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Composer: Zoltán Kodály (16 December 1882 -- 6 March 1967) Orchestra: Budapest Festival Orchestra Conductor: Iván Fischer Dances of Galánta (Galánti táncok), for orchestra, written in 1933 Despite the prominence of folk music in his career, Kodály was a type of artist/scholar -- an omnicompetent musician who composed fastidiously crafted chamber works richly colored by a fascination with French music, Debussy in particular, that were accepted by an international public long before they were embraced by his countrymen. He did not come to prominence in his native land until his Psalmus Hungaricus, given its premiere in 1923, took the audience by storm and went on to performances around the world. The first version of his opera Háry János (1926) met even greater success. The pattern of cosmopolitan influence and international acceptance, coupled with incomprehension and hostility at home, is paralleled in the career of his exact contemporary, the
