Marián Varga & Moyzesovo kvarteto

The five musicians, who recorded this album, have known each other since the double album Divergencie of the legendary band Collegium Musicum. This was the year 1981 and the Moyzes musicians were listed among the guests as the Sláčik Quartet of Vojtech Magyar. Shortly afterwards they changed their name to commemorate the founder of modern Slovak music, which they have used since. A friend is someone, whom you meet after several months and you can continue in the conversation once begun. This is exactly the story of this CD. In 2003, the Moyzes Quartet decided to organize a concert in the premises of Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra with Marián as their guest and they played the same piece as in the Divergencia – suite P.F. (1982, 1983…). The three periods in the original title suggested that this was not a concluded work. The original vocal parts of Pavol Hammel were rearranged by a young musician Marek Spusta for a piano quintet. The composition containing nine parts was entitled Christmas Suite and its launch was a great success. Varga confirmed his return to the classical music with his album Solo in Concert and after that the idea of recording the whole album with the Moyzes Quartet was born. The album consists of three parts. The first one is the Christmas Suite, the second arrangements of Varga’s songs ranging from Zvoňte zvonky (Ring the Bells) (1969) to Solo in concert (2003) and at the end you can hear Antiphon for solo violoncello and piano. The most significant change is Varga’s transformation of the sound magician to an organized interpreter, equal team partner playing his own compositions. Varga mainly plays the traditional piano, he uses synthesizer minimally, only if it is really necessary. Among his nine renewed compositions there are four that could be heard on the album Zelená pošta (Green Mail) (1972), the song Možno (Possible) comes from the album Zvoňte zvonky (1969) and Trnová královna (Thorn Queen) was published on the album Cyrano z předměstí (Cyrano from the Suburbs). The closing Antiphon, a six-minute duet with a short quotation from symphony No 7 of Sergey Prokofiev is the latest composition by Marián Varga.