Csaba Szabó: Memorial Concert at The French Institute in Budapest Csaba Szabó

• Csaba Szabó (1936 - 2003): Walking into my little garden:
• 1 Szabó: Walking into my little garden 02:37
• The shepherd in search of his sheeps:
• 2 Szabó: The shepherd in search of his sheeps 02:16
• Sweet „Gergelem”:
• 3 Szabó: Sweet „Gergelem” 05:06
• Opus Parvuum Musicale - Rondo Concertante for Violin and Piano:
• 4 Szabó: Opus Parvuum Musicale - Rondo Concertante for Violin and Piano 15:10
• Three Spring Songs to Poems by Lajos Áprily:
• 5 Szabó: Three Spring Songs to Poems by Lajos Áprily, I. Ti-ti-ti! 01:33
• 6 Szabó: Three Spring Songs to Poems by Lajos Áprily, II. For Buds and Birds 00:52
• 7 Szabó: Three Spring Songs to Poems by Lajos Áprily, III. April Mood 01:25
• Youth String Quartet:
• 8 Szabó: Youth String Quartet, I. Grave - Andante tranquillo - Grave 05:24
• 9 Szabó: Youth String Quartet, II. Allegro scherzando 04:12
• 10 Szabó: Youth String Quartet, III. Largo - Presto 06:58
• Advent hymns:
• 11 Szabó: Advent hymns, In Christianity 01:01
• 12 Szabó: Advent hymns, Sent by the Lord God 01:19
• Genevan Psalters:
• 13 Szabó: Genevan Psalters, Psalm 42, As a deer longs for flowing streams 00:58
• 14 Szabó: Genevan Psalters, Psalm 51, Have mercy on me, O God 01:40
• 15 Szabó: Genevan Psalters, Psalm 92, It's a beautiful thing to praise the Lord 00:47
• 16 Szabó: Genevan Psalters, Psalm 117, Praise the Lord, all nations 01:18
• György Dózsa’s heartening words:
• 17 Szabó: György Dózsa’s heartening words 02:43
• Black boots - My lover into this dance:
• 18 Szabó: Black boots - My lover into this dance 01:51
• Serious Hungarian:
• 19 Szabó: Serious Hungarian 01:05
• Old Hungarian:
• 20 Szabó: Old Hungarian 01:25
• Total Runtime 59:40

Info for Csaba Szabó: Memorial Concert at The French Institute in Budapest

Composer Csaba Szabó (1936-2003) left a multifaceted oeuvre, not only with his compositions, but also in the fields of music history and theory, as well as folk music collection and research. Over the decades, these different aspects of his work have complemented each other: ethnographic data and research have stimulated and guided the scholar and provided the composer with a subject and inspiration, while his creative componistic challenges have often led him to theoretical and historic conclusions.

The oeuvre is divided by a dramatic caesura, Csaba Szabó's forced resettlement from Ceauşescu's Romania to Hungary in 1988; a caesura, but not a rupture: his earlier themes, with shifts of emphasis, lived on in his Hungarian (Szombathely) years (1988-2003), and reached an impressive summing and synthesis in all three of these areas of his work - and may provide further inspiration for generations of composers and musicologists of the next era.

The present compilation is a recording of the Csaba Szabó Memorial Concert held at the French Institute in Budapest on 12 December 2023,

József Balog, piano
Ádám Takács, child soprano
Saint Ephraim Male Choir
Szabó Ensemble:
Virginie Robilliard, violin
Noémi Molnár, violin
Barna Juhász, viola
Péter Szabó, cello
Havay – Illés – Dósai Folk Music Trio:
Viktória Havay, vocal
Gábor Illés, cobza
Gergely Dósai, recorder, kaval (traditional folk flute)

Csaba Szabó
composer, musicologist, college teacher, was born in 1936 in Ákosfalva, Maros - Torda county. He began his studies at the Marosvásárhely Music School, after which he obtained his composer diploma at the G. Dima Academy of Music in Cluj under the guidance of the Kodály students Gábor Jodál and János Jagamas. He began his career as the conductor of the Marosvásárhely State Székely Folk Ensemble. As a composer, he contributed to the development of the orchestra’s repertoire (1957-1967). From 1963 to 1987, he was a teacher at the István Szentgyörgyi Theater Institute, where he taught music theory, music history, and the subject "rhythm and intonation of Hungarian speech". From 1961 to 1987, he was a member of the Association of Romanian Composers and Musicologists. From 1979 to 1986, he was the head of the Marosvásárhely branch of the Association of Romanian Composers and Musicologists. In 1987, when he announced his intention to relocate to the relevant authorities in Romania, he was removed from his college position and his works were deleted from the national repertoire. After moving to Hungary, he was a teacher at Dániel Berzsenyi College in Szombathely from 1988 until his death in 2003.

His life and activities tied him to two countries, but to one homeland and one profession: to serve Hungarian musical culture of European rank. Like his teachers and masters, he did not separate the branches of the transmission of musical education: composing, performing art, scientific and educational work. Thus, his work is versatile: composer, musicologist, folk music researcher, teacher. His compositional and scientific orientation and activities were guided by the Hungarian folk music and music history tradition he brought with him from his homeland. The cause, service, teaching, authentic preservation and research of Hungarian folk music from generation to generation are an important part of its intellectual heritage. Until 1987, he worked in several areas of Romanian musical life. He was regularly concerned with issues of folk music, music history, prosody, and music teaching. As a public writer, he published music criticism, reviews, and popularizing musicology articles (mostly in Romanian, and to a lesser extent in Hungarian) magazines and collected volumes. He gave lectures in the mentioned subject areas in Romania, Hungary, the USA, and France.

In 1978 he won the prize of the Association of Romanian Composers. His compositions: Songs, choral works, symphonic works, masses, stage music.

Booklet for Csaba Szabó: Memorial Concert at The French Institute in Budapest