Search - Márta Sebestyén :: Muzsikas

Unique and Amazing

John Grunwell | Washington, D.C. | 04/06/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I was in high school when I first heard this recording. This was the very early 1990s. I was in the family room, as was my mom. All Things Considered was playing on the radio, to which we were paying little attention. Suddenly a spine-tingling song began playing. I was transfixed. It was so unlike anything I'd ever heard (Balkan/Finno-Ugric/Slavic-music virgin that I was at the time). My mom and I posited different ideas as to what it could be. We eventually decided it was some sort of Indian folk singer. Imagine my shock to find that it was Hungarian. The song in question was "Vettetem Violat." You'll understand once you hear it. Hungarian! Whoda thunk it? You'd never realize this was the same music Franz Liszt supposedly based much of his work on (though I understand that to be more Gypsy stuff than Magyar)."