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Kodály: Duo for Violin and Cello, Sonata for Solo Cello – Darvarova, Starker (UAV 5983)

Shortly after our joint performances of the Kodály Duo in Sofia and in Varna, I was able to leave Bulgaria in a daring escape, made possible by an administrative mistake. The communist passport officials erroneously had granted me exit documents for traveling to Germany, but despite quickly realizing their mistake and attempting to call me back to their office, they were just a bit late in their timing, and I managed to slip out of the country. From Germany I easily made it to America, where I had been invited to teach at Indiana University, as one of Josef Gingold’s assistants. ”
— Elmira Darvarova

Urlicht AudioVisual celebrates the countdown to the centenary of legendary cellist János Starker with the first in a series of releases, making available for the first time a live recording of Zoltán Kodály‘s formidable Duo for Violin and Cello featuring Starker with Bulgarian violinist Elmira Darvarova – a performance that took place days before her daring escape from behind the Iron Curtain in 1986.

This recording is coupled with a new remastering of Starker’s landmark 1950 recording of Kodály’s Sonata for Solo Cello, restored especially for this release.