Artist database

This is the Artist Database of BMC, which includes information about composers, musicians, orchestras, choirs and groups that are either Hungarian or Hungarian by origin or live in Hungary, as well as information about releases recorded with them.

Veress Sándor


Composer

Place of Birth
Kolozsvár (Cluj Napoca)
Date of Birth
1907
Web

 
1 February 1907, Kolozsvár (today: Cluj-Napoca, Romania) - 4 March 1992, Bern

Sándor Veress oeuvre can be looked upon today as one of the greatest achievement of the generation of Hungarian composers after Bartók and Kodály. Veress' comprehensive knowledge allowed him to enrich Hungarian musical culture in many ways. He was an outstanding figure in musical life both as performer, as an ethnomusicologist, and as a teacher.

The Second World War and the ensuing political changes brought about a hiatus in his career. In 1949, at the age of 42, he left for ever the land of his birth. He settled in Berne in Switzerland, where he remained until his death. He adopted Swiss citizenship in the last months of his life. The first stage of Veress' compositional development in Hungary was influenced decisively by Hungarian folk music, which Veress collected and researched himself. From his earliest youth, Veress was also keen to become acquainted with the stylistic trends of contemporary Western music, and to bring them into an artistic confrontation with his own personal style. As a result of study tours undertaken through Europe before the Second World War (to London, Rome and elsewhere), Sándor Veress acquired a European reputation as a farsighted representative of the new Hungarian music as early as the late 1930s. Before his emigration, Veress' oeuvre had reached a dual pinnacle with the one-act ballet Térszili Katicza (1942/43), and with the Sancti Agustini Psalmus (1943/44), composed to a text by Saint Augustine. In the years before his exile, Veress was considered the most promising young composer in Hungary. At Bartók's death, he was commissioned to compose a suitable threnody (Threnos, 1945). In 1949, Veress received Hungarys highest musical honour, the Kossuth Prize. In 1985 he was awarded with Béla Bartók-Ditta Pásztory Prize.


During his years in Berne, the extension of his artistic horizons brought about a gradual renewal both of Veress' musical style and of his compositional approach. He remained however devoted to a rich variety of musical genres. The chamber works grew to include the most varied instrumental combinations, while his concerti and orchestral works represent new, personal initiatives in contemporary Western music. The use of the twelve-note method of composing became decisive in Veress' stylistic development in the works he composed during his time in Switzerland. However, he employed this technique only as one aspect of his own personal style. Sándor Veress was professor of musicology at the University of Berne from 1968 to 1977, and was active as a visiting professor in Australia and in the United States as in the 1960s. He died in Berne on 4 March 1992.
 
