SACRED COMPOSITIONS FOR VOICE, FOLK WIND INSTRUMENTS, VIOLA AND ORGAN

The co-production of Balázs Szokolay Dongó, Péter Bársony, Éva Bodrogi and Ádám Szokolay that was due for 2022, is the product of many years of musical friendship.
For many years, the early music specialist Éva Bodrogi and Szokolay have been researching and demonstrating in the concerts the common roots and intertwining of early Hungarian music and Hungarian folk music.
Their new joint project, Fohász (Prayer), is based on the latest compositions of Balázs Szokolay Dongó, also including Hungarian folk songs, medieval church music and the composer’s own melodies. Already Kodály has drawn attention to the close connection between old melodies and folk music in his work “Ethnography and Music History” (published by Királyi Egyetemi Nyomda, 1933). It is this connection and their essential interdependence that the composer emphasises in the composition of the songs, as the artists juxtaposes old and new layers of music.
The combination of the viola and folk instruments opens an enchanting gateway to the past.
The continuous sound of the bagpipes, the flutes' pipes, the ornate flexibility of their sound, the piano's overwhelming notes, the mystery of the songs, the viola's rustic timbre: a genuine prayer that fills earth and sky, heart and space alike.

"I believe that when the ornamentation of folk art meets with the discipline of classical music, neither of them is harmed, on the contrary, they enrich each other. I encountered these songs as a folk musician, and when I played them with classical musicians, I found that our seemingly different ways of performing blends them and creates a really interesting sound and character." (Balázs Szokolay Dongó)