ISTVÁN LÁNG (b.1933): Symphony No. 6 for 39 Strings, Diamond in the Dust of Earth for Chorus and Orchestra, Broken-off Paragraphs for Orchestra.

Description: The 'broken-off-ness' of the Paragraphs, a substantial 23-minute suite of seven character pieces, refers to their abrupt and unannounced termination, as if in mid-thought; in character though, they are anything but fragmentary. In more reposeful or tense but hushed sections there is a mildly dissonant, Bartókian sense of mystery; the more active movements get a bit more dissonant and modernist than that, but not much. The symphony is scored for a large body of strings, used to create a wide range of textures. With its use of aleatoric techniques and cumulative, pulsating counterpoint, there is more than a passing resemblance to Leif Segerstam's recent symphonic works, with which it also shares a vocabulary based in, and not straying far from overall, tonality. The cantata sets pained and despairing late poems of Ottó Orbán in appropriately harsh, dark-hued textures, illuminated by livid flares of percussion, piano and shrieking winds. Despite its overwhelmingly dark mood and unrelenting tension, the varied and ingenious orchestration enlivens the work's textures and renders a tough and modernist (if not exactly avant garde) work surprisingly accessible. Hungarian-English texts. MR Choir and Symphony Orchestra; László Tihanyi, László Kovács (symphony).