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Kodály Quartet Attila Falvay, I • Tamás Szabó, Violin II • János Fejérvári, • György Éder, MENDELSSOHN The members of the Kodály Quartet were trained at the Budapest Ferenc Liszt Academy, and two of the original players, the second violinist Tamás Szabó and viola player Gábor Fias, were formerly in the Sebestyén Quartet, which was awarded the jury’s special diploma at the 1966 Geneva International Quartet Competition and won first prize at the 1968 in E flat major, Op. 20 Leo Weiner Quartet Competition in Budapest. Since 1970, with the violinist Attila Falvay, the quartet has been known as the Kodály Quartet, a title adopted with the approval of the Hungarian Ministry of Culture and Education. Recent additions to the quartet have been the cellist György Éder of the Éder Quartet and the violist János Fejérvári, who took part in the Quartet’s recording of Mozart Quintets. The Kodály Quartet has given concerts throughout Europe, in the then BRUCH Soviet Union and in Japan, in addition to regular appearances in Hungary both in the concert hall and on television. For Naxos the Quartet has made highly acclaimed recordings of string quartets by Ravel, Debussy, Haydn and Schubert. Octet in B flat major Auer Quartet Gábor Sipos, Violin I • Zsuzsanna Berentés, Violin II • Csaba Gálfi, Viola • Ákos Takács, Cello Kodály Quartet • Auer Quartet The Auer Quartet was formed in 1990 by students of the Budapest Ferenc Liszt Music Academy. Their tutors included András Mihály, György Kurtág, Ferenc Rados, and Sándor Devich, a founder member of the Bartók String Quartet. The ensemble’s name honours the world famous Hungarian violinist and teacher Lipót Auer (1845-1930). As guests of the Royal Academy of Music in London in 1991, the members of the ensemble attended the courses of the world-famous Amadeus String Quartet and those of György Pauk. From that date on, they were regularly invited to attend the master- courses of the Amadeus Quartet held in London and in Semmering until 1995. The Auer Quartet has won recognition at numerous Hungarian and international competitions. They won the first prize at the Leó Weiner Chamber Music Competition held at the Ferenc Liszt Music Academy in 1991, and second prize at the Viotti Competition held in Italy in 1992. In addition to being awarded the second prize at the Evian International String Quartet Competition held in France in 1993, the ensemble was also awarded the Special Prize of the music critics and that for the best Mozart performance. The quartet’s real break-through came in 1997, when the ensemble won First Prize at the Seventh London International String Quartet Competition, with Lord Yehudi Menuhin as chairman. They also won the special audience award, and the Sydney Griller Trophy for the best interpretation of a contemporary work. The Auer Quartet has been invited to leading concert halls, including the Wigmore Hall in London, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, and the Casals Hall in Tokyo, among other venues, and to festivals including those of Edinburgh, Schwetzingen, Bath, Kuhmo, Cheltenham, the Prague Spring, and the Budapest Spring. The quartet has toured in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, India and North Africa. There have been collaborations with distinguished contemporaries, broadcasts and recordings. In 2000 the ensemble was awarded the Liszt-Prize by the Hungarian State. Zsolt Fejérvári

Zsolt Fejérvári was a pupil of Zoltán Tibay at the prestigious Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest. While still a student of the Academy, he was awarded a special prize at the International Competition of Markneunkirchen and became principal player of the Munich Chamber . Between summer 1994 and 1998 he led the double bass section of the Budapest Festival Orchestra, followed by four years spent in Switzerland with the Suisse Romande Orchestra. Since December 2002 he has been a member again of the Budapest Festival Orchestra. In 2003 he won the Sándor Végh Competition for musicians of the orchestra. 8.557270 4 557270 bk Octets US 2/9/06 1:09 PM Page 2

