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Music CD - Brahms: Hungarian Dances Nos. 1-21
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Music CD: Brahms: Hungarian Dances Nos. 1-21
List Price: $8.99
Our Price: $4.57
Your Save: $ 4.42 ( 49% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Naxos
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Tracks:
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1. No. 1
2. No. 2
3. No. 3
4. No. 4
5. No. 5
6. No. 6
7. No. 7
8. No. 8
9. No. 9
10. No. 10
11. No. 11
12. No. 12
13. No. 13
14. No. 14
15. No. 15
16. No. 16
17. No. 17
18. No. 18
19. No. 19
20. No. 20
21. No. 21
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0891030501106
Label: Naxos
Manufacturer: Naxos
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Naxos
Release Date: 1992-06-30
Studio: Naxos
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Albert Spalding & Hungarian Student Broadcasts
Comment: I could not agree more with Jeffrey Lipscomb's review. The Hungarian Dances are about fire and virtuosity! They cannot be finessed. Most modern performers over think their interpretations and over practice the difficult passages. It just kills this sort of music. Dull. Dull. Dull. They are DANCES! Think of a fast sports car on a winding mountain road with one hand on the wheel. The problem with the serious performances Mr. Lipscomb enumerated is that they are serious!
Through sheer inadvertency, Gabor's Remington goons captured a truly exhilarating performance from Albert Spalding half-a-century ago. It was the cheap "ONE TAKE ONLY! DONE!" attitude that forced first-rate musicians to fall back on ACTUALLY PERFORMING THE MUSIC WITH VERVE!
No, I won't sell you my 50 year-old copy and you would not like it anyway. Vinylite's crackle is an acquired taste and real performances always have mistakes! None-the-less, I have heard student performances of the Hungarian Dances broadcast from Central Europe that are more enjoyable as music-making than the dross the major labels have heaped on a jaded public in the last 25 years.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A joyful celebration of Brahms
Comment: This disc is a true joy- snatch it up while you can, especially at Naxos prices. It is by far one of the best (if not the best) cycles of Brahms' fully orchestrated Hungarian Dances out there, period. The Budapest Symphony Orchestra under Bogar turn in positively joyful readings full of the special bohemian orchestral sound found so rarely in any orchestra outside the region: a tiny bit ever so pleasingly off kilter with excitement. Naxos' sound, while I do not believe the best they've ever presented, is still consistently full and balanced and good enough to warrant no complaints from me. This disc is a keeper, for sure.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Somewhat middling
Comment: I feel as if I'm in the minority here when I say that this recording is a little bland.
While the price is a definite bonus (and you won't feel too bad in losing $7 for the CD if it turns that you don't like it), the recordings just don't do it for me even though I can tell that Bogar and the Budapest Symphony Orchestra play with gusto and the sonics are quite good and balanced.
When I first listened to this CD, I was feeling as if I were listening to a non-descript Western European or North American orchestra playing the dances a little more quickly than usual. Nothing more, nothing less.
My overall favourite recording of these dances is the one issued in 1985 by Hungaroton involving Ivan Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra. (N.B. This recording by Hungaroton is different from the one made by the same performers for Phillips in 1999. To my surprise, the older recording from Hungaroton sounds better than the newer one by Phillips. Who would have thought that 14 years would make a difference?)
The recording for Phillips (now issued by Eloquence) of the Hungarian Dances with Kurt Masur and the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester is surprisingly good and it's my favourite recording of the dances by a non-Hungarian orchestra.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Hungarian Dances for Orchestra
Comment: Brahms wrote a great amount of music, including the Hungarian Dances, for piano four-hands. This music was composed for amateur music-lovers to play at home, and it included many reductions of Brahms's orchestral and chamber works as well as original compositions. In its original format, the Hungarian Dances became extremely popular and contributed more than any other work to Brahms's financial success during his lifetime. The music was quickly transposed for other instruments, including violin and piano by Brahms's friend Joachim, and orchestra, by a variety of hands. For those interested, the original four-hand piano version of the Hungarian Dances is available on Naxos in a recording by Kohn and Mathies in volume 2 of an extensive series of Brahms's four-hand piano music. The piano-violin arrangement of the dances is available in a Naxos recording by Bisengaliev and Lenehan. But the subject of this review is the orchestral version.
For modern listeners, the orchestral version of the Hungarian Dances is the most familiar, and this 1988 recording by the Budapest Symphony Orchestra conducted by Istvan Bogar is a classic. This is a relatively early Naxos release which deserves the many accolades it has received. It continues to attract many fine reviewers on this site. The playing is lively and spirited, joyous and melancholy in turn. It captures the gypsy spirit of the Hungarian Dances. For those listeners who need to be convinced that classical music can be lively and fun, this CD is an ideal place to start.
As a young man, Brahms toured briefly with a Hungarian violinist named Remenyi who gave Brahms a lifelong passion for Hungarian and gypsy music. This passion comes through in Brahms's longer and more somber works as well as in these dances. The earlier sets of these dances are based upon authentic Hungarian themes. In the latter dances, Brahms wrote the themes himself, in Hungarian style. The orchestrations were done by Brahms himself, by his friend Dvorak, and by a number of other composers. These are short delighful works, which will make your blood flow and your feet dance. They also are filled with tinges of melancholy and sadness. My own favorite of these works is No. 16, with its slow, melancholy opening and lively conclusion. Every listener will develop his or her own favorites from this set.
This CD of Brahms's Hungarian Dances is an excellent way to get to know a popular and enchanting style of classical music.
Robin Friedman
Customer Rating:
Summary: One of the best recordings of the Hungarian Dances I've heard
Comment: Istvan Bogar may not be a household name to Classical music lovers in the US, but he leads spirited, dashing accounts of Brahms "Hungarian Dances" with a Budapest orchestra which plays very well for him. Tempos are often on the fast side, but always under control, and never breathless. The woodwinds play especially well in their solo licks, and there's always a certain joie de vivre (Joy of living) to these recordings.
The recorded sound is very clear and balanced, in line with Naxos' best recordings offered to the public.
This disc is a bargain: I heartily recommend it.
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