Malek Miklós
Composer
Place of Birth
Budapest
Date of Birth
1945
After finishing secondary school, he was admitted to and graduated from the trumpet faculty of the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music in 1970. In addition to studying classical music, he got acquainted with other genres early: he took part in the popular television talent show What Can You Do? as a member of the prize winning Dixieland Orchestra of Angyalföld in 1963. For more than twenty years from 1969 onwards he was composer and arranger of the Expressz Ensemble. He has regularly worked for the Hungarian Radio since 1969 and the Madách Theatre since 1983 where he was music producer of the programmes of the famous Hungarian humorist Géza Hofi. Between 1992 and 1999 he was continuously employed by the Hungarian Television as musical director.
Miklós Maleks compositions were released on five LPs and more than fifty small discs. He composed the songs of the musical Sometimes You Need a Bit of Vagráncy and arranged the musical Somewhere in Europe. His composition Yellow Leaves Are Falling won him prizes at several European festivals. The outcome of his nearly two-decade-long cooperation with Géza Hofi are Hofélia (1983), The Prize of Food (1992), The Streets Are Being Swept and Try to Relax. Besides, his œeuvre as a composer includes the three concertos on the present recording (Trumpet Concerto, Trombone Concerto, Horn Concerto), and several character pieces: Invitation, Angyalföld, Dance of Butterflies, Pas de deux, Lilacs of Újpest etc. As an arranger he won more than twenty different prizes. In addition. He was awarded prizes for high quality productions at the Hungarian Radio and Television as well as the Szabolcs Fényes and Emerton Prizes. Since 1990 he has been member of the Association of Hungarian Composers and board member of the Artisjus Copyright Bureau.
Miklós Maleks career as a composer is marked by strange duality. Although his work focuses on popular music genres in the first place, he has orchestrated and composed symphonic character pieces commissioned by the Hungarian Radio on a regular basis since 1975. A trumpeter by qualification a profession he has not practiced for decades he deals intensively with the technical and musical potentials of the brass wind instruments. In the 20th century the trumpet, the horn and the trombone underwent considerable technical changes and development and, parallel with them, the repertoire of these three instruments increased. Nevertheless, brass players seldom have an opportunity to show their talents as soloists. It was one of the reasons why Miklós Malek decided to write a concerto each for his friends and colleagues, leading artists of the Symphonic Orchestra of the Hungarian Radio György Geiger (trumpet), Zoltán Varga (horn) and Gusztáv Hőna (trombone). The three concertos provide an eloquent testimony of the joint thinking and creative cooperation between the composer and performers, futher enhanced by the tremendous success of their performance in concert (at the Academy of Music, the Open-Air Theatre on the Margaret Island, in Miskolc, in Szombathely). On the present CD all three concertos can be heard performed by the Symphonic Orchestra of the Hungarian Radio under the composers baton.
Composed in 1997, the Trumpet Concerto shows the traditional three-movement structure of concertos (fast-slow-fast), but its harmonic world fits hardly into the frames of the classical theory of harmony. Miklós Malek formed his own set of composition devices out of the late romantic and turn-of-the-century traditions. On the one hand, he offers the trumpet extremely virtuosic material with manifold technique and rhythm to play and puts it into the service of lyric expression particularly in the slow movement inscribed Larghetto on the other, which is still unusual with brass wind instruments in our days. The ever faster conclusion, the immense increase of volume of the finale almost remind us of the strettos of the opera finales.
The Trombone Concerto (2001) leaves behind the classical-romantic concerto form altogether. Departing perhaps from the Gershwinean, Coplandean prototypes, this concerto consists of a single unit of form of immense proportions divided by frequent changes of metre and coloured by complicated, often asymmetric formulae, pregnant rhythms. The trombone part (and particularly its virtuoso cadence before the end) shows signs of explicitly modern, contemporary inspiration while the triumphant fanfare motives recall the several-centuries-long tradition of applied brass music, the so-called tower music. It is interesting to note that Miklós Malek wrote not only a version for symphonic orchestra but a big band version of the Trombone Concerto as well. At the première Gusztáv Hőna played the solo with the contribution of the Budapest Jazz Orchestra led by Kornél Fekete-Kovács.
Although the Horn Concerto (1999) comprises three movements, it forms a strange transition between the structures of the Trumpet and the Trombone Concerto, owing to the consistent thematic-motivic work. The first movement begins with a slow introduction, after which the prescribed tempo of the main section is reached through gradual increase. The Horn Concerto lacks a definitely slow movement, although its second large unit of form is characterized by more moderate tempo, more fanciful and meditating mood than the outer movements. The dominating feature of the finale is just as in the case of the Trombone Concerto the vigorous rhythm using frequently asymmetric formulae (e.g. 5/4, 7/8).
After having concluded work on the three brass concertos, Miklós Malek is now occupied with composing further symphonic works. He has already finished a piece for string orchestra and plans to write a Flute Concerto for Eszter Horgas. Malek orchestratred, conducted and partly composed the large-scale production of Carmen performed with the world-famous guitarist Al di Meola in the Budapest Sport Arena in November 2003.
