This album offers a selection of popular violin miniatures from the period of Romanticism. Listening to these pieces it is easy to comprehend why we all get enchanted by virtuosity and that beautiful melodies always capture the human heart, young and old alike. The recording also features music that has been composed by the performer to demonstrate his own remarkable capacities while the album also has pieces that sound more like honest confessions overshadowed by grandiose compositions. The works are performed by Krist�f Bar�ti on his Stradivarius Lady Harmsworth and he is accompanied by pianist G�bor Farkas.

Mozart’s first three full-fledged piano trios were composed in his most prolific period: in the summer and autumn of 1786. At that time he had spent five years in Vienna, and the aristocratic circles were beginning to recognize his extraordinary genius. He gave solo piano recitals, worked as a conductor on a regular basis, rehearsed his own compositions, received private students, and was involved in the social life of the imperial capital. Two years later Mozart added three new grandiose piano trios to the repertory of the chamber music genre. They are preceded by two pieces: the first is one of the composer’s early chamber works, followed by a piece compiled by Abbé Stadler from various musical fragments and entitled Three movements for piano trio. Pianist Marta Gulyas holds the Liszt Prize, and has been a teacher at the Liszt Academy since 1978 and a professor at the Madrid Royal Conservatory since 1991. Two time MIDEM award-winner violinist Vilmos Szabadi works as an associate professor at the Liszt Academy of Music as the Head of Violin Department. As a leading violoncellist of his generation Csaba Onczay has been awarded several prestigious prizes including the Liszt Prize, the Meritorious Artist Award, and the Kossuth Prize. He currently teaches at the Liszt Academy as a professor emeritus. Viola player Mate Szucs performs with renowned musicians and ensembles across the world, and has taught viola at the Karajan Academy of the orchestra since 2013. He has been teaching at the Liszt Academy since 2015.

Zsigmond Moricz is one of Hungary’s greatest modern novelists. Be Faithful Unto Death is the moving story of a precocious schoolboy who is growing up in a boarding school in the city of Debrecen. When he is falsely accused of stealing a winning lottery ticket, he undergoes and grows from a series of torments. First published in 1921, the novel is full of impeccable writing and vivid detail. It is this writing that creates a feeling of universal experience in this story, which has been widely read and studied even outside of Hungary. On this release, the original translation is heard in audiobook form, read by Mari Jaszai Award-winning actor and director Alfoldi Robert.

We live in a time of investigation. We take samples, send them to a laboratory, and get results. We draw up tests and categorize things. Composers are present among us through their works. As long as we play their pieces, they exist. We can take a sample of this music. Let’s take an excerpt of two bars, a motif, any excerpt, at random! In this imaginary music laboratory, would we be able to ascertain who wrote the music, or what their personality was like? Their temperament? For the program of this album, we have chosen two composers for whom the answer is “yes”.

The backbones of the present recording are Schubert’s two late violin-piano compositions: the Rondo in B minor and the Fantasia in C major, both commissioned by virtuoso Czech violinist Josef Slavík. Particularly interesting is the fact, that the violin-piano paraphrase of the song Sei mir gegrüsst is performed twice: once as a variation section of the Fantasia, once in H. Sitt's arrangement. Violinist Júlia Pusker is an established young musician who made it into the final of the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition in 2019. Her partner here is Zoltán Fejérvári, Junior Prima Prize-winning pianist, winner of the 2017 Montreal International Piano Competition.

By the early 19th century, Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) had already become watchwords amongst classical composers and in the classical music world. Their compositions were widely known and highly appreciated from the onset of their careers and are worshipped among the best, even today. The quartets featured on the present album stand out even from the rich output of chamber music works of these two masters: they are characterized by exuberant energy, diverse colors and are full of imaginative musical ideas.

Johann Sebastian Bach’s six suites for solo cello are among the best known and most difficult compositions in the musical repertoire. Miklós Perényi, one of the greatest cellists of his generation, and a world-famous exponent of his instrument, recorded these masterpieces for Hungaroton 40 years ago. Now after four decades we can once more hear his unforgettable performance of these key works. Born in Hungary, he began cello lessons at the age of five with Miklós Zsámboki, a student of David Popper. At the age of nine, he gave his first concert in Budapest and went on to study between 1960 and 1964 with Enrico Mainardi in Rome and, in Budapest, with Ede Banda. In 1963 he became a prizewinner at the International Pablo Casals Cello Competition in Budapest. Casals invited him to his master classes in Puerto Rico in 1965 and 1966, and he went on to become a frequent visitor to the Marlboro Festival. In 1974, Miklós Perényi joined the faculty at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, where he has held a professorship since 1980. He was honoured with the Kossuth-Prize in 1980 and the Bartók-Pásztory-Prize in 1987.

This album features a small part of Judit Rajk’s rich repertoire, Hungarian compositions of the 20th and 21st centuries, starting with Zoltán Kodály’s folksong arrangements, through Barnabás Dukay’s large-scale monody, Zoltán Jeney’s brief, resigned lament, to the sensitive song on the death of children by Máté Balogh. Although the bases of the works in this recording differ, they share one point in common: they use a small slice of the past in a daring and unique manner, whether it is actually used or merely as an element of inspiration. The challenge for the performer is to decide how to enrich this “past”, this time of tradition, with her own tempo.

With the selection of this album, enthusiasts of Baroque music have an insight into the highly particular and individual style of Jean-Jacques-Baptiste Anet, a French violinist- composer, now hardly known but in his time considered to be one of the greatest violinists. He was born in Paris. He studied with Arcangelo Corelli for four years in Rome. Afterwards, he returned to Paris about 1700, and was met with the greatest success. There can be little doubt that by his example the principles of the great Italian school of violin-playing were first introduced into France. Probably owing to the jealousy of his French colleagues Anet soon left Paris again, and is said to have spent the rest of his life as conductor of the private band of a nobleman in Poland. He published three sets of sonatas for the violin. This release showcases sonatas for violin and basso-continuo.