Correspondances

“Correspondances”, a cycle for piano written in 1957, borrowed its title from one of Baudelaire’s poems which refers to the hidden relationships between things. Some lines of the verse appear as a motto at the beginning of the seventh movement. As a result, the eight movements constitute an organic unity.

Ferenc Farkas was the first among Hungarian composers who started to use twelve-tone composition technique after the Second World War. The majority of the movements are based on an identical twelve-tone “row” (Reihe), whereas the four slow movements are closely related with regard to mood as well. The free interpretation of twelve-tone technique allows the combination with the pentatonic scale to the extent of one movement. — Rita Kaisinger