Piano Sonata, Op. 20. Bagatelles, Op. 12. Variations, Op. 9. The Vintner's Daughter, Op. 23.

The first three titles, anyway, would suggest a composer of strictly classical inclinations; and so it may be, for it is certainly possible to survey MiklOs R6zsa's career—a distinguished one— purely as a composer of concert music (indeed some encyclopedias do so). Yet how to ignore, reasonably, that marvellous lifetime's output of some of the best of film-music, the enhancement of all those epics (Quo Vadis?, Ben Hur, El Cid) with their devastatingly appropriate scores, written with all the musicianship in the world?

Well of course there is no need to ignore them: quite apart from the immeasurable pleasure they have given in their own right, the fluency derived from writing them has stood ROzsa in very good stead in his parallel output of concert scores. Among them the piano pieces here recorded. Of these the Sonata must be considered of prime importance, for it spans in its three movements a wide range of mood. Indeed each movement develops its own mood, whether of sometimes volatile activity or of repose, with cumulative effect. The style of the whole also stems naturally from the nature of the piano; sometimes the more expert a composer is with the orchestra the more difficulty he finds with the idiosyncracies of a 10 finger layout: not so ROzsa.

It is the scale, really, of the Sonata which gives it this primacy; for the three smaller works join it in effective variety and in skill of layout. Variety as such they indeed contribute in full, for all three, from their nature, are assemblages of short sketches: the six Bagatelles and the Op. 9 Variations self-evidently, and The Vintner's Daughter when it has been established that this, too, is a set of variations. As it happens, on a French folk-song: the vintner's daughter concerned, temporarily neglecting the harvest, lies asleep in the sun dreaming of the arrival of three handsome knights from, appropriately, Hungary.

Handsome knights are something different; but a handsome composer Hungary has certainly sent us. Eric Parkin plays his piano music with skill and conviction; Christopher Palmer writes about it informatively; and Unicorn have recorded it very well. A very welcome issue. M.M.