Hungarian Horizon by Valentina Tóth

Zoltán Kodály, Béla Bartók

Valentina Tóth

Hungarian Horizon

Price: € 12.95
Format: CD
Label: Challenge Classics
UPC: 0608917252224
Catnr: CC 72522
Release date: 22 March 2013
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Label
Challenge Classics

UPC
0608917252224

Catalogue number
CC 72522

Release date
22 March 2013

"4**** ["]..In a moving rendition of Beethoven's third piano concerto Valentina exposed the poetic side of this work and took the orchestra to a velvety pianissimo playing. Besides refined trills and graceful runs she shows great empathy and originality in the musical themes and played with an intensity that surprised and touched the audience.""

Leeuwarder Courant, 14-12-2015

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

Press

About the album

“Music is a language everyone understands. When you communicate through music, there are no misunderstandings, there is no confusion.” That could be the artistic motto of Valentina Tóth (1994) – a young and highly promising pianist, a multi-talent who sings, dances, acts and plays the piano at an exceptionally high level. In 2009 she won first prize in the Princess Christina Piano Competition and her career has been on the up and up ever since. Skyrocketing. She is currently studying at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels, but already she has been on the stage at Carnegie Hall, and April 2013 Challenge Classics released her first album.

Valentina's grandfather immigrated from Hungary to the Netherlands. At young age Valentina discovered within herself a deep connection with both old Hungarian folksongs and music of Hungarian composers. The deep emotions in this music inspired her to play the works of two great Hungarian composers for this album, Bartók and Kodály. It challenges her to make the different voices and colors of an orchestra sound through the piano and to express great and tiny feelings in this classical 20th century Hungarian music. It’s a beautiful combination of piano music, partly inspired by the old Hungarian folk tradition.

The Bagatelles, Op. 6, written in 1908, are an important link in the work of Bartók. In them it first become clear how hard the composer was working to find his own super-personalised musical language. The work dates from the time when Bartók seriously started to collect and document Hungarian folk music. Bartók was able to take something that had been around ages (Hungarian folk music) and make something entirely new out of it.

Tóth combines the Bagatelles and the Three Folk Songs from Csík (now Ciuc in Romania) by Bartók with the Seven Piano Pieces, Op. 11, and the Dances of Marosszék by Kodály. Kodály based the latter work on melodies and dances he had collected in the Marosszék region in Transsylvania, Romania. He originally wrote this fairy-tale-like music – nowadays seldom heard in the concert hall – for piano, and later adapted it for orchestra.

Valentina Tóth is een zeer getalenteerde en veelbelovende muzikante die zingt en piano speelt, maar daarnaast ook nog danst en acteert op een uitzonderlijk hoog niveau. In 2009 won ze de eerste prijs in het Prinses Christina Concours en sindsdien zit haar carrière in de lift. Ze studeerde aan het Koninklijk Conservatorium in Brussel en heeft al opgetreden in grote concertzalen zoals de Carnegie Hall.

Hongaarse banden

Valentina’s grootvader emigreerde van Hongarije naar Nederland om rechten en theologie te studeren. Al op jonge leeftijd ontdekte Valentina een sterke band met zowel de traditionele Hongaarse volksmuziek als de muziek van Hongaarse componisten. De diepe emotie van deze muziek inspireerde haar om voor dit album de werken van twee van de grootste Hongaarse componisten uit te voeren: Béla Bartók en Zoltán Kodály. Het is een uitdaging om deze grandioze orkestmuziek te vertalen naar de piano en om zowel de grote als de kleine emoties van dit 20ste-eeuwse repertoire uit te beelden. Het is een schitterende verzameling van pianomuziek, deels geïnspireerd door de traditionele Hongaarse volksmuziek.

Unieke en persoonlijke muzikale taal van Bartók

De Bagatelles, Opus 6, geschreven in 1908 vormden een belangrijk punt in de werken van Bartók. In deze muziek vond hij voor het eerst zijn unieke, persoonlijke muzikale taal. Dit werk dateert ook uit de tijd dat Bartók volksliederen begon te verzamelen. Tóth combineert deze Bagatelles en de Drie Volksliederen van Csík van Bartók met de Zeven Pianostukken, Opus 11, met de dansen van Marosszék van Kodály. Kodály baseerde deze dansen op de melodieën van dansmuziek die hij had verzameld in regio Marosszék in Transsylvanië, Roemenië. Hij schreef deze sprookjesachtige muziek − die tegenwoordig zelden in de concertzaal te horen is − oorspronkelijk voor piano en bewerkte deze later voor orkest.

Persönliche Eindrücke der jungen Pianistin Valentina Tóth mit Musik von Bartok und Kodaly.