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-1847): Octet in E flat major, Op. 20 dispersed’ (Wolkenzug und Nebelflor / erhellen sich von Berlin on 2nd October, 1920. (1838-1920): Octet in B flat major, Op. posth. oben. / Luft im Laub und Wind im Rohr / - und alles ist Bruch’s Octet in B flat major, one of his last works, zerstoben). The busy figuration is continued in the final was written in January and February 1920, seven months Born in Hamburg in 1809, eldest son of the banker after disagreements with the conductor Spontini, to found fugal Presto, its principal subject mounting through the before the composer’s death, and apparently a reworking of Abraham Mendelssohn and grandson of the great Jewish the Berlin Philharmonic Society the following year, instruments, from the initial entry of the second cello. The a recently composed string quintet. It is seemingly thinker Mendelssohn, , who took leading its semi-amateur orchestra in concerts with the perpetual motion of the movement nevertheless allows the modelled on Mendelssohn’s Octet, although the later the additional name Bartholdy on his baptism as a Berlin Singakademie. This was the ensemble that he led in addition of other thematic elements and explicit references substitution of a double bass for the second cello made the Christian, was brought up in Berlin, where his family Mendelssohn’s famous revival of Bach’s St Matthew to the preceding Scherzo. work into a possible item in string orchestra repertoire, settled in 1812. Here he enjoyed the wide cultural Passion in 1829, an enterprise in which he and his cellist Today Max Bruch is generally known only as the described then as Concerto for String Orchestra. The Octet opportunities that his family offered, through their own brother Julius had collaborated by helping to write out the composer of works for the violin. In addition to the Violin was played to the composer by the violinist Willy Hess and interests and connections. parts for the performance. Mendelssohn dedicated to Rietz Concerto in G minor, the popularity of which continues, his pupils. Manifested in a number of directions, Mendelssohn’s his in D minor, the Octet and the Violin and, to the annoyance of the composer, eventually The tranquil principal theme of the opening Allegro early gifts, included marked musical precocity, both as a Sonata in F minor, Opus 4. Rietz died of consumption in overshadowed much of his other work, we hear from time moderato is entrusted to the first viola, continued by the composer and as a performer, at a remarkably early age. 1832 and Mendelssohn then dedicated to his memory the to time the and the Second Violin first violin and leading to a second subject of more forceful These exceptional abilities received every encouragement slow movement of his String Quintet, Opus 18. Concerto. The fact that Bruch, in his day, was famous for contour. The central development of this broadly sonata- from his family and their friends, although Abraham The Octet in E flat major, in which Mendelssohn his large-scale choral works is forgotten. Between 1870 form movement returns at first to the mood of the opening, Mendelssohn entertained early doubts about the himself on occasion took the second viola part, was written and 1900 there were numerous performances of works with other earlier material explored before a suggested desirability of his son taking the profession of musician. in 1825 and immediately precedes in order of composition such as , Frithjof or Das Lied von der Glocke, return of the first theme, postponed until its final return in a These reservations were in part put to rest by the advice of the concert A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with earning for the composer a reputation that momentarily more grandiose form, after a unison climax, as in Cherubini in Paris and by the increasing signs of the boy’s which the Scherzo has obvious affinities. It was conceived outshone that of Brahms. Mendelssohn’s Octet. The slow movement almost seems musical abilities and interests. in orchestral terms and is an astonishing feat of virtuosity Max Bruch was born in Cologne on 6th January, 1838, to recall Schumann’s Piano Quintet in the sinister Mendelssohn’s early manhood brought the from a sixteen-year-old, innovative in instrumentation and in the same year as Bizet. He studied there with Ferdinand suggestion of its E flat minor opening, before the entry of opportunity to travel, as far south as Naples and as far north in its treatment of the instruments. Considerable demands Hiller and Carl Reinecke. Extended journeys at home and the first violin with the principal theme of the movement. as The Hebrides, with Italy and Scotland both providing are made of the first violin, in a part written originally for abroad as a student were followed by a longer stay in The secondary thematic material, in B major and marked the inspiration for later symphonies. His