04. - 10. Bela Bartok - Romanian Folk Dances, Sz.68 [6'13]
11. - 18. Zoltan Kodaly - Dances of Marosszek [13'00]
19. - 29. Zoltan Kodaly - Dances from Galanta [16'06]
Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra conducted by Hugh Wolff
Warner Apex 0927 490002 (recorded September and May 1992 for Teldec; this CD release 1994)
(flac and scans)
Recording venue: Ordway Music Theatre, St. Paul
Recording engineer: Michael Brammann; Producer: Bernhard Mnich
Here's another example from the excellent series of recordings made by Hugh Wolff and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra for Teldec. These are punchy and witty readings of popular Bartok and Kodaly, perhaps only exceed by the finest Hungarian interpreters such as Ferenc Fricsay. But Wolff elicits an extraordinary amount of detail in the music and the recorded sound is splendidly alive and vivid.
The only strange thing here, is the disc mastering which splits the 13 minute Dances of Marosszek into 7 tracks and the 16 minute Dances from Galanta into 10 tracks. For my own use, I ripped these to one track each but for this post I have stayed with the published version.