In 2003 the journal MusikTexte polled composers on their views about the Irak war. They received more than fifty responses: some wrote letters, others wrote compositions. Zoltán Jeney sent in just one small work for one voice, one of the saddest musical jokes of all time. In this narrow-range, wavering, roaming chromatic melody, the listener slowly recognizes the theme of the Ode to Joy. While Beethoven’s exhilarating melody has over the centuries proclaimed the triumph of humanism, and is even used as the anthem of the European Union, Jeney’s version is a lost, clumsy, privately mumbled parody of the original, and as such says far more than a verbalized protest.

Performers
MR Symphony Orchestra and MR Choir conducted by Zoltán Kocsis (1)
Gábor Csalog – piano (2-4)
Krulik String Quartet (5)
György Déri – violoncello, Gábor Csalog – piano (6)
Piia Komsi – soprano (7)
MR Symphony Orchestra conducted by Zoltán Kocsis (8)
Magyar Rádió Szimfonikus Zenekara, vezényel: Kocsis Zoltán (8)

Recorded at BMC Concert Hall on 5 May, 2013 (4,5,7) by Sándor Papp, on 2 October, 2013 (2,3,6)
by Zoltán László and at Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music on 25 October, 2013 (1,8) by Tamás Horváth
Recording producers: Tibor Alpár (1,4,5,7,8) and Péter Illényi (2,3,6)
Consultant: András Wilheim
Digital editing: Viktor Szabó
Artwork: László Huszár / Greenroom

Produced by László Gőz
Label manager: Tamás Bognár

In association with MTVA (Media Support and Asset Management Fund)
The recording was supported by the National Cultural Fund of Hungary