Hallgató (Live) Ferenc Snétberger

• Ferenc Snétberger (b. 1957): Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra “In Memory of My People”:
• 1 Snétberger: 1. Hallgató. Adagio - Allegro (Arr. for Guitar and String Quintet) (Live) 06:30
• 2 Snétberger: 2. Emlékek. Adagio (Arr. for Guitar and String Quintet) (Live) 06:29
• 3 Snétberger: 3. Tánc. Allegro furioso (Arr. for Guitar and String Quintet) (Live) 03:50
• 4 Shostakovich: 1. Largo (Live) 04:10
• Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 - 1975): String Quartet No. 8 in C Minor, Op. 110:
• 5 Shostakovich: 2. Allegro molto (Live) 02:50
• 6 Shostakovich: 3. Allegretto (Live) 04:19
• 7 Shostakovich: 4. Largo (Live) 04:31
• 8 Shostakovich: 5. Largo (Live) 03:32
• John Dowland (1563 - 1626): I saw my Lady weep:
• 9 Dowland: I saw my Lady weep (Arr. for Guitar and String Quartet) (Live) 03:01
• Flow, my tears:
• 10 Dowland: Flow, my tears (Arr. for Cello and Guitar) (Live) 03:36
• Samuel Barber (1910 - 1981): Adagio for Strings, Op. 11:
• 11 Barber: Adagio for Strings, Op. 11 (Live) 06:52
• Ferenc Snétberger: Your Smile:
• 12 Snétberger: Your Smile (Live) 02:52
• Rhapsody I for Guitar and Orchestra:
• 13 Snétberger: Rhapsody I for Guitar and Orchestra (Arr. for Guitar and String Quintet) (Live) 10:18
• Total Runtime 01:02:50

Info for Hallgató (Live)

Recorded live in the Grand Hall of Budapest’s Liszt Academy, Hallgató is an inspired and moving album from Ferenc Snétberger and the Keller Quartett. Hungary’s outstanding acoustic guitarist and its foremost chamber group are heard together and separately, in a programme with compositions by Snétberger, Shostakovich, John Dowland and Samuel Barber, which unfolds with its own internal logic and dramaturgy. This album marks the artists’ first recorded collaboration, although Snétberger and András Keller have worked together often in live contexts.

The concerto In Memory of My People was written by Snétberger in 1994 and subsequently rearranged for guitar and string quintet by the composer and Béla Szakcsi Lakatos. Snetberger’s repertoire and compositions have long been influenced by jazz and classical music and especially by the musical traditions of the Sinti and the Roma. The introductory movement of In Memory, titled “Hallgató”, integrates Ferenc’s early memory of an old melody sung by his grandmother, a melody handed down through the ages and played at funerals. Snetberger, whose mother was Roma and whose father was a member of the Sinti, dedicated his concerto to the memory of forebears persecuted and murdered. But In Memory of My People is more than music of mourning. Both a threnody and a celebration it also speaks of resistance, resilience, and liberation – all effectively conveyed in the vivid playing of guitar and strings, with the Keller Quartett here joined by bassist Gyula Lázár.

Dmitri Shostakovich’s 8th String Quartet, also dedicated by its composer to the victims of war and fascism, is played with characteristic intensity by the Keller musicians. Subtle arrangements of John Dowland find Snétberger with the Keller Quartett for “I saw my lady weep” and in duo with cellist László Fenyö for “Flow, my tears”, a proto-blues from the era of Shakespeare, almost exactly contemporary with Love’s Labours Lost. The Keller Quartett address the yearning quality of Samuel Barber’s Molto adagio from his String Quartet op.11, and Snétberger offers a glimmer of hope with the tender solo guitar piece “Your Smile”. The concluding “Rhapsody 1”, again with Snetberger and string quintet, is new arrangement of a piece written by Ferenc for a film project about the Roma and the Holocaust, bringing the themes of the concert – grief and its transcendence - full circle.

