ajay124
Well-Known Member
Hungary for good music?
For cinema I personally rate Hungary very highly. Much higher than the blockbuster factories of India and the United States. Miklos Jancso, Zoltan Huszarik, Istvan Szabo and Bela Tarr are among their best and most popular film makers but I have viewed films by many other Hungarian directors and almost all of them were good. At festivals like IFFI Goa, I automatically tick all the films from Hungary, Poland and other East European countries before looking at other options. One can watch only 5 films a days and selecting the right ones is of paramount importance. I rarely select a film made in Hindi or English!
Hungary was also the homeland of composers like Franz Liszt, Zoltan Kodaly Gyorgy Ligeti and Ernest Dohnanyi. But undoubtedly the greatest was Bela Bartok.
Composers like Bartok, Kodaly, Ligeti, Mahler and Dvorak imbued their music with a touch of folk, gypsy and 'peoples' strains which may have initially shocked the purists who viewed classical music purely in 'aristocratic' and 'noble' terms. But gradually their music found acceptance and probably even influenced musicians of popular 20th century genre's like Jazz and rock. From the daring dystopian music of Gyorgi Ligeti to the psychedelic musings of Sid Barret and Pink Floyd may be a huge leap but there may be a connection. A connection I would like to pursue through more listening sessions. I may be entirely off the mark as I have only played my Ligeti box set a couple of times and have not heard a complete Floyd recording for well over a decade now.
This post was meant to be about Bela Bartok but it seems to have meandered off onto a different path. Therefore I will save Bartok, my current favorite, for the next post.
Gyrgy Ligeti - Lontano - YouTube
For cinema I personally rate Hungary very highly. Much higher than the blockbuster factories of India and the United States. Miklos Jancso, Zoltan Huszarik, Istvan Szabo and Bela Tarr are among their best and most popular film makers but I have viewed films by many other Hungarian directors and almost all of them were good. At festivals like IFFI Goa, I automatically tick all the films from Hungary, Poland and other East European countries before looking at other options. One can watch only 5 films a days and selecting the right ones is of paramount importance. I rarely select a film made in Hindi or English!
Hungary was also the homeland of composers like Franz Liszt, Zoltan Kodaly Gyorgy Ligeti and Ernest Dohnanyi. But undoubtedly the greatest was Bela Bartok.
Composers like Bartok, Kodaly, Ligeti, Mahler and Dvorak imbued their music with a touch of folk, gypsy and 'peoples' strains which may have initially shocked the purists who viewed classical music purely in 'aristocratic' and 'noble' terms. But gradually their music found acceptance and probably even influenced musicians of popular 20th century genre's like Jazz and rock. From the daring dystopian music of Gyorgi Ligeti to the psychedelic musings of Sid Barret and Pink Floyd may be a huge leap but there may be a connection. A connection I would like to pursue through more listening sessions. I may be entirely off the mark as I have only played my Ligeti box set a couple of times and have not heard a complete Floyd recording for well over a decade now.
This post was meant to be about Bela Bartok but it seems to have meandered off onto a different path. Therefore I will save Bartok, my current favorite, for the next post.
Gyrgy Ligeti - Lontano - YouTube
Unfortunately there are very fm's who can afford multiple systems. I could split the funds from my potential sale and build two small systems. But because of the halved budget I may wind up with two compromised systems instead of one good one. I would rather have one good system.