Miklós Maleks compositions were released on five LPs and more than fifty small discs. He composed the songs of the musical Sometimes You Need a Bit of Vagráncy and arranged the musical Somewhere in Europe. His composition Yellow Leaves Are Falling won him prizes at several European festivals. The outcome of his nearly two-decade-long cooperation with Géza Hofi are Hofélia (1983), The Prize of Food (1992), The Streets Are Being Swept and Try to Relax. Besides, his œeuvre as a composer includes the three concertos on the present recording (Trumpet Concerto, Trombone Concerto, Horn Concerto), and several character pieces: Invitation, Angyalföld, Dance of Butterflies, Pas de deux, Lilacs of Újpest etc. As an arranger he won more than twenty different prizes. In addition. He was awarded prizes for high quality productions at the Hungarian Radio and Television as well as the Szabolcs Fényes and Emerton Prizes. Since 1990 he has been member of the Association of Hungarian Composers and board member of the Artisjus Copyright Bureau.
Miklós Maleks career as a composer is marked by strange duality. Although his work focuses on popular music genres in the first place, he has orchestrated and composed symphonic character pieces commissioned by the Hungarian Radio on a regular basis since 1975. A trumpeter by qualification a profession he has not practiced for decades he deals intensively with the technical and musical potentials of the brass wind instruments. In the 20th century the trumpet, the horn and the trombone underwent considerable technical changes and development and, parallel with them, the repertoire of these three instruments increased. Nevertheless, brass players seldom have an opportunity to show their talents as soloists. It was one of the reasons why Miklós Malek decided to write a concerto each for his friends and colleagues, leading artists of the Symphonic Orchestra of the Hungarian Radio György Geiger (trumpet), Zoltán Varga (horn) and Gusztáv Hőna (trombone). The three concertos provide an eloquent testimony of the joint thinking and creative cooperation between the composer and performers, futher enhanced by the tremendous success of their performance in concert (at the Academy of Music, the Open-Air Theatre on the Margaret Island, in Miskolc, in Szombathely). On the present CD all three concertos can be heard performed by the Symphonic Orchestra of the Hungarian Radio under the composers baton.
Composed in 1997, the Trumpet Concerto shows the traditional three-movement structure of concertos (fast-slow-fast), but its harmonic world fits hardly into the frames of the classical theory of harmony. Miklós Malek formed his own set of composition devices out of the late romantic and turn-of-the-century traditions. On the one hand, he offers the trumpet extremely virtuosic material with manifold technique and rhythm to play and puts it into the service of lyric expression particularly in the slow movement inscribed Larghetto on the other, which is still unusual with brass wind instruments in our days. The ever faster conclusion, the immense increase of volume of the finale almost remind us of the strettos of the opera finales.
The Trombone Concerto (2001) leaves behind the classical-romantic concerto form altogether. Departing perhaps from the Gershwinean, Coplandean prototypes, this concerto consists of a single unit of form of immense proportions divided by frequent changes of metre and coloured by complicated, often asymmetric formulae, pregnant rhythms. The trombone part (and particularly its virtuoso cadence before the end) shows signs of explicitly modern, contemporary inspiration while the triumphant fanfare motives recall the several-centuries-long tradition of applied brass music, the so-called tower music. It is interesting to note that Miklós Malek wrote not only a version for symphonic orchestra but a big band version of the Trombone Concerto as well. At the première Gusztáv Hőna played the solo with the contribution of the Budapest Jazz Orchestra led by Kornél Fekete-Kovács.
Although the Horn Concerto (1999) comprises three movements, it forms a strange transition between the structures of the Trumpet and the Trombone Concerto, owing to the consistent thematic-motivic work. The first movement begins with a slow introduction, after which the prescribed tempo of the main section is reached through gradual increase. The Horn Concerto lacks a definitely slow movement, although its second large unit of form is characterized by more moderate tempo, more fanciful and meditating mood than the outer movements. The dominating feature of the finale is just as in the case of the Trombone Concerto the vigorous rhythm using frequently asymmetric formulae (e.g. 5/4, 7/8).
After having concluded work on the three brass concertos, Miklós Malek is now occupied with composing further symphonic works. He has already finished a piece for string orchestra and plans to write a Flute Concerto for Eszter Horgas. Malek orchestratred, conducted and partly composed the large-scale production of Carmen performed with the world-famous guitarist Al di Meola in the Budapest Sport Arena in November 2003.
| Year | Title | Publisher | Code | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Malek Miklós: Brass Concertos | Hungaroton | HCD 32249 |
Own |
| Title | Type | Year |
|---|---|---|
| At the Danube | Mixed choir | 2009 |
| Basson Concerto | Concerto | 2014 |
| Farewell | Chamber Music | 0 |
| Flute Concerto | Concerto | 2017 |
| Trombone Quartet | Chamber Music | 2023 |
| Trombone Concerto | Concerto | 2001 |
| Swan Song | Chamber Music | 2012 |
| II. Trumpet Conerto (in E-flat Major) | Concerto | 2017 |
| Christmas Song | Choir and orchestra | 2018 |
| Bittersweet divertimento | Concerto | 2008 |
| Clarinet Concerto | Concerto | 2009 |
| Concertant Etude for Trombone | Instrumental solo | 2015 |
| Concertant Etude for Trombone (Version for Bass-Trombone) | Instrumental solo | 2015 |
| Horn Concerto | Concerto | 1999 |
| Oboe Concerto | Concerto | 2015 |
| Quo Vadis | Concerto | 2005 |
| Scherzo | String orchestra | 2013 |
| Trumpet Concerto | Concerto | 1997 |
| Valse Triste | Chamber Music | 0 |
| Without Answer | Chamber Music | 2011 |