The internationally renowned French classical music magazine Diapason has published a glowing review by Yannick Millon of the MÁV Symphony Orchestra's latest Naxos recording dedicated to the music of Leó Weiner. The album was recorded in 2025 with violinist Júlia Pusker, conducted by Valéria Csányi.
Leó Weiner
Júlia Pusker, violin
MÁV Symphony Orchestra, Budapest
Conductor: Valéria Csányi
Naxos Records
Total playing time: 68 minutes
According to Millon, music history has remembered Leó Weiner primarily as one of Hungary's greatest teachers. At Budapest's Liszt Academy he mentored generations of outstanding musicians, including Antal Doráti, Sir Georg Solti, Ferenc Fricsay, and György Kurtág. Yet, as the reviewer notes, this should not overshadow Weiner's remarkable achievements as a composer.
Millon highlights Weiner's concise musical language and extraordinary economy of expression. In Variations on a Hungarian Folksong, for example, the composer compresses seven variations into fewer than five minutes. Even more striking, however, is the fundamentally optimistic spirit of his music. His works seem instinctively drawn toward light, with melancholy appearing only fleetingly—even in compositions written near the end of his life before his death in 1960.
The review particularly praises the refined playing of the MÁV Symphony Orchestra, noting that Valéria Csányi proves herself a highly convincing advocate of Weiner's music. Special mention is given to the subtle orchestral colours of the Serenade, Op. 3, especially in the Andantino variations, where the melody gracefully passes between the clarinet, flute, bassoon, and oboe.
Millon also commends Csányi's conducting for its taste, restraint, and rich sense of orchestral colour. While her interpretation is somewhat more understated than Sir Georg Solti's celebrated 1997 recording, it successfully reveals the distinctive Central European musical landscape that characterises Weiner's work. This atmosphere is particularly evident in the Violin Concerto No. 1 (1958), where echoes of Janáček can also be heard.
The reviewer further praises Júlia Pusker's warm, lyrical performance of the concerto, originally reworked from a sonata composed nearly fifty years earlier. He also notes with appreciation that this recording restores forty-one bars omitted from the work's first commercial recording.
The album concludes with Divertimento No. 3 ("Hungarian Impressions"), which Millon describes as the most overtly Hungarian work on the programme: a charming, imaginative composition whose wit and inventiveness elegantly conceal its occasional structural unevenness.
Review by Yannick Millon
Track Listing
Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Major, Op. 41
Variations on a Hungarian Folksong, Op. 30
Serenade, Op. 3
Divertimento No. 3, Op. 25, Hungarian Impressions
