A FEW years ago many festival morning concerts were devoted to Beethoven, Brahms and other popular composers, with little risk-taking on lesser known music. So it was invigorating to hear the early 20th-century Hungarian and Romanian music played
by three different ensembles culled from the Budapest Festival Orchestra, as much for the freshness of the music as the rarely heard instrumental formations.
Mátyás Seiber's Serenade for two clarinets, two bassoons and two horns, composed when he was only 20 years old, was full of sinuous melodies, brilliantly coloured by these superb wind and brass players. To this group were added pairs of flutes and oboes for George Enescu's Dixtuor for wind. Their dancing interaction brought out the inherent cheekiness that lies inside the piece's romanticism.
Ernst Von Dohnányi's Piano Quintet No 1 in C Minor, composed when he was only 18, exhibits both classicism and passion. Placing Jenö Jandó behind the string quartet allowed him to emphasise beautifully the piano's cohesive role, while underpinning the dynamism of the piece with rippling lyricism.
The full article contains 191 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