career involved Rietz, for whom the work was intended as a birthday Mannheim, where his opera Loreley was performed in Andante con molto di moto, is introduced by the first violin him in the Lower Rhine Festival in Düsseldorf and a period present. Much use is made of the ascending figuration of 1863, a work based on a libretto by Geibel and originally with an accompaniment that includes the plucked notes of as city director of music, followed, in 1835, by the first subject, which is fully exploited, while a secondary intended for Mendelssohn, which brought him to the the first cello. The original key and theme returns with the appointment as conductor of the Gewandhaus Orchestra in theme makes its appearance, at first in sixths between the attention of a wider public. Bruch’s first official first and third in octaves over a more elaborate Leipzig. Here he was able to continue the work he had fourth violin and first viola. The repeated exposition is duly appointments were as Kapellmeister, first in Koblenz from accompaniment, and after a brief transitional passage in B started in Berlin six years earlier, when he had conducted a followed by a central development, a chance for changes of 1865 to 1867, and then in Sondershausen until 1870, major the second theme returns, now in E flat major, revival of Bach’s St Matthew Passion. Leipzig was to texture, dynamic variation and changes of mood. The followed by a longer stay in Berlin and a period from 1873 bringing the movement to a serene end. The ominous provide a degree of satisfaction that he could not find in music mounts to a climax of largely unanimous activity to 1878 in Bonn, when he dedicated himself to opening of the last movement is soon contradicted at the Berlin, where he returned at the invitation of King before the first theme returns in recapitulation. The C composition. After a short time as director of the entry of the first violin. There is contrast of mood and key Friedrich Wilhelm IV in 1841. In Leipzig once more, in minor slow movement has been variously analysed. It is Sternscher Gesangverein in Berlin, in 1880 he was in what follows, with an effectively lyrical secondary 1843, he established a new Conservatory, spending his opened by and , answered by the violins, as the appointed conductor of the Liverpool Philharmonic theme introduced by the first cello, aided by the second final years there, until his death at the age of 38 on 4th principal melodic material unwinds, in what might seem Orchestra, where he succeeded Julius Benedict, leaving viola, later to return in the appropriate final key in a November 1847, six months after the death of his gifted the first subject of a modified sonata-form movement. Its England in 1883 to become director of the Orchesterverein movement that in other respects has something of and beloved sister Fanny. ethereal beauty is followed by the G minor Scherzo, in Breslau. In 1891 he moved finally to Berlin and took Mendelssohn’s perpetual motion and lightness of texture Mendelssohn owed his early training as a violinist to seemingly, according to the composer’s sister Fanny, over master-classes in composition, Respighi being one of about it. his teacher and friend Eduard Rietz. Born in Berlin in 1802, inspired by lines from Goethe’s Faust, the Walpurgis his pupils. He retired in 1911 to devote himself to the son of a violinist in the Berlin Court Orchestra, Rietz Night Dream, ‘Clouds and mist pass / it grows bright composition, although now essentially writing in a Keith Anderson had joined the same orchestra in 1819, leaving it in 1825, above. / Air in the bushes and wind in the reeds / - and all is traditional style that seemed to have passed. He died in

8.557270 2 3 8.557270 557270 bk Octets US 2/9/06 1:09 PM Page 2

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-1847): Octet in E flat major, Op. 20 dispersed’ (Wolkenzug und Nebelflor / erhellen sich von Berlin on 2nd October, 1920. Max Bruch (1838-1920): Octet in B flat major, Op. posth. oben. / Luft im Laub und Wind im Rohr / - und alles ist Bruch’s Octet in B flat major, one of his last works, zerstoben). The busy figuration is continued in the final was written in January and February 1920, seven months Born in Hamburg in 1809, eldest son of the banker after disagreements with the conductor Spontini, to found fugal Presto, its principal subject mounting through the before the composer’s death, and apparently a reworking of Abraham Mendelssohn and grandson of the great Jewish the Berlin Philharmonic Society the