Evoking, awakening, grasping – finally at home. Mátyás Seiber has been better known in England & Germany until now. His life as a composer, as a teacher and as an individual had integrated into the British musical world. Among many, we owe a debt of revitalizing his inheritance in Hungary to Péter Szabó who was the first to recognize. The high quality concert given at the Old Academy of Music was the overture of this process and it was followed by a Hungaroton album subtitled Chamber pieces and songs.

Here we are, another “first recording” of some pleasant chamber pieces of music. In between Hans Koessler’s Trio Suite and Quintet in F major there is Emanuel Moór’s Cello Sonata No.2; the performers are David Frühwirth, Christoph Ehrenfellner, Genevieve Strosser, Péter Szabó and Zsuzsa Kollár (but we can only guess which violinist we hear in the Trio Suite). The source of the quintet is a manuscript while the two other works also have a published version.

Hungaroton 32067-68 [2 discs, 1-72:58; 2-57:21, DDD]
Ignaz Pleyel Cello Concertos [Volume 1]
Péter Szabó, cello
Erdődy Chamber Orchestra
Leader: Zsolt Szefcsik
Péter Szabó, conductor
[World Premiere Recordings]

It was probably the first spring night of the year. I felt the smell of the Danube in the room and cold wind on my skin. A wind, that was cold but different from the day before – probably the last night of winter.