A Hair-Raising Brew: BBC Scottish Symphony and
Folk Group Muzsikás Explore Bartók's Roots
By
Michael Tumelty
The
Herald [Glasgow] 8. March 2004
Muzsikás
BBC
Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Ilan
Volkov (conductor)
7
March 2004 - The Tramway, Glasgow
Amazing
scenes last night at The Tramway as two
Hungarian Folk dancers pounded the floor and scythed the air in
the last, racing dance of Bartók's Romanian Folk Dances,
while the musicians of the authentic Folk group Muzsikás
added th
e tart zest of their shrill, pungent fiddle sounds, and
the slap-bass technique of the group's double-bassist powered the
engine of the music.
It
was already a hair-raisingly exciting climax to one of the most
original musical events of recent times when, suddenly, roaring
in and shifting the music into turbo-drive, co
nductor Ilan Volkov
and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra added Bartók's own
virile, driving orchestration of the Folk dance to what was
already an irresistibly thrilling brew. To say the performance
was high-voltage is to come no
where near catching the electric
atmosphere of the occasion, an event that had the capacity
Tramway crowd stomping the floor and baying for more.
It
was just the final point in a concert that was a breathtakingly
kaleidoscopic display of music and dance: an authentic Folk music
idiom and a classical medium thoroughly cross-fertilising each
other in a night that was a showcase of artistic excellence and
entertainment.
Even
those of u
s who think we know where Bartók was coming from
in his tireless collecting of Folk music must have been
gobsmacked as we heard the originals played by Muzsikás,
each number underlining just how the genius of Bartók
pr
eserved, in his transformations, the essence and spirit of the
ethnic original, whether instrumental or, in the mesmeric singing
of Márta Sebestyén, hauntingly vocal.
The
real discovery of the night, with a sensational performance from
the
SSO and Volkov, was Ligeti's early and dazzling Romanian
Concerto,
a sizzling display piece that surely every orchestra will seek
out. Knock-out night.
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