Bartok and Kodaly - SCO - HiFi Choice

Music: Two popular and frequently recorded works from key 20th Century European composers, Kodaly's Dances From Galanta and Bartok's Music for Strings make excellent bedfellows in this expressive and hauntung disc, whose elastic phrasing and measured, understated qualities do much to keep you on the edge of your seat. The solo woodwind playing in the Dances especially is magical, but most impressive are the long drawn out tempi which in less skilled hands could loose impetus and tension

Sound: Made in Edinburgh's Usher Hall and Greyfriar's Church, Linn's team has managed to conjure up a sound as rapt and as expressive as the music itself. It's not as showy perhaps as some of the classic recorded versions, but the sound retains its presence throughout the long very quiet passages in the main Bartok piece.