2009 gewann die Pianistin Valentina Tóth den ersten Preis beim niederländischen "Prinzessin Christina Klavierwettbewerb ".
Valentina Toth stammt aus einer ungarisch-niederländische Familie. Ihr Großvater väterlicherseits wanderte von Ungarn nach Holland aus, die Familie lebte in Friesland. Valentina hörte in ihrer Kindheit oft ungarische Volksmusik. Sie beschreibt diese Musik und auch die Ungarn als emotional und impulsiv. Diese Charaktereigenschaften sieht sie auch in sich selber verankert, sowie dieses familiäre Gefühl, das sich bei Valentina Toth einstellt, wenn sie ungarische Musik hört. "Für mich bedeutet Musik: eine Geschichte erzählen. Und genau das finde ich in den Werken von Bartok und Kodaly", so die junge Pianistin.

Artist(s)

Valentina Tóth (piano)

Valentina Toth (1994, Leeuwarden) graduated with distinction for her Bachelor Studies Piano at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. She studied in the class of Jan Michiels at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. She also studied Acting at the RITCS (Royal Institute of Theatre, Cinema and Sound) in Brussels, where she graduated with distinction as well. Until 2014, she studied with Ellen Corver at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague.
Since she was 12 years old Valentina played piano and chamber music in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Greece, Austria, UK, Lithuania, Italy and the USA. In April 2013, at the age of 18, Challenge Classics released her in the Netherlands and abroad praised first CD, Hungarian Horizon. Opus Klassiek chose Hungarian Horizon as CD of the month May. In 2014, this CD was awarded with a Diapason d’Or.
She received the first prize and grand prix at the Damwoude Piano-concours, first prize and audience prize at the National Princess Christina Concours in the Hague and the first prize at the International Music Competition Stockholm. Amongst others, she was finalist of the Steinway Concours and YPF piano competition, where she soloed with the Enaccord string quartet.
In 2009, when she was 15, she gave a concert in Carnegie Hall in New York. In the same year, she performed live on Dutch Television for Menahem Pressler at the “Edison Gala 2009”. In 2015, she gave a sold out lunch concert at the Concertgebouw (small hall) in Amsterdam and she performed during the Effie Awards Gala at the Concertgebouw (big hall).
Valentina is not only a soloist, she is also a chamber musician. With her trio Menotti, she won a first prize at Kamermuziekfestival Hoorn 2012. She is a member of the Volkmann trio, together with Coraline Groen (violin) and Bente Verheul (cello). In 2015, the Volkmann Trio was awarded the Chamber Music Prize of the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. They played a concert in Vilnius, Lithuania for The Dutch Embassy in the National Philharmonic of Lithuania. In 2017, the trio gave a lunch concert at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.
She soloed with the Frisian Symphony Orchestra, the Haydn Youth String Orchestra, the Northern Philharmonic, The Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Dutch Wind Ensemble (NBE) and the National Youth Orchestra.
In 2011, BNN made a documentary about Valentina, where she gave a concert at the Menuhin School. It was broadcasted on Dutch National Television. Since 2014, Valentina is the pianist of the Dutch TV show “De Tiende Van Tijl” in season 4,5 and 6. In 2015, she played in “Voor Elise”, a music theatre piece by Tomoko Mukaiyama. In 2017, she played in “Nachtasiel”, a coproduction of Theater Antigone and Theatre National de Bruxelles.

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Composer(s)

Béla Bartók

Next to Arnold Schoenberg and Igor Stravinsky, Béla Bartók was a third seminal innovator of European art music at the start of the twentieth century. Bartók, too, sought a way out of the deadlock of tonal music around 1900, and he found it in folk music. Initially, he tied in with the nationalistic tradition of Franz Liszt with his tone poem Kossuth, but eventually he found his own voice with the rediscovery of the music of Hungarian peasants. Together with Zoltán Kodály he was one of the first to apply the results of folkloric research into his own compositions. One major difference between him and composers of the 19th century, was that Bartók did not adjust to the system of tonality, but created his own musical idiom from folk music. Because of this, his composition style was flexible to other musical trends, without having to violate his own view points. For example, his two Violin sonates come close to Schoenberg's free expressionism, and after 1926 his music started to show neoclassicistic tendencies, comparable to Stravinsky's music. Bartók was not just interested in Hungarian folk music, but could appreciate musical folklore from all of the Balkan, Turkey and North-Africa as well.

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Zoltán Kodály

Zoltán Kodály was a Hungarian composer, born in 1905. If you would read Kodály's biography, you could only do so with increasing astonishment. Not only did he reach the honarable age of 84, throughout his whole life he remained astoundingly prolific - and with great success. Moreover, besides his work as a composer, Kodály was active as a conductor, (ethno-)musicologist, pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher. And in each of these areas, he had a pioneering role, always with exceptional passion and dedication. To name but one example: together with his friend Belá Bartók he worked on a ten volume reference guide to Hungarian music, which appeared from 1951 with each volume spanning more than a thousand pages.
Yet, Kodály gained acclaim for his compositions as well, with his Psalmus hungaricus (1923) en his opera Háry János (1926) as the pinnacles of his musical career. The core of his body of work consists of vocal music, in particular works for choir, but his instrumental music is just as impressive. His master piece Laudes Organi, written one year before his death, truly proves that Kodály's creative energy stayed with him to the bitter end.

