István Pál ‘Szalonna’ - violin, voice
Eszter Pál - voice
Tamás Gombai – violin, vocals
Attila Gera - tárogató, clarinet, vocals
Balázs Unger - cimbalom
Sándor Ürmös - cimbalom
Gyula Karacs - viola, vocals
Róbert Doór - double bass

Közreműködik:
Lajos Pál - voice, accordion
Gergely Koncz - violin
László Mester - viola
Zsolt Barcza - accordion

This record is an extraordinary undertaking. It isn’t often that a performer renders his message in several styles, several musical languages, and several artistic modes of expression within the framework of one production. What you will come across with István Pál „Szalonna”s violin playing, is definitely something different than a pianist’s repertoire which extends from say Bach to Bartók. Here from the lean Mezőség peasant music (Transylvania), to the tunes from far Northeastern Hungary, the Gömör shepherd melodies and on to the style of the band ftom the village of Tarnalelesz, spilling over into (what’s referred to as) ’folksy composed Hungarian music’: we get an ample taste of the colourful world of sound which has ripened over the last two or three hundred years of Hungarian violin folklore. The master level of performance heard here requires an exceptional talent and refined sense of style which only a few possess. And on top of that, the new wave of the Hungarian folk music revival, (this fiddler / the creator / producer of this recording – represents already the third-fourth generation of Hungary’s dance house revival movement) is lucky enough to have been able to meet their great masters through original recordings, and even many times in person. Hey! What would some of our virtuoso pianists give for an hour together with old Johann Sebastian or Bartók!
Of course the task isn’t that simple. Anyone really interested can find Szászcsávás or Csíkszentdomokos on the map and traditional music of some Hungarian regions can now be downloaded from the internet. But in order for this music to ring like it needs to, one has to go to these places and plunge into the culture, because technology isn’t enough. One has to fill themselves up with the smell of the air in Transylvania’s Kalotaszeg region, the mashed beans in Northerneastern Hungary, or with the flavour of the Hungarian dialect in the Gömör Region (Southern Slovakia). Pál István „Szalonna”s first solo recording is good proof that he has done all those things. It’s true he got an excellent start growing u pin Southwestern Ukraine, but lots of people have gotten that or something similar…
But why is all this necessary? Why isn’t it enough to learn the main notes of a melody, and then send it on its way according to the state of our own artistic ingenuity? The answer is (something Hungarian musicians in these circles call) ’Örömzene’ (- meaning when the musicians get together and play for their own entertainment and pleasure – something like a jam session – but note quite). Without örömzene, at most our music can be ’interesting’. And without örömzene our music cannot be genuine, it can only be ’Hungarian-like’ and no one will be able to find out from it, what we’re really like; we as Hungarians, Romanians, Ruthenians, Gypsies, people from the so-called ’upper Tisza river Region’, from the Székely or Palóc Regions, from the town of Visk and so on.
Perhaps the most important message of István Pál „Szalonna”s record is that: a person can be a lot of things in this disjointed world; a person’s identity can be composed of many colours. If we cannot consider each of them separately in their own beauty, then they may easily flow into one and the final result will be nothing more than a dull grey mish-mash.
This music is truly music for pleasure. Shouting with joy, exalting in the unity of its palpable, rich diversity. Enjoy!
Gergely Agócs

Pál István „Szalonna” – violin
Gera Attila – clarinet
Karacs Gyula – viola
Doór Robert – double bass
Unger Balázs – cymbalom
Herczku Ágnes – voice

Featuring:
Papp László – voice
Kolompár Tibor – second violin
Barcza Zsolt – cymbalom
Ürmös Sándor – cymbalom
Mohácsy Albert – cello
Agócs Gergely – voice
Gombai Tamás – violin
Takács Ádám – violin-viola
Radics Ferenc – violin
Kállai József – violin
Berki Károly – violin
Báder Róbert – violin
Seres Vilmos – clarinet
Váradi Zoltán – viola
Radics Tamás – double bass
Bolya Mátyás – Moldavian lute
Hetényi Milán – voice
Búzás Attila – bass tambura
Eredics Áron – tambura, cello tambura
Eredics Benjámin – violintambura
Eredics Dávid – bassprimtambura
Eredics Salamon - bassprimtambura
Soós Csaba – violin
Albert Szilárd – violin
Nagy Zsolt – viola
Éri Márton – viola
Bobár Zoltán – accordion
Pachert András – cello
Pál Lajos – accordion