Track Listing

1. Hungarian Dances: No. 1 (Orch. Brahms)
2. Hungarian Dances: No. 2 (Orch. Hallen)
3. Hungarian Dances: No. 3 (Orch. Brahms)
4. Hungarian Dances: No. 4 (Orch. Juon)
5. Hungarian Dances: No. 5 (Orch. Schmeling)
6. Hungarian Dances: No. 6 (Orch. Schmeling)
7. Hungarian Dances: No. 7 (Orch. Schmeling)
8. Hungarian Dances: No. 8 (Orch. Gal)
9. Hungarian Dances: No. 9 (Orch. Gal)
10. Hungarian Dances: No. 10 (Orch. Brahms)
11. Hungarian Dances: No. 11 (Orch. Parlow)
12. Hungarian Dances: No. 12 (Orch. Dvorak)
13. Hungarian Dances: No. 13 (Orch. Dvorak)
14. Hungarian Dances: No. 14 (Orch. Dvorak)
15. Hungarian Dances: No. 15 (Orch. Dvorak)
16. Hungarian Dances: No. 16 (Orch. Dvorak)
17. Hungarian Dances: No. 17 (Orch. Dvorak)
18. Hungarian Dances: No. 18 (Orch. Dvorak)
19. Hungarian Dances: No. 19 (Orch. Dvorak)
20. Hungarian Dances: No. 20 (Orch. Dvorak)
21. Hungarian Dances: No. 21 (Orch. Dvorak)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #40282 in Music
• Released on: 1992-06-30
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

Albert Spalding & Hungarian Student Broadcasts
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.

A joyful celebration of Brahms
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.

Somewhat middling
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.