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Press

4**** ["]..In a moving rendition of Beethoven's third piano concerto Valentina exposed the poetic side of this work and took the orchestra to a velvety pianissimo playing. Besides refined trills and graceful runs she shows great empathy and originality in the musical themes and played with an intensity that surprised and touched the audience."
Leeuwarder Courant, 14-12-2015

It is beautiful how Valentina Toth makes great art from this close to folk music leaning minatures.
Klara, 19-5-2014

Geen quote
Musicalifeiten , 01-3-2014

"The 19-year-old pianist Valentina Toth brings an unconventional debut with Hungarian Horizon"
Opzij, 28-10-2013

It is wonderful that very interesting music is available on CD for the first time in a long long time
Luister, 01-9-2013

There the promising young pianist Valentina Toth will perform.
Dagblad , 23-8-2013

three star review
Luister, 25-7-2013

The unclassic, apparent vagueness was as much liberating as it was gnawing.
Luister, 22-7-2013

clear, rich in contrast and at the same time spirited and tackeling
Piano News, 01-7-2013

With “Hungarian Horizon” Valentina Tóth made a fabulous debut that takes your breath away. Now small and emotional, then grand and exuberant. Everything falls into place when you listen. Valentina takes you with her on a musical adventure that gets ever deeper and deeper everytime you listen to the cd.
Audio Freaks, 12-6-2013

"Toth uses her fantasy, has total control over the pieces she performs and achieves something that many other pianists do not achieve: her own identity combined with a strenghtening of the pieces' character."
Leeuwarder Courant, 01-6-2013

" Valentina is only at the beginning of a, in my opinion, brilliant career." Frans Schulze, Pianowereld
Pianowereld, 27-5-2013

"Add to this the very successful recording - pleasantly spacious and an incredible dynamic register width and color sophistication - and it is clear that we are dealing with a breathtaking CD, which makes us curious to follow the career of this highly remarkable talent"
www.opusklassiek.nl, 08-5-2013

Vital pieces which are beautifully performed by Valentina Tóth, which recalibrate Kodály and Bartók and make the 'Hungarian Horizon' even wider.
Music Frames, 06-5-2013

Tóth's excellent play copes well with the emotional and impulsive music from Bartók and Kodály. Much can be expected from her.
Mania Klassiek, 03-5-2013

The CD is characterized by a mature musical approach and Hans Haffmans praised the cd during radio broadcasts both on Sunday morgen (Diskotable) and during Haffmans' mooiste. That says a lot about the musical content of this record. In my opinion, Valentina is just at the beginning of a great career.
Pianowereld, 01-5-2013

"The fourteen short Bagatelles and Three folk songs by Béla Bartók and the Seven piano pieces plus the Marosszéker Dances of Zoltán Kodály are in turn reflective, attractive, emotional, impulsive and capricious."
Reformatorisch Dagblad, 26-4-2013

"Tóth breaks a lance for works that are not too well represented in the music catalogues and in which mere cosmetic and technical brilliance does not give much solace. On the contrary, it asks for internalized and integrated pure musicality without any frills."
Opusklassiek, 15-4-2013

"I have seldom heard someone who can be so absorbed in such passionate rhythms and musical ecstasy. Goose bumps guaranteed.”
De Gelderlander, 12-4-2013

"In her play she was able to expose the Hungarian soul.”
Nieuwe Dockumer Courant, 10-4-2013

"Although this music differs in many aspects from the ‘conventional’ western European music, Tóth knows exactly how to bring it close to her audience. Through a healthy combination of Frisian down-to-earthness and Hungarian temperament, she knows how to touch the right cord.”
MPodia, 10-4-2013

This being your first album, did you experience a significant difference between playing live and recording an album? Valentina: "In a concert hall you get to play the music for your audience just once, then it's over. That's the moment you have worked towards, and either it turns out good or not. There is no do-overs. While recording a CD, everything has to be good, so re-playing certain parts is a possibility and necessity. Because of the absence of an audience you get to focus 100% on the music, which makes a recording process much more introvert. It is just you and the music. This focus and the process of re-recording lead to new ideas. Like: Yes it really ís wonderful if I choose to play it more like this. I have noticed that during the recording sessions my love for these pieces has grown because of this. What determined you choice of repertoire? Valentina: "The first piece I ever won a prize for - I was twelve years old - was a Bartok sonatina. My Hungarian grandfather used to sing the songs connected to this music to me. I felt that the emphasises were different than in Dutch. I asked my mom if we had any more Hungarian music on CD. That's the way I discovered I wanted to play these pieces. I used to play the Romanian dances by Bartok over and over. That music is beautiful beyond words! When I was asked to put together a CD programm, I reacted: what can I add to the music that's already out there? I soon found out that the Hungarian music suited me well."
Luister, 01-3-2013

Play album

01.

14 Bagatelles (Tizennégy bagatell zongorára), Sz.38 op. 6: Molto sostenuto

Valentina Tóth

Hungarian Horizon

About the album

Artist(s)

Valentina Tóth (piano)

Composer(s)

Béla Bartók

Zoltán Kodály

Press

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