Tamás Bubnó

Saint Ephraim Male Choir

Byzantine Mosaics

Cherubic Hymn

No. 3, Trisagion

Interludium I (Ad ligna)

Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence

Interludium II (Ad campanellas)

Christ Is Risen from the Dead

Interludium III (Ad campanellas)

The Angel Cried to the Lady Full of Grace

Interludium IV (Ad campanellas)

Polyeleios

The Lord's Prayer

Interludium V (Ad campanellas)

Psalm 127

The Shepherds Gathered in Betlehem

By Divine Command (Greek-Byzantine Doxastikon)

Lord, Now Lettest Thou Thy Servant Depart

Neither the Tomb, nor Death, Could Hold the Theotokos

Balázs Szokolay Dongó

AN UNFAMILIAR SIDE TO BARTÓK – CHORUSES FOR MALE CHOIR, INTERSPERSED WITH FOLK MUSIC
Béla Bartók died 70 years ago, in 1945 in New York. ‘What I most regret is that I have to leave with a full suitcase...’ he said before dying. Only he could know what he had not yet written; all we have to work with is what he left behind him. An anniversary always provokes debate about the relevance of the oeuvre of a great master, and his place in a given era. The Saint Ephraim Male Choir began to work with Bartók’s music in 2007. Over the years it became increasingly clear that all six of his works for male choir (Evening [1903], Four Old Hungarian Folksongs [1910–12], Slovak Folksongs [1917], Four Old Hungarian Folksongs version II [1926], Székely Folksongs [1932] and From Olden Times [1935]) contain music of unparalleled beauty, yet in terms of vocal chamber music, are highly taxing for the performers.
The least known area of Bartók’s musical legacy is his choral works, including the six male choruses. He wrote the first when he was 22 and the last when he was 54: these compositions run almost throughout his composing career – from the youthful post-Romantic blooming, through his folksong arrangements based on experiences gained on field trips, which influenced his whole life and outlook, to one of the greatest works ever written for male choir: a chorus suite entitled From Olden Times.
After seven years of preparation by artistic director Tamás Bubnó and the 16 singers, the time seems ripe to present an unfamiliar side of this great Hungarian genius, to both his compatriots and the world at large. For Bartók’s male choruses draw directly on the melodic world of Hungarians and the other peoples of the Carpathian Basin, but their message is universal, deep, and they speak to us all: a man has his place in the world; his prayers, struggles, feelings, thoughts, fears, love, mortality and strength swell, pulsate and surge within us. 
Between Bartók’s works we hear authentic folk music and an extension of it, which gives an insight into the sources, the musical and psychological experiences that may have touched the composer on his field trips: these are played by Balázs Szokolay Dongó on the bagpipes, recorder, and tárogató, with the participation of members of the Saint Ephraim Male Choir.

Bartók & Folk - Complete Works for Male Choir Interspersed with Folk Music

Anatoly Grindenko

Katalin Tasic

Orientale Lumen II

János Mezei

Schola Cantorum Budapestiensis

Singing together the Evening Offi e – the Vespers – was a part of the celebration of the feastdays for the priests and for their congregations ever since the early centuries of Christianity. This practice survived until the end of the Middle Ages, and in certain regions of Europe, such as Transylvania, even up to recent times. After the invention of polyphony, parts of the chants for the Vespers were replaced by polyphonic transcriptions performed by soloists. These pieces were, naturally, conceived in the musical language of the respective period. The heyday of this compositional practice came with the “concert-Vespers” of Viennese classicism (for example the Vespers of W. A. Mozart). Later this practice was abandoned, yet the possibility of enriching the recitative style of the ancient Gregorian chants with movements composed in the musical language of the present still exists. Two Hungarian composers representing two modern generations, Zsolt Serei and Péter Zombola, reached back to this tradition and composed two Vespers cycles. These full cycles were not meant to be performed on one occasion; rather, we encourage ambitious choirs and congregations to select some pieces from them for one liturgical occasion, and insert them into the Liturgy in the way clausulae were inserted in the 12th–13th century Notre Dame organum practice. Works of real artistic value deserve to become part of the daily celebrated liturgy. (János Mezei)
I have known Tamás Bubnó and János Mezei, the leaders of the Schola Cantorum Budapestiensis, since I was a youngster. I knew about the founding of their special school, and I knew how strongly they were attached to the singing of the mass and the offices. So I was prepared to meet their request to compose choral pieces for the per annum Vespers. It was an interesting task to compose pieces of different lengths and characters and adjust them to the dominant musical environment of Gregorian chant. Becoming familiar with this incredibly rich and nuanced musical culture gave me the impulse to compose melodies in the Gregorian style. On the other hand this task was similar to any other compositional task: I had to use the possibilities given by a text and a structure, and to shape them, to incorporate them into a unique sonic reality. The question still remains, whether the essential musical message of these works can be perceived by those who live with this music as performers or listeners. (Zsolt Serei)
I first came into contact with the Schola Cantorum Budapestiensis and its leaders, Tamás Bubnó and János Mezei when I started my studies at the Liszt Academy of Music. I attended their services at church and the concerts they organized, and it was not long before I had the idea of composing choral pieces for liturgical use. The choir movement initiated by Kodály and Bárdos promoted a certain kind of musical language, and did not rouse my interest. But the sound of Gregorian chant attracted me to vocal genres, and still retains my fascination. At the beginning I made a few random trials, but after a while I decided to compose a larger, more complex work. This is how the idea of composing a whole Vespers cycle came. I worked on the piece for three years, and the premiere was conducted by György Philipp in 2006, after which a recording soon followed. The Vespers proved to be the starting point for all my larger sacred works composed since then (Missa sine nomine, Requiem, Passio) so it has exerted a decisive influence on my oeuvre over the past ten years. (Péter Zombola)

Hungarian Contemporary Vespers

Liszt: Male Choruses, Vol. I

https://image.joox.com/JOOXcover/0/2a12a39d1b95a206/300

Byzantine Mosaics

Song List

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