Upon emigrating to the United States in 1938, Hungarian composer George Barati (1913-96) took up studies with Roger Sessions at Princeton. Barati was deeply influenced by Sessions’ complex and texturally dense compositional technique, though his own work reflected a wide range of musical styles, from early-20th-century European to postwar American. The brilliant, powerful Symphony No. 1 (1963) is indeed “American”-sounding, with its tough, angular contours obviously reminiscent both of Sessions and William Schuman. An aggressive brass and timpani volley signals a musical call to battle, to which the orchestra responds with equally bold pronouncements. The following Andante tranquillo comes as a temporary respite from this angry atmosphere, but with the finale the battle begins anew. Barati’s masterful orchestral technique is on display throughout (with especially impressive brass passages). This virtuoso writing constitutes a challenge for any ensemble–one that’s met handily by the Budapest Symphony under Lászlo Kováks’ aggressive and meticulously detailed conducting.
Chant of Darkness was Barati’s response to the death of his 34-year-old daughter. This one-movement work is indeed dark, expressing profound grief, but there’s a certain nobility that shines through despite the despair. Intended as a counter-balance to the gloom of Chant of Darkness, Chant of Light is certainly lighter in mood, but the atonal language (Barati was impressed by the intellectual rigor it required) precludes any real sense of joy. The real draw of these works is their fascinatingly brilliant construction and instrumentation–an aural treatise if ever there were one. Kováks conducts Chant of Darkness, while Chant of Light receives a full-press performance by Vladimir Válek and the Czech Radio Symphony, who concede nothing to their Hungarian counterparts. Naxos’ sound for both venues is vivid and richly detailed, with only a tendency toward brightness keeping it just shy of perfection.
