János Vajda: Vier vorletzte Lieder (Swan Songs)
for mezzo-soprano and piano
Published in 2023
Available at Rózsavölgyi Zeneműbolt & Webshop: HERE
The composer had a long-cherished plan to compose an orchestral song cycle. The title Vier vorletzte Lieder (Four Penultimate Songs) is a joking reference to Richard Strauss's song cycle Four Last Songs, and also to the fact that Vajda still plans to compose more songs. But that's the end of the fun, all of the selected poems are bitter, pessimistic life-poems. The first song (to the poem of Lőrinc Szabó) was composed to the memory of composer and venerated teacher Emil Petrovics, the dedication of the second song (to poem by Frigyes Karinthy) goes to composer fellow György Orbán. Dedicated also to a friend and fellow composer, Miklós Csemiczky, the third song uses verses of different Ottó Orbán's poems. The fourth poem by Ákos Fodor, evokes Marius Tabacu, an excellent friend and versatile translator. The Ottó Orbán song is the most complex part of the cycle, a kind of emotional-dramaturgical central movement, if we think of a golden ratio structure. After this, there is only a short aphorism-like epilogue to Ákos Fodor's poem, a piece with a "coda", or appendix character, both in content and length.
Our score features the piano-accompanied version of the songs, in Hungarian.
No. 1. Prológ – A festő a függöny előtt – Prológus egy operaházi ünnepélyhez (Szabó Lőrinc)
No. 2. „Struggle for life” (Karinthy Frigyes)
No. 3. Haláltáncdalok (Orbán Ottó)
No. 4. Ariel… Appendix (Fodor Ákos)
The composer had a long-cherished plan to compose an orchestral song cycle. The title Vier vorletzte Lieder (Four Penultimate Songs) is a joking reference to Richard Strauss's song cycle Four Last Songs, and also to the fact that Vajda still plans to compose more songs. But that's the end of the fun, all of the selected poems are bitter, pessimistic life-poems. The first song (to the poem of Lőrinc Szabó) was composed to the memory of composer and venerated teacher Emil Petrovics, the dedication of the second song (to poem by Frigyes Karinthy) goes to composer fellow György Orbán. Dedicated also to a friend and fellow composer, Miklós Csemiczky, the third song uses verses of different Ottó Orbán's poems. The fourth poem by Ákos Fodor, evokes Marius Tabacu, an excellent friend and versatile translator. The Ottó Orbán song is the most complex part of the cycle, a kind of emotional-dramaturgical central movement, if we think of a golden ratio structure. After this, there is only a short aphorism-like epilogue to Ákos Fodor's poem, a piece with a "coda", or appendix character, both in content and length.
Our score features the piano-accompanied version of the songs, in Hungarian.
No. 1. Prológ – A festő a függöny előtt – Prológus egy operaházi ünnepélyhez (Szabó Lőrinc)
No. 2. „Struggle for life” (Karinthy Frigyes)
No. 3. Haláltáncdalok (Orbán Ottó)
No. 4. Ariel… Appendix (Fodor Ákos)