To many ears, combining the words "music" and "Hungary" often awakens some pretty jaded stereotypes: images of violin and cimbalom as typical instruments and the Gypsy violinist plying his trade by evoking wistfulness and passion among the audience. Today, the word "Gypsy" is frowned upon, since among a resident population it conjures up the picture of those mistrusted travellers who enjoy the freedom of the open road: the epitome of Gypsy romanticism. This is a touchy subject! The present album should therefore be judged for its "Hungarian influenced" piano music, the composers and their Hungarian affinities. One thing should be made clear at the outset: all of the pieces played here by Sofja Gülbadamova – be they original works or arrangements – are in the two-four time that is so characteristic of popular "Hungarian music" and "traditional Gypsy music". Since Austria and Hungary were closely linked both politically and culturally for centuries, one might well describe Hungarian two-four time as a sort of "counter spell" to the three-four time of the Viennese waltz.
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Reviews
“Sofja Gülbadamova gives us a delightfully interesting programme representing three composers with Hungarian links, quite deep links for two of them… Gülbadamova is certainly happy to tread the byways and has appeared at the Husum Rarities of piano music festival twice. With the unusual arrangements of Brahms this is an attractive recital, well constructed and Gülbadamova plays with conviction... for the most part the playing is engaging and this is a lovely album to dip into.”
Rob Challinor – MusicWeb-International.com – 5 October 2020
Carsten Durer – Piano News (Germany) – March/April 2020
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