Arpad Balazs

Four Pictures

The teachers under whom Árpád Balázs (b. 1937) studied composition - Ferenc Farkas, Aram Khachaturian and Goffredo Petrassi - each independently formed the opinion that with his lyrical gift Árpád Balázs's true creative field would be that of choral music and wind ensembles. Their early predictions are borne out by the roughly two hundred and fifty works for choir and almost twenty for wind orchestra that the composer has since produced. It is interesting that in the suite entitled Négy kép (Four pictures) the stylistic features of these two related musical fields are united. In it the wind instruments sing! It was not by chance that the expansive second movement was given thetitle Cantilena, while the slightly livelier but just as lyrical third movement was entitled Arietta. The opening movement of the work is a stridently jolly, energetic Induló (March), but not one of the rigidly military kind: the 6/8 rhythm contributes to its light-hearted character. This music is avowedly akin to the ballet music of Prokofiev. This choice series of four character pieces is crowned by Játék (Play) in which conveying the effect of the mixture of lines moving in parallel and then colliding with each other may be more technically demanding, but is well worth the effort! (Hungaroton HCD 31353)