Erkel: Choral Works

In the year of Ferenc Erkel’s birth bicentenary (2010), the Béla Bartók Male Choir, directed by choral conductor Tamás Lakner and the King Stephen Opera Choir, founded for the occasion and directed by Ákos Somogyváry, have repaid a portion of a long-standing debt with this CD. Unpublished and therefore virtually unknown to the wider public, the operas and chamber works of Ferenc Erkel (1810-93) have had a tough fate, as have his choral works and only cantata. Yet this Hungarian national composer is credited with starting Hungarian choral life by launching the choral-society movement 150 years ago.

Price: $28.98