Csaba Szabó: Chamber Music For Strings And Winds is a Pure DSD 256 album – recorded, edited, mastered and delivered in Stereo Pure DSD 256 plus Stereo DSD 512, DSD 128 and DSD 64 only at NativeDSD.

The fate of Csaba Szabó (1936-2003), composer, researcher, conductor, and teacher, is a typically twentieth-century Hungarian fate.

He was born in Ákosfalva in Maros-Torda county (Romania), grew up in Kecskemét (Hungary) during the years of the return of Northern Transylvania to Hungary (1941–44). Later, he graduated at a high school in Marosvásárhely, the capital of Szeklerland (Transylvania), and returned to the city, after his years at the Cluj Academy of Music (1953–59) – taking on the many challenges of the Transylvanian-Hungarian music life. The year 1988 brings a major turning point in his life: he emigrates to Hungary, and from then on, he is teaching at the Dániel Berzsenyi Teacher Training College in Szombathely, until his death in 2003.

The chamber music, from a creative point of view, is the link between the composer’s years in Transylvania (Romania) and his years in Szombathely (Hungary), but at the same time, the change of tone is also perceptible in these works, as the messages become more personal and more universal.

The album offers a unique perspective of the multifaceted oeuvre of the composer: includes several chamber music compositions, in various instrumental settings – with one exception, from the workshop of the young, 20-25-years-old composer, who was still studying composition – or just starting out in his career; and a composition from his last years, written more than half a century later, for a very special duo of performers.

A fascinating contrast between two periods: the late simplicity written for a child’s voice and appealing to the child’s soul – in the company of the classical instrumental forms of his youth.

József Balog, Piano
Sándor Berki, Horn
Bence Bogányi, Bassoon
Virginie Robilliard, Violin
Péter Szabó, Cello
Ádám Takács, Child Soprano
CultureTone Ensemble
Szabó Ensemble