Modern Art Orchestra Plays Bartók - 15 Hungarian Peasant Songs won the Artisjus Production of the Year at the Artisjus Gala on February 19th, 2019. The album was released by BMC Records and features such notable soloists as David Liebman, Mihály Dresch, Miklós Lukács, Veronika Harcsa, and László Gőz.

"The Modern Art Orchestra has taken Bartók at his word. This CD features a big band arrangement of Fifteen Hungarian Peasant Songs, a piano work written between 1914 and 1918, published in 1920, in which Bartók arranged some of his favourites from the melodies he had collected in the 1910s. The orchestrators, Kristóf Bacsó, János Ávéd, Gábor Subicz and Kornél Fekete-Kovács, all the soloists of the Modern Art Orchestra, have the utmost respect for Bartók’s piano score. Not a single note is added to any of the movements, and they do nothing but the most perceptive of literary translators: as faithfully as possible to the original, they transpose the language of the piano to that of a large orchestra." (From the album liner notes by music historian Gergely Fazekas)

Performers
Modern Art Orchestra:
Artistic director, conductor: Kornél Fekete-Kovács

Kornél Fekete-Kovács – artistic director, conductor, trumpet, flugelhorn
Kristóf Bacsó – soprano and alto sax, flute
Dávid Ülkei – alto sax, clarinet
János Ávéd – tenor sax, flute
Balázs Cserta – tenor sax, tárogató, bagpipe, clarinet
Mihály Bajusznács – baritone sax, bass clarinet
Ádám Gráf – trumpet, flugelhorn
Zoltán Bacsa – trumpet, flugelhorn
Gábor Subicz – trumpet, flugelhorn
Balázs Bukovinszki – trumpet, flugelhorn
Zoltán Varga – horn
Bálint Képíró – horn
Attila Korb – trombone
Gábor Barbinek – trombone
Miklós Csáthy – bass trombone
Péter Kovács – tuba
Áron Komjáti – guitar
Gábor Cseke – piano
Ádám Bögöthy – double bass
László Csízi – drums

Guest Soloists
David Liebman – tenor and soprano sax, recorder (1, 4, 5, 7, 11, 13)
Mihály Dresch – fuhun (4, 15)
Miklós Lukács – cimbalom (4, 5, 15)
Veronika Harcsa – vocals (15)
László Gőz – bass trumpet (2, 15)
Production notes:
Recorded at BMC Concert Hall on 20-21 November, 2017
Recorded, mixed and mastered by Viktor Szabó
Artwork: László Huszár / Greenroom

Produced by László Gőz
Label manager: Tamás Bognár

Supported by the National Cultural Fund of Hungary