Luogo e data di registrazione		-
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Producer / Engineer		-
	Prima Edizione LP		Telefunken - 6.43106 AZ - (1 LP) - LC 3706 - durata 49' 12" - (p) 1985 - Digital
	Edizione "Reference" CD		Tedec - 8.44016 ZS - (1 CD) - LC 3706 - durata 49' 12" - (c) 1988 - DDD
	Cover		"Schäferin und Schäfer", Porzellan. Modell von J. Chr. W. Beyer, Ludwigsburg um 1763. Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg.

You were probably surprised when you see this record album! How can there be hits in the Renaissance? Because the "Renaissance" designates a period in our culture which for music comprises about the 16th century; the term "hit", on the other hand, is definitely a product of the 20th century. are we talking about Renaissance music made into pop? are we playing gaillards or pavanes in a bossanova or rock 'n 'roll beat? Not at all! after so many years of playing Renaissance music we wanted to present on a single record those pieces which have grown especially dear to us, which audiences have always liked most, and which also happen to be those pieces that were the most popular in their own time, as we can infer from written records about their prevalence. Those of you who like to listen to Renaissance music will remember the Neusiedler family, Bálint, Bakfark, Jacques Moderne or Praetorius and Holborne. And to us Hungarians, as we always try to bring a little of our Eastern European music to the concert halls of Europe, the names of the Löcsei Codex or the Vietórisz Codex are just as familiar. In short, we would like to present you with a bouquet of the most popular musical pieces, the hits, of the Renaissance. As far as our interpretation of this music is concerned, we are not trying to be puristic, to be orthodox in interpreting the music's authenticity. Still we cannot deny who we are: pople of the 20th century, musicians who, as opposed to Renaissance contemporaries, have been exposed to later "stars2 like Bach, Beethoven and Bartók. Our ensemble is made up of musicians with very different backgrounds: Béla Zsoldos is a born jazz musician, but he in also at home in variety music, which is probably evident in his percussion playing. Kornél Horváth began as jazz flutist, but is really a master of the congas. László Czidra used to play oboe in a symphony orchestra, and Szolt Harsányi, too, plays in a symphony, presently in the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. "Count" Kállai specializes in the recorder music of Bach. György Róbert also plays the recorder, but he studied jazz piano at the Béla Bartók School of Music as well. György Pászti and Csaba Szijgyártó are really folk musicians; even though they graduated from the music academy they feel most at home in Hungarian folk music. And I myself have spent the past decade interpreting the works of Bálint Bakfark, but I like to play pop just as much as classical music. It's not surprising, then, that an ensemble such as ours will interpret the music of the Renaissance in a very unique way. In putting together this record we coordinated the A and B sides, but they can be enjoyed independently as well, one side being the eastern European, the other the Western European side. As far as the Western European pieces are concerned, we don't play these too differently from other emsebles. The four and five part dances of Praetorius, Holborne and Moderne have become such standard works of Renaissance concerts that we had no intention of changing their set forms. We would like to give you a picture of Elizabethan English, French, and Burgundian court music. Perhaps only in Praetorius' music do we add a little Eastern European touch by including the panpipe - which is used today in pop and folk music, but also appeared in the books of Praetorius. On the border between Eastern and Western culture is the music of the Neusiedlers, the famous family of lute players who stem from the area around Lake Neusiedler. especially in the pieces of Hans are many such elements which lead us to conclude that he spent time in the company of many different musicians and people of various nationalities. He wrote Gypsy and Jewish dances and character pieces. The suite which appears on this record is intended to show the art of Hans Neusiedler from a different aspect. Although originally the pieces were written for lute. I don't think we commited too much of a transgression by playing these intervals in their four and five voice form. The vice versa has occured quite often, for example in the works of Suzato, Phalèse, or Attaignant which were published in several voices and have then surfaced in numerous lute variations all over Europe. The same is true for French Madrigals and chansons which are popular lute pieces today. Furthermore, lute pieces are often orchestrated to be performed by whole orchestras. The Neusiedler dances contain oriental Eastern European elements, as well; here we tried to follow in our interpretation the mood of the solo lute pieces. The truly Eastern European and especially Hungarian dances are, I thinks, the least familiar to European listeners. How and where can these be found? In the 16th century they were familiar to the Western European audiences, but were considered curiosities even then. Heckel has "Ungarische" dances, Jolin in Strassbourg wrote a "Passamezo ungarum", Phalèse composed "Almand de Ungrie", and a Polish manuscript of Dluyovaj contains a "Hajdu" or soldier's dance - these are so-called Hungaried dances. They can be brouped into three categories and their variations appeared later in Dutch, Italian, Polish and German sources. These are the dances that were familiar to Western Europeans at that time. In contrast stand the Löcsei and the Victórisz Codices, whose equally outstanding pieces were almost inaccessible so far. Now, for the first time, they are recorded here in the manner they were played in the 16th-17th centuries. - This ist the first time I have mentioned the 17th century! It is true, Hungarian Renaissance music was some 100-150 years late, and the two above mentioned codices are from the 1680s. Still the music's thythm and melody line is more Renaissance than baroque. The reason for the delay was the extensive Turkish occupation of Hungary, which, along with the other, Slovakian, Romanian, German and Polish influences left their mark on music. It is thus not surprising that this record contains the music of instruments like the Turkish pipe, Eastern European drums or the panpipe, just as such characteriastically Hungarian "folk" instruments as the cittern, the "nyenyere" (a hurdy-gurdy resembling the Hungarian bagpipe) or percussion instruments like the "köesögduda" (jugpipe) and the "láncosbot" (stick with chains). Have we actually combined folk music, pop music and so-called classical music, the music of the classical Renaissance? For some ten years we have brooded over this question: in which category should we place Renaissance music, especially its Eastern European branch? We can consider it dance music, because it was intended to be played for dancing (except for the pieces which were not intended for ritualistic purposes or are not polyphonic phantasies). And it is also folk music since most of the recorded melodies survived in the folk music of Hungary; and I think of Europe, too. Phalèse, for example, included folk music in his collection, but after 400 years these pieces are today considered classics. Because they are associated with éhalèse, they are considered "art", though they stem from folk sources. So we have no definite, final answer to our question, we are merely offering this record to every listener, every Renaissance lover, and hope that everyone will find something he likes: folk music, dance music, classical music... And one important composer I have on pourpose left to the end: Bálint Bakfark, who was born in Hungary, but was famous in Europe, even in the world. Here he is not represented with his phantasy (which can be heard on another TELDEC recording), but with his dances, including a dance which he didn't himself compose but which was made in his honor. Daniel Benkö