Tibor Serly used the drafts to write a performable work, which, his best intentions notwithstanding, cannot be considered an authentic Bartók piece. It is nonetheless an exciting composition, “music calling to us from the borderline of being and nonexistence – which is probably what makes it particularly interesting, even mystic.”

It was Bartók who suggested László Lajtha to director George Hoellering, who was looking to find musical accompaniment for a film that employed documentarist devices to reproduce social reality, and was considered revolutionary in the 1930s. Based on “Bleak Horse”, a short story by Zsigmond Móricz, the screenplay focuses on the Cineges, a family that represents a way of life about to disappear.

Set apart by its merits from the rest of the popular Hungarian cinema of the time, Hoellering’s film was seen by a critic as “the only trustworthy record of the Hungarian puszta, the way of life of its inhabitants.”

The music Lajtha wrote is not only excellent, but also reveals a profound knowledge of the environment shown in the film. Celebrating the 120th anniversary of the composer’s birth, this concert will offer an opportunity to appreciate not only the artistic qualities of the work, but its power as well to enhance the film’s dramaturgy.

Each of the six movements of the suite version will find its harmonic counterpart in the cinematic excerpts, in the spirit of the original film.

Date: 16 March 2012
Time: 7.30 pm - 10.00 pm
Bartók Béla National Concert Hall

Kodály: Variations on a Hungarian folksong, 'The Peacock'
Bartók: Viola concerto
Lajtha: Hortobágy – suite, op. 21/b / With a screening of Hortobágy, a film made in 1936

Conductor: Balázs Kocsár

Prices: 1500, 2500, 3500, 4500, 5500, 6500 Ft"

Source: Palace of Arts