Title: The concert version is sublime
Review: Muzsikás and Sebestyén performed this material in Boston this month (November 2008) in collaboration with the excellent Takács Quartet. Takács played Bartok, Muzsikás and Sebestyén played the folk tunes that Bartok had collected, and snips of Bartok's own recordings were played over the loudspeakers -- first alternating whole pieces, then, by the end, trading off phrases and riffs in a delirious fusion of folk musicians, Muzsikás and Sebestyén playing the folk music at a professional level, and Takács presenting the distilled and transformed art that Bartok made of the folk material. A never-to-be-forgotten concert, a profound essay on what music is about, and an unbeatable tribute to Bartok and to the richness of Hungarian folk music traditions.
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