Pure Source / BARTÓK SPRING 2022

Featuring: Mesi Guessous – voice, László Szlama – recorder, shawm, cithern, voice, Gerzson Dávid Boros – darbuka, bendir, tapan, voice, Tamás Smuk – darbuka, bendir, Balázs Cserta – tárogató, shawm, Ballet Company of Győr, dancers and orchestra of the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble, Kodály Philharmonic Debrecen

Conductors: Kornél Fekete-Kovács, Imre Kollár 

Music: Kornél Fekete-Kovács, Péter Erdélyi

Musical editors: László Gőz, István Szalonna Pál

Animation: László Zsolt Bordos

Choreographers: Gábor Mihályi, László Velekei

Director: Csaba Káel

Béla Bartók is the most important figure in Hungarian music literature. His folk music collections were indispensable for the following generations’ efforts to preserve the values of Hungarian culture: the melodies he recorded continue to define traditional folk and classical music to this day, and keep inspiring the world of jazz and world music.

Bartók was keenly interested in the music of not only the Hungarian regions, but that of the peoples in the neighbouring countries and more distant regions (e.g. North Africa, Turkey) as well. His collection of Arabic music in North Africa will be given special prominence in this production, which is the gala performance of the Hungarian day at Expo Dubai, in March 2022. Featuring Mesi Guessous, the Ballet Company of Győr and the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble, Pure Source presents, through the connection of Arabic and Hungarian music, some characteristic pieces of Bartók’s oeuvre, highlighting in particular the links between music and dance.