Háry János Suite (orchestral version)
Summer Evening
Symphony in C major

Hungarian composer Zoltán Kodály (1882-1967) was first and foremost a teacher and ethnomusicologist who devoted most of his life to the creation of a system to improve music teaching in Hungary's schools. His greatest legacy is the Kodály Method which revolutionized music education in many countries after the Second World War. His compositional output is relatively modest due to his pedagogical pursuits. As a matter of fact, when asked why his Symphony (begun in the 1930s and completed in 1957) took so long to finish, his reply was that he was busy with more important things.

To this day, his most popular work remains the Háry János Suite (1926), and orchestral suite derived from the opera Háry János. Very much in keeping with Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale and Prokofiev's Lieutenant Kijé Suite, it revolves around an imaginary tale of an imaginary soldier recalling his many imaginary adventures. All in good fun, with some tongue-in-cheek and highly memorable tunes, it sometimes reminds me with its comical and fantastical style, of some of the music in The Wizard of Oz (the Change of the Guard sequence comes to mind). The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of JoAnn Falletta, bring out all of its whimsical charms, as well as the beauties and enchantment of the folk-inspired Song movement which includes, to great effect, a cimbalom within its orchestration.

Composed as his graduation exercise, the brilliantly orchestrated Summer Evening (1906) sees Zoltán Kodály at his most luxuriant. Based on this early work, and had he devoted more time and effort to composition, there's no doubt his name would rank higher amongst 20th century composers, despite the fact that his style may seem a bit dated when compared to other composers of his generation. On the other hand, his Symphony in C major is rather dull and lifeless. Sure it has its moments, but based on the aforementioned comment by the composer himself, it feels as if written simply for the sake of writing a symphony.