The Erdody Chamber Orchestra’s third album includes works by both Polish and Hungarian composers active in the 20th century including Laks, Rozsa, Orban and Kilar. In 1994, Zsolt Szefcsik founded the Erdody Chamber Orchestra in Budapest to promote the Hungarian musical heritage and present achievements of contemporary composers. Over 25 years, the ensemble, using Hungarian manuscript collections, has presented over one hundred forgotten pieces. Thanks to this fact, it has become an orchestra with currently the most extensive repertoire of Hungarian music. A large group of works by composers operating in the 18th and 19th centuries has become available only thanks to the concerts of the Erdody Chamber Orchestra.

The main idea behind this recording was to focus on the presentation of pieces composed by Hungarian and Polish artists in one particular year: 1948. We wanted to show here compositions of two major artists from each of those countries. Both Hungarian pieces featured on the album naturally continue the ‘Hungarian sound,’ characteristic of the interwar period, shaped by the output of Zoltán Kodály. Cast in four movements, the Serenade for String Orchestra by Endre Szervánszky (1911-1977) is an example of one of the outstanding compositions symptomatic of the generation of the master’s successors. Let us quote the words of an excellent music critic, Marianne Pándi: ‘This work combines all the qualities of the Hungarian music of that period: it is melodic, understandable, Hungarian in style, and rhythmic. It is a source of first-class entertainment.’