following year, instruments, from the initial entry of the second cello. The a recently composed string quintet. It is seemingly thinker , Felix Mendelssohn, who took leading its semi-amateur orchestra in concerts with the perpetual motion of the movement nevertheless allows the modelled on Mendelssohn’s Octet, although the later the additional name Bartholdy on his baptism as a Berlin Singakademie. This was the ensemble that he led in addition of other thematic elements and explicit references substitution of a double bass for the second cello made the Christian, was brought up in Berlin, where his family Mendelssohn’s famous revival of Bach’s St Matthew to the preceding Scherzo. work into a possible item in string orchestra repertoire, settled in 1812. Here he enjoyed the wide cultural Passion in 1829, an enterprise in which he and his cellist Today Max Bruch is generally known only as the described then as Concerto for String Orchestra. The Octet opportunities that his family offered, through their own brother Julius had collaborated by helping to write out the composer of works for the violin. In addition to the Violin was played to the composer by the violinist Willy Hess and interests and connections. parts for the performance. Mendelssohn dedicated to Rietz Concerto in G minor, the popularity of which continues, his pupils. Manifested in a number of directions, Mendelssohn’s his Violin Concerto in D minor, the Octet and the Violin and, to the annoyance of the composer, eventually The tranquil principal theme of the opening Allegro early gifts, included marked musical precocity, both as a Sonata in F minor, Opus 4. Rietz died of consumption in overshadowed much of his other work, we hear from time moderato is entrusted to the first viola, continued by the composer and as a performer, at a remarkably early age. 1832 and Mendelssohn then dedicated to his memory the to time the Scottish Fantasy and the Second Violin first violin and leading to a second subject of more forceful These exceptional abilities received every encouragement slow movement of his String Quintet, Opus 18. Concerto. The fact that Bruch, in his day, was famous for contour. The central development of this broadly sonata- from his family and their friends, although Abraham The Octet in E flat major, in which Mendelssohn his large-scale choral works is forgotten. Between 1870 form movement returns at first to the mood of the opening, Mendelssohn entertained early doubts about the himself on occasion took the second viola part, was written and 1900 there were numerous performances of works with other earlier material explored before a suggested desirability of his son taking the profession of musician. in 1825 and immediately precedes in order of composition such as Odysseus, Frithjof or Das Lied von der Glocke, return of the first theme, postponed until its final return in a These reservations were in part put to rest by the advice of the concert overture A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with earning for the composer a reputation that momentarily more grandiose form, after a unison climax, as in Cherubini in Paris and by the increasing signs of the boy’s which the Scherzo has obvious affinities. It was conceived outshone that of Brahms. Mendelssohn’s Octet. The slow movement almost seems musical abilities and interests. in orchestral terms and is an astonishing feat of virtuosity Max Bruch was born in Cologne on 6th January, 1838, to recall Schumann’s Piano Quintet in the sinister Mendelssohn’s early manhood brought the from a sixteen-year-old, innovative in instrumentation and in the same year as Bizet. He studied there with Ferdinand suggestion of its E flat minor opening, before the entry of opportunity to travel, as far south as Naples and as far north in its treatment of the instruments. Considerable demands Hiller and Carl Reinecke. Extended journeys at home and the first violin with the principal theme of the movement. as The Hebrides, with Italy and Scotland both providing are made of the first violin, in a part written originally for abroad as a student were followed by a longer stay in The secondary thematic material, in B major and marked the inspiration for later symphonies. His career involved Rietz, for whom the work was intended as a birthday Mannheim, where his opera Loreley was performed in Andante con molto di moto, is introduced by the first violin him in the Lower Rhine Festival in Düsseldorf and a period present. Much use is made of the ascending figuration of 1863, a