Table of Contents - The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra

18
Program Notes
Zoltán Kodály
Hungarian composer
Born: December 16, 1882,
Kecskemét
Died: March 6, 1967, Budapest
Háry János Suite
Prelude: The Fairy Tale Begins
Viennese Musical Clock
Song
The Battle and Defeat of Napoleon
Intermezzo
Entrance of the Emperor and his Court
First Classics performance: December 4,
1982, conducted by Julius Rudel; most
recent performance: June 6, 1991,
conducted by Arie Lipsky; duration
24 minutes
Zoltán Kodály’s parents were serious
amateur musicians, his father a violinist, his
mother a pianist and singer. Beyond those
at-home advantages, young Zoltán also
revealed a keen aptitude for languages
and literature. With interest in the links
between speech and music, he began to
collect folk tales, tunes and dances. In turn,
for a change in venue and style, Zoltán
enrolled at the Paris Conservatoire, where
he studied the Impressionist techniques of
Claude Debussy.
Upon return to his own turf, Kodály
became an avid nationalist with a gift
for picturesque tone-painting. His lavishly
colored orchestral scores include Dances
of Galanta, the Peacock Variations and
the current symphonic suite derived from
his opera Háry János of 1926 (formally
a comic Singspiel, with songs, dialogue
and dances).
We should note that, particularly in Central
Europe, the decade which followed
World War I was marked by repressive
regimes. For his part, Kodály was well
aware that folklore could be used to
counter political repression without getting
the authors, composers and performers
jailed. But Kodály intended to do more
than offer Háry János as a lampoon to
the prevailing politic. He also wanted to
showcase folksong and folk dances on
the operatic stage. However, to make
it all work in sequence, Kodály himself
composed several of the ‘indigenous’
tunes. A tall order.
Háry János is based on the theater farce The
Veteran by Janos Garay. The libretto was
derived by Bela Paulini and Zsolt Harsanyi,
who crafted a Prolog, Four Adventures
and a closing Epilog. In sum, the storyline
tells of the outlandish exaggerations of a
hussar of the Hungarian army who sits in
the village tavern day after day, filling his
gullible listeners with stories of his own
heroism. Nothing that strikes his inebriated
imagination is too far from the truth.
About the status of the opera today,
we should note the work remains in the
repertoire of the Budapest State Opera.
However, it is otherwise relatively unknown
around the world. Fortunately Kodály took
care to preserve the opera’s delightful
highlights in the current Háry János Suite,
a setting which enjoys immense popularity
on the orchestral stage.
About the suite, Kodály provided the
following commentary:
“According to a Hungarian superstition,
if a statement is followed by a sneeze
by one of the hearers, it is regarded as
a confirmation of its truth.
No.1 - One of Háry’s faithful listeners
sneezes when Háry declares that he
once subdued Napoleon himself. With
this orchestral sneeze, “The Fairy Tale
Begins”.
No.2 - Viennese Musical Clock. At the
Imperial Castle in Vienna, the ingenious
Hungarian lad is enraptured by the
famous rotating music box with its little