Buzz, boom, buzz, boom

On Tuesday evening, Hungary came to Binghamton. (I know, can you believe it? You’d think it’d be pretty hard to move an entire country…BU is really going to great diversifying lengths!! The parade of houses and national monuments on wheels was tremendous!!)

Okay, okay, so it was just the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra that came, but for a person who has never heard a single Hungarian word spoken before, it was a great deal like visiting with a foreign country!

The Orchestra performed Variations on a Hungarian Folksong (“The Peacock”) by Kodály Zoltán, Five Songs from the “Twenty Hungarian Folksongs” by Bartók, Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in E Flat Major and Les Préludes— both by Liszt, and Dances from Galánta also by Zoltán Kodály. They were directed by Zsolt Hamar, a very distinguished Hungarian conductor. His conducting style was extremely graceful! And, in Dances from Galánta, his conducting style changed completely–he was practically doing the dance himself; jumping all around his podium using angular and erratic elbow movements. It was very entertaining!

The Five Songs from the “Twenty Hungarian Folksongs” featured sopranoist Júlia Hajnóczy. Several of these songs were incredibly meloncholy–one in particular, Song IV Panasz (or “Lament”) was very emotional:

My darling is very ill,
Perhaps she will die,
If she does not die, she will have pains,
This will also be my grief.

Of your grave illness
Give me some too,
Let us feel it both,
Let me feel it too.

My favorite of the folksongs, however, was Song V, Párosító (or “Wedding Song II”). It was swift, cheerful, and the lyrics made you laugh right out loud (seriously, the entire audience was laughing when Júlia emphatically exclaimed the last line!!):

The light is burning at the virag’s.
They are roating the fried frog.
Buzz, boom, buzz, boom,
Recefice boom boom boom.
Gabor Vaci made a grab,
He munched a frog leg.
Buzz, boom, buzz, boom,
Recefice boom boom boom.

The pianist, Mocsári Károly, who accompanied the orchestra in Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in E Flat Major, was also excellent! He played very passionately (and had to skooch his bench back up to the piano after every theme because he was moving so dramatically!). At the end of the piece, as he walked off stage, he seemed absolutely drained. I think he put every ounce of himself into that song, he could barely walk!