work based on a libretto by Geibel and originally with an accompaniment that includes the plucked notes of as city director of music, followed, in 1835, by the first subject, which is fully exploited, while a secondary intended for Mendelssohn, which brought him to the the first cello. The original key and theme returns with the appointment as conductor of the Gewandhaus Orchestra in theme makes its appearance, at first in sixths between the attention of a wider public. Bruch’s first official first and third violins in octaves over a more elaborate Leipzig. Here he was able to continue the work he had fourth violin and first viola. The repeated exposition is duly appointments were as Kapellmeister, first in Koblenz from accompaniment, and after a brief transitional passage in B started in Berlin six years earlier, when he had conducted a followed by a central development, a chance for changes of 1865 to 1867, and then in Sondershausen until 1870, major the second theme returns, now in E flat major, revival of Bach’s St Matthew Passion. Leipzig was to texture, dynamic variation and changes of mood. The followed by a longer stay in Berlin and a period from 1873 bringing the movement to a serene end. The ominous provide a degree of satisfaction that he could not find in music mounts to a climax of largely unanimous activity to 1878 in Bonn, when he dedicated himself to opening of the last movement is soon contradicted at the Berlin, where he returned at the invitation of King before the first theme returns in recapitulation. The C composition. After a short time as director of the entry of the first violin. There is contrast of mood and key Friedrich Wilhelm IV in 1841. In Leipzig once more, in minor slow movement has been variously analysed. It is Sternscher Gesangverein in Berlin, in 1880 he was in what follows, with an effectively lyrical secondary 1843, he established a new Conservatory, spending his opened by violas and cellos, answered by the violins, as the appointed conductor of the Liverpool Philharmonic theme introduced by the first cello, aided by the second final years there, until his death at the age of 38 on 4th principal melodic material unwinds, in what might seem Orchestra, where he succeeded Julius Benedict, leaving viola, later to return in the appropriate final key in a November 1847, six months after the death of his gifted the first subject of a modified sonata-form movement. Its England in 1883 to become director of the Orchesterverein movement that in other respects has something of and beloved sister Fanny. ethereal beauty is followed by the G minor Scherzo, in Breslau. In 1891 he moved finally to Berlin and took Mendelssohn’s perpetual motion and lightness of texture Mendelssohn owed his early training as a violinist to seemingly, according to the composer’s sister Fanny, over master-classes in composition, Respighi being one of about it. his teacher and friend Eduard Rietz. Born in Berlin in 1802, inspired by lines from Goethe’s Faust, the Walpurgis his pupils. He retired in 1911 to devote himself to the son of a violinist in the Berlin Court Orchestra, Rietz Night Dream, ‘Clouds and mist pass / it grows bright composition, although now essentially writing in a Keith Anderson had joined the same orchestra in 1819, leaving it in 1825, above. / Air in the bushes and wind in the reeds / - and all is traditional style that seemed to have passed. He died in

8.557270 2 3 8.557270 557270 bk Octets US 2/9/06 1:09 PM Page 4

Kodály Quartet Attila Falvay, Violin I • Tamás Szabó, Violin II • János Fejérvári, Viola • György Éder, Cello MENDELSSOHN The members of the Kodály Quartet were trained at the Budapest Ferenc Liszt Academy, and two of the original players, the second violinist Tamás Szabó and viola player Gábor Fias, were formerly in the Sebestyén Quartet, which was awarded the jury’s special diploma at the 1966 Geneva International Quartet Competition and won first prize at the 1968 Octet in E flat major, Op. 20 Leo Weiner Quartet Competition in Budapest. Since 1970, with the violinist Attila Falvay, the quartet has been known as the Kodály Quartet, a title adopted with the approval of the Hungarian Ministry of Culture and Education. Recent additions to the quartet have been the cellist György Éder of the Éder Quartet and the violist János Fejérvári, who took part in the Quartet’s recording of Mozart Quintets. The Kodály Quartet has given concerts throughout Europe, in the then BRUCH Soviet Union and in Japan, in addition to regular appearances in Hungary both