Wanderer of Arts

„During the past decades, a series of studies of analysis and interpretation have been dedicated to the literary work and medical-psychoanalytical articles by Géza Csáth. Many authors in many ways have studied the peculiar vision of his art and the mystical inner world of his short stories, searching the answer to why his personality got so dominated by dissonance. However, there is no public knowledge of Géza Csáth the composer, although music was one of his most faithful companions. Friends and colleagues remember him playing the violin and the piano excellently, he was a prolific composer, and his writings clearly reflect his special and individual relation to music. Great part of Csáth’s musical legacy is kept today in the Music Collection of National Széchényi Library. This collection of songs, accompanying music, and pieces for violin, piano and chamber music leads us through all the periods of Csáth’s tragically short life from high-school juvenilia and music written to the poems of Ady and Kosztolányi, to a number of later and unfinished compositions. Our present volume relies on this precious legacy when discussing the musical work of Géza Csáth, a so-far unexplored chapter of his creativity.” (Blurb by the author.)

The musical oeuvre of Csáth can be looked upon as a layer of his one and single artistic self-expression. Although he was not a highly qualified musician, he could play the violin and the piano well, and more than a hundred compositions bear testimony to his talent. Our publication is a study that presents his work with focus on songs, piano and chamber pieces, followed by a detailed index. There is also a CD attached, with songs by Csáth written of the poems of Ady, Kosztolányi and Csokonai, two solo pieces for piano, two compositions for violin and piano, and two movements for string-quartet, performed by Szilvia Elek (piano), Tivadar Kiss (vocal), Gergely Kuklis (violin), Gábor Csonka (violin), Gyula Benkő (viola) és András Sturcz (violoncello).