by the Strauss family and many other composers) within classical music traditions. Bartók wrote of his compatriot that ‘if I were to name the composer whose works are the most perfect embodiment of the Hungarian spirit, I would answer, Kodály’.

The Dante Quartet, winners of the BBC Music Magazine Award for their album of Franck and Fauré, respond to this music with dancing energy and folkloric simplicity.

CDA67999  66 minutes 34 seconds
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE CHAMBER CHOICE
‘Kodály’s two string quartets tend to linger under the shadow of the mighty ‘six pack’ that his compatriot Bartók wrote over a period of some 30 years … but they deserve more attention than they’ve so ...
BBC Music Magazine
‘The Dante Quartet give us a glimpse of Kodály's rapid stylistic development in these crisply defined performances. The charming Intermezzo from 1905 shows the influence of Vienna still apparent in th ...