Csardas Hungarian Gypsy Music | Anonymous, Grigoras Dinicu, ...

Csardas Hungarian Gypsy Music | Anonymous, Grigoras Dinicu, ... | Csardas Hungarian Gyspy Music

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Csardas Hungarian ...

	Csardas Hungarian Gypsy Music Anonymous, Grigoras Dinicu, ... Naxos, 1995 average customer review:based on 13 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Gypsy fire!

This music is amazing. Authentically captures the spirit of traditional gypsy folk music wonderfully. I guess the best way to describe this music is to tell you what the liner notes say: "Popular Hungarian gypsy music owes much of its form to earlier aristocratic encouragement. In particular the csardas, which makes use of folk elements, provided entertainment for the nobility, among whom it was supposed that the csardas, which derives its name from the word csarda, a country inn, was danced on Sunday afternoonns by the peasantry. The dance was introduced to polite society in the late 1830s, notably, it is said, by Count Bela Wenckheim, who coined the name. The csardas is similar in form to the verbunkos or recruiting-dance, with its slow opening section and rapid second section, and has come to epitomize Hunagarian gypsy music. It was Franz Liszt who, in the heyday of musical nationalism, seized on the csardas as a source for his Hungarian Rhapsodies, wrongly supposing this to be an example of real Hungarian folk music, rather than the hybrid form that it was. It was left to Bela Bartok and Kodaly in a later generation to collect and classify the true folk music of Hungary and neighboring regions, distinguishing this from the form of popular music provided by the gypsy bands. The bands themselves have long history, whether providing music for the Esterhazy family at their great palace of Esteraza in the time of Franz Josef Hadyn or for later generations in less distinguished surroundings. Basic instrumentation continues very largely the traditions of the 18th Century, with a solo violin carrying the improvisatory melodic burden, accompanied by a second violin or viola, double bass and cimbalom, with the additional use of the the tarogato, an instrument similar in timbre to the clarinet, which sometimes replaces it. The tarogato has a long association with Hungarian nationalism and was at one time banned by the Austrian authorities for that very reason. The music of Ferenc Santa and his gypsy band includes examples of the csardas, with the famous use of the form by the Italian violinist Vittorio Monti (1868-1922), who made his later career in Paris. Also included is Skylark by the Romanian violinist and Carl Flesch pupil Grigoras Dinicu (1889-1949), who arranged a number of popular Romanian melodies and is well remembered for his famous Hora Staccato, using the traditional dance-form, also coupled here with a traditional doina, a popular improvisatory form. In addition to the prominent sol violin, the gypsy band also provides variety in solos for the cimbalom, with reminiscences of material used by Kodaly in his Hary Janos, and for the characteristic tarogato." So there you have a bit of history behind these folk tunes. It is strangely evocative, fiery, nationalistic music that has influenced Western music in several ways. I even sensed some jazz-type rhythms in track 3. Check out Ligeti's Old Hungarian Parlor Dances - seems like he draws much of this piece from these gypsy rhythms, especially track 8. Wonder if this Ferenc Santa ever tours as I would love to hear him and his band perform live - just you dare try to keep your feet still when listening to this! Pick this Naxos gem up today, especially if you have some Hungarian roots like me - this music will come alive for you, it's in your blood. Enjoy!

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Csardas Hungarian Gyspy Music

The music is what I expected and the delivery and price were very acceptable. All was in excellent condition when it arrived.

Good Hungarian Music, Even Though It Falls Slightly Short

Being Hungarian myself, the son of a musician (my father plays the cimbalom) and a musician myself, I'd be lying if I said this CD by Santa Ferenc is great. Good? Yes. And well worth the price, but I've heard better Hungarian gypsy violinist in my time. If you really want to hear great Hungarian music try to find LPs by the lengendary Babai Bela, Lakatos Sandor, Berki Laszlo, and Banyak Kalman. Santa Ferenc has some good arrangements but lacks the feeling and depth of these other musicians. Although it probably isn't fair to him to compare him to others and is best if we judge his music purely on its own merits.

If you are familiar with Hungarian music you'll probably recognize many of the songs on the CD. They consist mainly of standard Hungarian and some Romanian gypsy songs. Track three which is titled on here merely as "Hungarian Songs" starts off with a song called "Gloomy Sunday" a song once deemed a suicide theme. We then have "Whistling Hora" a Romanian tune which has a nice arrangement and allows for some good solos. One of my favorite tracks on the album is "Doina and Hora" which is Romania but I believe the piece is really titled "Giabaralele" at least it sounds awfully close to it. It is a cimbalom solo, which unfortunately the album doesn't give credit to the other members in Santa's band. Whomever is on the cimbalom is quite good. He also has a good solo on another Romanian piece "The Lark" or as it is known in Romanian "Ciocirlia".

I've read some people have complained about the "sound" of the album, claiming it is not authentic Hungarian music. I honestly have no clue what they are talking about. I can honestly say, without exaggeration, I have listen to this music every day of my life since as far back as I can remember and this CD sounds pretty much like what you'd expect a Hungarian gypsy album to sound like.

Again, while it's not fair to compare Santa Ferenc (whom for the sake of complete honesty I should admit knows my father) to other Hungarian musicians, I still feel Santa merely plays the songs and doesn't add much emotion to them, the CD is still one most fans of Hungarian music should enjoy. *** 1\2 out of *****

Bottom-line: While not a great CD and not a great musician Santa Ferenc does have some good arrangements and good musicians backing him up plus a nice collection of famous Hungarian and Romanian songs. While he doesn't compare to other great musicians, for the price it is well worth it and doesn't need to compare.

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Mixed bag

My grandfather listen to alot of this music as I was growing up and I was hoping this cd would be like revisiting a stay at his house. On some levels it was, the basic sound was there, and some of the songs sounded right but there was not that fevered pitch that I was used to in Hungarian Gypsy Music. Some of the songs sounded totatly different from what I expected, there was one that broke down into this atonal, disjuncted fiddle and horns combo that I had never incountered before.

Not what I was expecting and wanting but still brings back fond memories.

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