in the concert hall and on television. For Naxos the Quartet has made highly acclaimed recordings of string quartets by Ravel, Debussy, Haydn and Schubert. Octet in B flat major Auer Quartet Gábor Sipos, Violin I • Zsuzsanna Berentés, Violin II • Csaba Gálfi, Viola • Ákos Takács, Cello Kodály Quartet • Auer Quartet The Auer Quartet was formed in 1990 by students of the Budapest Ferenc Liszt Music Academy. Their tutors included András Mihály, György Kurtág, Ferenc Rados, and Sándor Devich, a founder member of the Bartók String Quartet. The ensemble’s name honours the world famous Hungarian violinist and teacher Lipót Auer (1845-1930). As guests of the Royal Academy of Music in London in 1991, the members of the ensemble attended the courses of the world-famous Amadeus String Quartet and those of György Pauk. From that date on, they were regularly invited to attend the master- courses of the Amadeus Quartet held in London and in Semmering until 1995. The Auer Quartet has won recognition at numerous Hungarian and international competitions. They won the first prize at the Leó Weiner Chamber Music Competition held at the Ferenc Liszt Music Academy in 1991, and second prize at the Viotti Competition held in Italy in 1992. In addition to being awarded the second prize at the Evian International String Quartet Competition held in France in 1993, the ensemble was also awarded the Special Prize of the music critics and that for the best Mozart performance. The quartet’s real break-through came in 1997, when the ensemble won First Prize at the Seventh London International String Quartet Competition, with Lord Yehudi Menuhin as chairman. They also won the special audience award, and the Sydney Griller Trophy for the best interpretation of a contemporary work. The Auer Quartet has been invited to leading concert halls, including the Wigmore Hall in London, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, and the Casals Hall in Tokyo, among other venues, and to festivals including those of Edinburgh, Schwetzingen, Bath, Kuhmo, Cheltenham, the Prague Spring, and the Budapest Spring. The quartet has toured in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, India and North Africa. There have been collaborations with distinguished contemporaries, broadcasts and recordings. In 2000 the ensemble was awarded the Liszt-Prize by the Hungarian State. Zsolt Fejérvári

Zsolt Fejérvári was a pupil of Zoltán Tibay at the prestigious Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest. While still a student of the Academy, he was awarded a special prize at the International Competition of Markneunkirchen and became principal double bass player of the Munich Chamber Orchestra. Between summer 1994 and 1998 he led the double bass section of the Budapest Festival Orchestra, followed by four years spent in Switzerland with the Suisse Romande Orchestra. Since December 2002 he has been a member again of the Budapest Festival Orchestra. In 2003 he won the Sándor Végh Competition for musicians of the orchestra. 8.557270 4 NAXOS NAXOS With its elfin Scherzo reminiscent of the music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a slow movement of ethereal beauty and a jubilant last movement of perpetual motion, Mendelssohn’s Octet is one of the great masterpieces of chamber music. Conceived in orchestral terms, it is an astonishing feat of virtuosity from a sixteen-year old. Bruch’s 8.557270 genial Octet, one of his last works, has something of Mendelssohn’s exuberance and DDD lightness of texture. Playing Time MENDELSSOHN • BRUCH: MENDELSSOHN • BRUCH 56:29 MENDELSSOHN • BRUCH: Octets FELIX MENDELSSOHN- MAX BRUCH (1838-1920): BARTHOLDY (1809-47): Octet in B flat major, Op. posth. (1920) Octet in E flat major, Op. 20 for 4 violins, 2 violas, cello and for 4 violins, 2 violas and 2 cellos double bass* 1 I. Allegro moderato, ma con fuoco 14:15 5 I. Allegro moderato 10:35 www.naxos.com Made in USA Booklet notes in English

2 II. Andante 7:22 & 6 II. Adagio 7:41 3 III. Scherzo: Allegro leggierissimo 4:19 2006 Naxos Rights International Ltd. Octets Octets 4 IV. Presto 5:54 7 III. Allegro molto 6:23 Kodály Quartet • Auer Quartet *Zsolt Fejérvári, Double bass

Recorded at the Phoenix Studio, Budapest, Hungary, from 5th to 7th June, 2003, and from 6th to 8th April, 2004. 8.557270 Producer: Ibolya Tóth • Engineer: János Bohus • Editor: Mária Falvay 8.557270 Booklet Notes: Keith Anderson Cover image: Walpurgis Night by Gustav Adolph Spangenberg (1828-91) (Hamburger Kunsthalle, Germany / www.bridgeman.co.uk)