St.EFREM: A Genius is Born III. | Béla Bartók and his Musical Heritage

Program:
Béla Bartók: From Olden Times
László Kelemen: Yonder Swings…
Barnabás Dukay: …your inner silence is the gloom, a dwelling place of the Lord…
László Sáry: Psalm Canon
Béla Bartók: Slovak Folk Songs
Béla Bartók: Two Romanian Songs
Béla Bartók: Spring
Béla Bartók: Four Old Hungarian Folk Songs
Márton Levente Horváth: Missa Beatus vir – excerpt
Béla Bartók – Tamás Bubnó: The Times of my Exile (An Evening in the Village)
Béla Bartók: Székely Folk Songs

Featuring:
StEFREM:
Edgár Balázs
Lőrinc Bubnó
Tamás Bubnó
Marcell Oláh
Viktor Papp
Ambrus Rácz
Péter Tóth

Among the pillars of StEFREM's broad repertoire are works for male choir by Hungarian composers, primarily Liszt, Bartók and Kodály, as well as compositions dedicated to the ensemble by contemporary Hungarian masters. They have released several albums of these works on BMC Records.

The series A Genius Is Born is a tribute to the male choir works by the three greatest Hungarian masters of music, so it is no coincidence that the concerts are taking place on the composers' birthdays. A special feature of the concert programme is that StEFREM's personal selection of works by the classical composers is complemented by outstanding and interesting pieces by their "heirs", the Hungarian composers of the 20th and 21st centuries.

StEFREM is a Budapest-based vocal ensemble with a unique sound. The multi award-winning ensemble regularly performs throughout Europe, from London to Bucharest, and has also performed in Africa, India and South America. They have worked with renowned artists such as Abeer Nehme, Victor Solomon, and the King's Singers, and have released 18 albums since 2002. Their rich and varied repertoire includes Byzantine and classical pieces, crossover arrangements and acapella pop songs.

Béla Bartók was born 143 years ago on one of the most important Christian feasts: the Feast of the Assumption, also known as the Feast of the Annunciation, on 25 March. Bartók's unique, pure art has quickly become particularly influential for the whole music culture, and continues to be so even 80 years after his death. Out of the Hungarian geniuses, Liszt wrote more than sixty male works, Kodály twenty, Bartók only six, but these are true gems of the genre, and span his entire oeuvre. In particular, the Songs from Olden Times and the Székely Folk Songs are seminal in the literature of men's choral music. In the final episode of the three-part concert series A Genius is Born, Bartók's works will be accompanied by compositions and transcriptions by six contemporary Hungarian composers.

Further concerts in this series:
22 October 2024 19:00 St.EFREM: A Genius is Born I. | Franz Liszt and his Musical Heritage
16 December 2024 19:00 St.EFREM: A Genius is Born II. | Zoltán Kodály and his Musical Heritage