HUNGARY

The list author says:
	"The best portrait of a musician I have ever seen, beautifully filmed. Solti is a compelling narrator and we learn a lot about music too."

The list author says:
	"Jessica Duchen is a first-rate novelist, compulsively readable. She also evokes the shadow-side of life very well. Anyone who has been fascinated by Budapest will want to read this."

The list author says:
	"Magda Szabo should have won the Nobel Prize. She has a vivid style and a special interest in the darker side of people and the complications of relationships."

The list author says:
	"The story, set in a boarding school, of a boy falsely accused of theft, is told entirely from his point of view and one becomes so involved that the climax is quite heart-breaking."

The list author says:
	"Liszt still isn't as fully valued as he should be. This remarkably vivid first-hand account of his last days will make you want to read Walker's 3-volume biography."

The list author says:
	"If pushed to choose one album among so many magnificent ones made by Sir Georg, I would choose this: even after 35 years of frequent listening, the 1st Symphony never fails to move."

The list author says:
	"Bartok's music was so influenced by the Magyar language via folksong that only a native can do it full justice. The interpretations are fabulous in poetry and excitement."

The list author says:
	"The first part of a huge trilogy about life in Hungary in its days of glory. Banffy is a gripping story-teller: read one volume and you will want them all! - and there are copies at far less than £40."

The list author says:
	"Volodos is a phenomenon, as dazzling a player as Cziffra with the poetry of Andras Schiff."

The list author says:
	"No-one has ever matched Cziffra in these works: he brings to them a flair and improvisatory feel which Liszt himself requested."

The list author says:
	"Liszt still tends to be underrated: this is a lovely work (and a bargain)."

The list author says:
	"Authentic Magyar folk - not to be confused with Gypsy café music. The musicians are outstanding in this life-enhancing music: you will want to get up and dance!"

The list author says:
	"If you are near Senlis you will be welcomed welcome at the St Frambourg chapel the Cziffras restored. The Brahms is stunning, the French music charming and his late Schubert and Chopin very moving."

The list author says:
	"Schiff's wonderful Mozart with Vegh is out of print. Here instead is a bargain by perhaps the most poetic and intelligent pianist of his generation."

The list author says:
	"Little-known but lovely 'a capella' works. Dr Erdei is director of the Kodaly Pedagogical Institute in Kecskémet. Don't go for a cheap English-sung version!"

The list author says:
	"This is genuine Gypsy folk - very different from Gypsy café music. It is quite unique in its sounds and exhilarating too."

The list author says:
	"Another indispensable bargain. The violin concerto is perhaps the most accessible: almost neo-Romantic plus exotic Hungarian colours and rhythms. Both soloists seem in complete accord with Solti."

The list author says:
	"A great Hungarian pianist who died prematurely. The Liszt Sonata, probably inspired by "Faust", is an absolute masterpiece."

The list author says:
	"Arrau reveals all the richness and wonder of these pieces and the sound has been remastered, bringing remarkable naturalness."

The list author says:
	"Solti turned the pages (for Mrs Bartok) at the Sonata's first performance. He also played it with Geza Anda and, at 80, with Andras Schiff. The wonderful Evelyn Glennie is part of the star line-up too"

The list author says:
	"The legend on which "Cantata Profana" is based is of especial significance to Hungarian émigrés. It is gloriously played and sung with tremendous conviction of a sort rare in the West."

The list author says:
	"The horrors of life for women in Budapest as the Russian army "liberated" the city."

The list author says:
	"Witty, moving, original poems in a lovely edition by a young Hungarian poetess."

The list author says:
	"A huge book, hugely intriguing and entertaining, by Hungary's greatest contemporary writer."