Sándor Veress's ambition was to create new Hungarian music that was equal to the best international music, yet rooted in the folk music of his region, an ambition shared with his teacher Béla Bartók.
Historical Context
Sándor Veress left Hungary in 1949, deciding it was unsafe to return after the Stalinist political show-trials began, despite having just been awarded the Kossuth Prize.
Composer Biography
Sándor Veress, the composer, was born in Kolozsvár, which was ceded to Romania as Cluj-Napoca in 1920, leading to his lifelong feeling of exile from his native Hungary.
Composer Biography
Sándor Veress was stateless for 42 years while working in Switzerland, facing bureaucratic difficulties and unable to revisit Hungary, only gaining Swiss naturalization three months before his death.
Compositional Technique
Sándor Veress's music shows a development of Bartók's principles, infused with Hungarian folk-melody, and he was one of the first Hungarian composers to adopt the twelve-note method.
Composer Biography
Sándor Veress studied composition with Zoltán Kodály and piano with Béla Bartók at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest.
Performer Biography
The Basel String Quartet, founded in 1996, won the international Max Reger Quartet Competition in 1999 and has premiered works by several contemporary composers.
