world music, jazz, popular music

Fifty Years of "Sebőfication”

one interval
Béla Bartók National Concert Hall
  • Produced by Müpa Budapest

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Ferenc Sebő, who turns 75 years old this year, started his musical career in 1969, and the "phenomenon” known as the Sebő Ensemble began its journey in 1972, exactly 50 years ago. While the work of both the band and the musician who gave it his name have proved highly influential, in the beginning some opinions of them were quite hostile. At the time, one of the leading staff members of Hungarian Radio's folk music department, observing the activities of the duo of Béla Halmos and Ferenc Sebő with great trepidation, complained that this "Sebőfication” was spreading everywhere. This evening will bring to life the most important moments from this widespread phenomenon.

The negative stigma they incurred back then now fills the protagonist of the story with pride. "It is indeed true that our work has given rise to new genres,” Sebő says, "comprising various types of chamber music accompanied by guitar as a Hungarian version of popular music, such as sung poetry, authentic folk music as a historical version of this and historical music in this context, world music inspired by folk music, and finally, rock music intensified in the contemporary manner… At the time, it felt quite unpleasant to have this stigma, but now I'm almost proud of it. In our show, we present some mood images of this process.” Although examples of the sung poetry include music woven into the poems of Dániel Varró, László Nagy, Margit Szécsi, Sándor Weöres, Ferenc András Kovács and Attila József, the concert will also incorporate, in addition to 20th-century and contemporary poets, arrangements of earlier lyricists, as well as early music, and of course dance hall music, as interpreted by the Sebő Ensemble and their many guests. For fifty years, this "Sebőfication” has indeed been a process that in its initial phase played a key role in the development of the dance hall movement, and even today it remains a vibrant form of music performance that offers a great live experience. Especially when the concert is also being prompted by the release of a celebratory jubilee double CD.

Presented by: Müpa Budapest
  • Réka Soós
    Sára Tímár
    Iván Barvich
    Albert Nagy
    László Perger
    Ferenc Sebő
  • Márta Sebestyén
    Judit Andrejszki
    Tamás Jordán
    Dániel Gryllus
    Levente Székely
    Sándor Csoór Jr,
    Péter Éri

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Refreshments – Without the Queue

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