Bartok:
Dance Suite
Enescu:
Romanian Rhapsody No. 1
Kodaly:
Dances of Galanta
Martinu:
Frescoes of Piero della Francesca

A programme of vibrant eastern European orchestral music from the celebrated Borusan Istanbul Phiharmonic Orchestra and their new chief conductor, Carlo Tenen. Bartok and Kodaly, close friends and musical collaborators, did much to explore and preserve traditional Hungarian music, in much the same way as did Vaughan Williams and Holst recording and preserving folk song in Great Britain at the same time. The folk music of Hungary shines through in the Dance Suite and Dances of Galanta. Martinu’s radiant Frescoes of Piero della Francesca was inspired not by folk music, but by the composer’s visit to Arezzo to see the famous 15th century frescoes ‘The History of the True Cross’ in the Basilica of San Francesco. The popular folk music inspired Romanian Rhapsody No.1 by Enescu rounds off this colourful journey through eastern Europe, with a detour to Tuscany in the company of a Czech master.