Ferenc Snétberger was born in 1957 in Salgótarján, Hungary. He began playing classical guitar at 13, and six years later entered the Bela Bartók Conservatory in Budapest where he studied until 1981. Since then he has given concerts as a soloist and collaborated with numerous international players. An ECM recording artist since 2013, his previous releases for the label include the solo album In Concert, which was also recorded at the Liszt Academy, and a trio recording, Titok, with bassist Anders Jormin and drummer Joey Baron. Titok was described by US magazine Jazz Times as “warm, elegant music, unassuming in its romanticism, firm in its substance, organic in its natural, unhurried flow”.

Collaboration with András Keller began in 2003 when Keller conducted the concerto In Memory of My People with Ferenc Snétberger and the Orchestra di Padova e Del Veneto. Subsequently Keller invited Snetberger as guest soloist with the Budapest Concerto Symphony Orchestra on a number of occasions.

The Keller Quartett was formed at the Liszt Academy in 1987, with György Kurtág as one of its principal mentors, and the group made its ECM debut with a definitive account of Kurtág’s Musik für Streichinstrumente in 1995, soon followed by a revelatory exploration of Bach’s Die Kunst der Füge. The Keller Quartett also appear on Svete Tikhiy, with music of Alexander Knaifel, and on Lento with music of Alfred Schnittke and Shostakovich. A 2013 release intriguingly juxtaposed György Ligeti string quartets and Samuel Barber’s Molto adagio (a movement reprised on Hallgato), drawing much critical praise. The 2015 album Cantante e Tranquillo, conceived by András Keller and Manfred Eicher, drew together slow movements of a great arc of music - Bach, Beethoven, Kurtág, Kigeti, Knaifel and Schnittke – in a recording of pieces which, though not written together, seemed to have been predestined for each other. The same might indeed be said of the pieces gathered on Hallgato, and played with such flair by Ferenc Snétberger and the Keller Quartett.

Ferenc Snétberger, guitar
András Keller, violin
Zsófia Környei, violin
Gábor Homoki, viola
László Fenyö, violoncello

Ferenc Snétberger
Born in 1957 in northern Hungary, guitarist/composer Ferenc Snétberger was the youngest son of a family of musicians. Early on his father, a guitar player also, became his role model. Snétberger studied classical music and jazz guitar. Today he is best known for his art of improvising and his crossing of stylistic borders. His music is inspired by the Roma tradition of his home country, Brazilian music and flamenco as well as classical guitar playing and jazz. He made numerous albums as a leader, co-leader and sideman and has toured all over Europe as well as Japan, Korea, India and the United States.

In 1995 he composed his Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra, "In Memory of My People", on the occasion the fiftieth year following the end of the holocaust. Inspired by melodies of the gypsy tradition, the concerto is a powerful statement against human suffering. It has been performed by the composer himself with chamber orchestras in Hungary, Italy and Germany and also at the New York UN headquarters (International Holocaust Memorial Day, 2007).

Ferenc Snétberger performed Luciano Berios Sequenza XI (for solo guitar) as well as concertos with orchestra by Vivaldi, Rodrigo, and John McLaughlin. He also wrote music for film and theater. In 2002 Snétberger was appointed freeman of his birth town and two years later received the Hungarian Order of Merit. In 2005 he was awarded the Liszt Ferenc Prize in Budapest, 2013 the Prima Díj, 2014 the Kossuth Díj.

In 2004 Snétberger founded his new trio with legendary Norwegian bass player Arild Andersen and Norway-based Italian drummer/percussionist Paolo Vinaccia. With natural ease and on the highest level the three of them bring together choice compositions, technical skills, improvisational drive and musical fantasy. Released in fall 2005, their debut album "Nomad" was greeted with enthusiasm by critics and listeners.

Snétbergers cooperation with Markus Stockhausen started in 1999 with "Landscapes", a duo suite recorded for Snétbergers album "For My People". In three movements the musicians immediately create a language of their own showing their talents in an amazing way. "They come along lightly and yet filled with melancholy - and they give the impression that one day they simply had to meet in order to make this music happen. You cant help but hope this cooperation will be continued soon," Ralf v.d. Kellen wrote in Intro magazine. Eight years later during which Snétberger and Stockhausen have further been stimulating each other artistically, their duo album "Streams" finally proves their development.

In 2011, Snétberger founded the Snétberger Musical Talent Center (www.snetbergercenter.org), for the musical education of children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Booklet for Hallgató (Live)