A story-telling masterclass
Lawrence Foster (conductor)
Gulbenkian Orchestra
Pentatone PTC 518 6360
The music of Háry János is written with such sureness and panache that it is more or less impossible to perform it really badly. Recording choices therefore come down to issues of style and flair, and with that in mind, Hungarian musicians would seem to be in pole position. So it has been intriguing to find that the top choice that swims to the surface is performed by a Portuguese orchestra and an American conductor. It’s a situation spotlighting how, besides being a Hungarian national masterpiece, Háry János has also become a work that belongs to the world – and how that world, in turn, can open up fresh and appealing perspectives on the music.
Lawrence Foster and the Gulbenkian Orchestra lay down a marker in the opening movement, ‘Prelude: The Fairytale Begins’, setting the scene in a way that’s both colourful and unpretentious.
Then comes ‘The Viennese Musical
Clock’ with its mechanical figures, gazed at in wonderment by Háry in the Austrohungarian Emperor’s palace, to which our conquering hero has been summoned (so he says); the tone of the movement’s toysoldier march is winsomely captured by the upper woodwind.
The cimbalom first appears in ‘Song’, where Háry and his girlfriend are dreaming of returning to their native village. A long-breathed clarinet solo (something of a Kodály trademark), followed by another one for solo oboe, set up an episode of musing lyricism, played here in a way that conveys both the music’s charm and its underlying melancholy.
In ‘The Battle and Defeat of Napoleon’, Háry then confronts the French army, which (so he says) topples over like tin soldiers, so that Napoleon has to kneel down and plead for mercy. The orchestra’s playing here depicts all this with wry lightness of touch: the music seems to be alluding to another masterclass in
The orchestra’s playing depicts the action with wry lightness of touch
ironic story-telling, Russian composer Stravinsky’s 1911 ballet Petrushka.
‘Intermezzo’, the suite’s signature movement, features much interplay, cannily balanced here between the not-too-large orchestra and the solo cimbalom: if you want to savour what this instrument gets up to, this is the go-to recording. Finally comes ‘The Entrance of the Emperor and his Court’, again set in Vienna – another send-up march, delivered here in true making-you-grin style. Played at its best, Háry János has you feeling that it’s good to be alive. Recorded in 2011, this performance has that quality.