Title Type Year
Sorrow makes you truly bitter Male choir 1938
The Wonder Flute Ballet / Choreographic work 1937
Trio in B flat minor for Piano, Violin and Violoncello / Trio per pianoforte, violino e violoncello in si bemolle minore Chamber Music 1924
Baryton-Trio Chamber Music 1985
Christmas Chant Choir a cappella 1937
Canti Ceremissi / Cheremis Folk Songs Solo voice(s) with solo instrument(s) 1945
Cinque canti su testi di Attila József / 5 Songs on Poems by Attila József Solo voice(s) with solo instrument(s) 1945
Concerto per clarinetto e orchestra / Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra Concerto 1982
Concerto per pianoforte, archi e percussione / Concerto for Piano, Strings and Percussion Concerto 1952
Concerto per quartetto d´archi e orchestra / Concerto for String Quartet and orchestra Concerto 1961
Concerto per violino e orchestra / Concerto for Violin and Orchestra Concerto 1939
Concertotilinkó [Flute Concerto] Concerto 1991
Cukaszőke csárdás Chamber orchestra 1940
Cukaszőke csárdás Chamber Music 1941
Das Glasklängespiel Choir and chamber orchestra 1978
Diptych Chamber Music 1968
Divertimento Chamber orchestra 1937
Drei Sonatinen für Kinder / Three Sonatinas for Children Instrumental solo 1935
Songs from Dudar Mixed choir 1939
Elegia per baritono, arpa e archi / Elegy for Bariton, Harp and String Solo voice(s) with chamber orchestra 1964
Una cantata transilvana / Transylvanian Cantata Mixed choir 1935
Expovare Chamber orchestra 1964
Fingerlarks Instrumental solo 1946
Fünf Klavierstücke / Five Pieces for Piano Instrumental solo 1950
Geschichten und Märchen / Stories and Fairy Tales Chamber Music 1988
In the Spinning-Room Mixed choir 1939
Children´s Chorus and Three Canons Children's choir 1929
Revolt of the Musical Notes Opera 1931
Homage to Wales Instrumental solo 1948
Hommage a Paul Klee Chamber orchestra 1951
Three Folksong Arrangements for Mixed Choir Mixed choir 1929
Introduzione e Coda / Introduction and Coda [Clarinet Trio] Chamber Music 1972
In the Jánoshida Marketplace Mixed choir 1929
Christmas Cantata Choir a cappella 1934
Small Suite for Piano Instrumental solo 1938
On This Side of Carpathians and Beyond Mixed choir 1939
Zwei Schweizerische Volkslieder / Two Swiss Folksongs Children's choir 1953
Two Flower Songs Choir a cappella 1936
Laudatio musicae. Ein "Ohren-vergnügendes und Gemüth-ergötzendes Tafelconfect" Choir, solo instrument(s) & orchestra 1958
Liszt: Hungarian Historical Portraits - version for orchestra / Ritratti Ungheresi - per orchestra Symphony orchestra 1989
Liszt: Hungarian Historical Portraits - version for Piano / Ritratti Ungheresi per pianoforte Instrumental solo 1956
Mary Had a Little Lamb / "Roedd gan mair un oenig dof / Maria avena un angel Choir a cappella 1961
Memento Chamber Music 1983
Musica Ungaresca Symphony orchestra 1938
Musica concertante per 12 archi / Musica concertante for 12 Srings String orchestra 1966
Folksong Suite Mixed choir 1933
Orbis tonorum Chamber orchestra 1986
Orban Male choir 1924
Partita No. 2 Symphony orchestra 1936
Passacaglia concertante Chamber orchestra 1961
Quartetto per archi, No. 1 / String Quartet, No. 1 Chamber Music 1931
Quartetto per archi, No. 2 / String Quartet, No. 2 Chamber Music 1937
Quattro danze Transilvane / Four Transylvanian Dances String orchestra 1944
Respublica Overture Symphony orchestra 1948
Roedd gan mair un oenig dof / Mary Had a Little Lamb Choir a cappella 1961
Songs from Rábaköz Male choir 1940
Sancti Augustini psalmus contra partem Donati Solo voice(s), choir & orchestra 1944
Seconda sonata per violino e pianoforte / Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano Chamber Music 1939
Sei Csárdás / Six Csárdás Instrumental solo 1938
Sette danze Ungheresi / Seven Hungarian Dances Instrumental solo 1938
Sinfonia Minneapolitana Symphony orchestra 1953
Sinfonia No. 1 / Symphony No. 1 Symphony orchestra 1940
Dances of Somogy Chamber Music 0
Sonata per orchestra / Sonata for Orchestra Symphony orchestra 1953
Sonata per pianoforte / Sonata for piano Instrumental solo 1929
Sonata per violino solo / Sonata for Solo Violin Instrumental solo 1935
Sonata per violoncello solo / Sonata for Cello Solo Instrumental solo 1967
Sonatina per oboe, clarinetto e fagotto / Sonatina for Oboe, Clarinet and Bassoonn Chamber Music 1931
Sonatina per pianoforte / Sonatina for Piano Instrumental solo 1932
Sonatina per violino e pianoforte / Sonatina for violin and piano pianoforte Chamber Music 1932
Sonatina per violoncello e pianoforte / Sonatina for Cello and Piano Chamber Music 1933
Sonatine für Violine und Violoncello / Sonatina for Violin and Cello Chamber Music 1928
Songs of the Seasons Mixed choir 1967
Szatmár Dances Chamber Music 0
Sancti Augustini Psalmus contra partem Donati Solo voice(s), choir & orchestra 1944
Un lopin de terre / Treasured Earth Film music 1948
Threnos in memoriam Béla Bartók Symphony orchestra 1945
Fourteen Male Choruses on Hungarian Folk Tunes Male choir 1934
Fifteen Children´s Choruses Children's choir 1936
Fifteen Little Piano Pieces Instrumental solo 1935
Trio "3 quadri" / Trio "3 Pictures" Chamber Music 1963
Trio per archi / Trio for Strings Chamber Music 1954
Tromboniade Concerto 1990
Térszili Katicza Ballet / Choreographic work 1943
Ungarischer Werbetanz / Hungarian Recruiting Dance Chamber Music 1940
Venti Pezzi per pianoforte / Twenty Pieces for Piano Instrumental solo 1938
I went out a-marketing Choir with accompaniment 1950
Ode to Europe / Ode all´Europa Mixed choir 1962
Ode to Europe. Greetings to Gyula Illyés from Europe Mixed choir 1962