This recording brings together four Hungarian composers who, each in their own way, contributed to the development of a new national musical style at the beginning of the twentieth century. They managed to write music that was respected internationally and that both nurtured them and raised the general standard of music in Hungary.

Although Leó Weiner’s (the ‘Hungarian Mendelssohn’), and Ernő Dohnányi’s string trios were composed during their student years, both works have become significant milestones in the restricted repertoire for this instrumental combination. Elegant and sometimes reminiscent of Brahms, they also feature subtle touches of local folklore. Zoltán Kodály, along with Béla Bartók one of the most important Hungarian musicians of the century, composed little chamber music but his Intermezzo, also an early work, is reminiscent of the folk music that the composer had begun to collect for his ethnomusicological research. The least familiar and youngest of the composers represented here, László Weiner, suffered a tragic fate. His Serenade, composed while he was studying with Kodály, reveals the exceptional talent of a composer whose œuvre is too small. Less ‘Magyar’ than the other works presented here, his Serenade is reminiscent of the intense and concentrated atmosphere of Viennese ‘modernist’ works.