Renaissance Pop
In 1997, the idea
originated that we should publish that LP – which first appeared on the
world market and in the musical world in 1985 (Renaissance Pop) with
the intention of drastically breaking down the walls that towered
between the different types of musical styles – on CD. This endeavour
was crowned with success, since we brought together the finest jazz
percussionists, classical string players, brass players, gypsy
musicians, folk musicians, players of instruments of antiquity, folk
singers, classical singers and so on. However, during the 1997
recording, the thought came up that we should not only reconstruct the
events of 1985, but we should also reflect the present situation, and
especially the works we felt were the most outstanding in the past
decade. This way, Praetorius' piece was included in
the part reserved for the Netherlands, an opharion dance by Dowland
into the English section, or the very popular Italian Caccini's
Amarilli piece. We also thought that the – since
worldwide known – composer, Bálint Bakfark, cannot
be left out of the compilation. For this reason, I chose the Fantasy
IX., which established a style, as well as being a brilliant
work. Furthermore, it is interesting because Bakfark – with the
exception of one piece, Non dite mai – did not
write dances.
Also new, is the Machaut Virelai,
where we would like to illustrate how a work written six hundred years
ago is performed in the twentieth century. We must not forget that
Guillaume Machaut could never hear Beethoven, Mozart, or Bach's works,
and also could not turn on the radio where he could have heard the
Beatles, Dire Straits, or Mick Jagger. And we have not even mentioned
Oscar Peterson or Stan Getz. The members of the Benkő Consort are
twentieth century musicians; all of the aforementioned ingredients are
present within us, as well as the spice of folk music. We plan to
demonstrate this new flavour with the Balkan Suite, hoping that this
section will end up to be truly Eastern European, since it shows the
mingling of Turkish, Jewish, etc. characteristics of Hungarian music as
the sixteenth century anonymous composer imagined.
Dániel Benkő
Budapest, 1997
The Benkő
Consort, successor of the Bakfark
Consort, was established in 1972, and performed under
this name for the first time in 1983 on Telefunken-Decca records. They
cultivated a career quickly, since the most prominent magazines, such
as Audio, included the Benkő Consort, during its annual European vote,
among the first five instrumental groups along with the London, Berlin
and Vienna Symphony Orchestras, as well, as the The Academy of
St-Martin-in-the-Fields. They have published forty records and CDs and
have performed in 70 countries, playing eight hundred concerts. The
Benkő Consort is not an authentic ensemble in the traditional sense,
since the members say that authenticity is not only mirroring the
spirit of the age that the work was composed in, but also the age in
which the musicians live. In addition to this, the centuries in between
the two are also included in the musical style of the performers. Since
then, the Benkő Consort tours worldwide with the material that once
brought great success, as well as with new pieces they have added.
