Magyarországi Délszláv Táncképek - A Baranya Táncegyüttes Koreográfiáinak Tánczenei Anyaga / Dances

'The Baranya Ensemble: Dancers of the Baranya Ensemble and The Orchestra of the Baranya Ensemble

'In 1967 a small group of students started to collect - like Bartók and Kodály - the dances, melodies, costumes and old traditional customs of people living in small villages of Southern and Western Transdanubia. This group led by Antal Vidákovics founded the Baranya Ensemble on the initiative of the Southern Slav Department of the Janus Pannonius University in Pécs. They achieved a major breakthrough in 1972 when, on a national amateur festival, the group was awarded the first prize and after that event on festivals they won gold prizes year by year. And then the invitations came from abroad. They travelled to almost all countries of Europe, from Portugal to the Soviet Union, from Greece to Finland, from Italy to Denmark.
Their repertory has thematical dances (Antigone, Erina's Love, Macbeth, etc.) but authentic dances mean the main profile of the ensemble. This record is a taste of the rhythm and melodies of the famous choreographs of the Baranya Ensemble. It is but a part of an overall, unique collection that comprises the music and the atmosphere of the Southern Slav ethnic groups living in Hungary.
Some years ago the choreographer was interviewed about the ars poetica of the ensemble.
- Both in thematical and authentic dances we would like to express ourselves. Nowadays people have to shoulder great burdens. Their lives are characterized by stress and hopelessness. Their problems are our problems, too. That is what we would like to talk about and that is why we are looking for solutions and explanations with a specifically clear and sincere form of language, the language of folk choreographies.'

Dr. István Sárosi
'[discogs]