Category Archives: Music

 Muzsikás’ The Bartók Album 

Brendan Foreman penned this review. During a recent festival in celebration of the works of Béla Bartók — one of this century’s most important musical composers — at Bard College, the Hungarian tradition revivalist band Muzsikás discovered that many people were … Continue reading

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Muzsikas and Marta Sebestyen’s  Live at Liszt Academy 

The music of Hungary is a rich gift to the world. Muzsikas is the best-known of the ensembles that have brought this mesmerizing tradition to the world since the fall of the Iron Curtain in the early 1990s. This recording … Continue reading

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Kalman Magyar’s Exposed and Alexander Fedoriouk and Kalman Magyar’s Crossing Paths

Mike Stiles penned this review. Kalman Magyar is one of those rare people who raise the quality of our world a bit higher. This fellow grew up in New Jersey, absorbing the Hungarian folk culture of his parents and friends. By … Continue reading

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New Budapest Orpheum Society’s Dancing On the Edge Of A Volcano: Jewish Cabaret and Political Songs 1900-1945

Judith Gennett penned this review. The name may sound Hungarian, but this 2 CD set of classically oriented Jewish show music comes from Chicago. The “band” is named for a popular performing company from fin de siecle Vienna (The Budapest Orpheum … Continue reading

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Selim Sesle’s The Road to Kesan: Turkish Rom and Regional Music of Thrace 

Brendan Foreman penned this review.It continues to be a great time for the traditional music lover, especially now that Rounder Records has begun distributing the music of Traditional Crossroads, a record company in New York that specializes in the music of … Continue reading

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Mercedes Peon’s Isue

Tim Hoke penned this review.  It came as no surprise to me that Mercedes Peon plays the gaita. I’ve heard enough good Galician pipers that I subconsciously assume that any Gallego is also a gaitero. However, if you listen to this … Continue reading

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Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble’s Silk Road Journeys: When Strangers Meet, , Silk Road Journeys: Beyond the Horizon and New Impossibilities

  Ordinarily, I run out of the room when someone tries to foist classical music on me. But these three CDs from Sony presented me with a dilemma. I have an abiding fascination with the Silk Road as a thread … Continue reading

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Lalezar’s Music of the Sultans, Sufis & Seraglio, Volume I, Sultan Composers and Music of the Sultans, Sufis & Seraglio, Volume II, Music of the Dancing Boys

The Lalezar Ensemble is part of a current revival of classical Ottoman music under way in Turkey. The group — four instrumentalists and three vocalists — have created four CDs that give a sampling of some of the best and … Continue reading

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Lalezar Ensemble’s Music of the Sultans, Sufis & Seraglio, Vol. III, Minority Composers and Music of the Sultans, Sufis & Seraglio, Vol. IV, Ottoman Suite 

Turkey is strategically located at one of the world’s major crossroads. This applies to religion, culture, government and the arts as well as its physical location along trade routes. And for several hundred years ending in the early 20th Century, … Continue reading

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Ensemble Karot’s Traditional Songs of Armenia, Volume 1

Big Earl Sellar penned this review. Let us ponder Armenia for a moment, an ancient nation which once stretched its boundaries to include parts of modern Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Georgia. Right there you know that whatever musical tradition exists … Continue reading

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