Six Hungarian folk songs

After the war, the Ministry of Culture organized Democratic Cultural Days throughout the country to promote Hungarian culture in which many personalities from the world of culture of the time took part. I personally accompanied the great soprano Erzsébet Török at the piano. The post-war period was difficult and sometimes we received payment in nature…

…We had to give a concert in a village near to Békéstarhos but we were informed that there was no piano there. Erzsébet Török then proposed adapting our program by including popular songs. This is how I composed my “Six Hungarian folk songs” (Hat magyar népdal) using, to accompany them, what I could dispose of : the musicologist József Ujfalussy who took part in the tour had a recorder with him, and I found a violinist and a cellist from amongst the students at the Békéstarhos School of Music. — Ferenc Farkas