Varázshegedű

Curatorial Note

Live instrumental recording by Hungarian Roma violinist and prímás Sándor Déki Lakatos and his ensemble, issued by LaMarTi under the parallel English title Gypsy Souvenir from Hungary. Centered on Déki Lakatos’s virtuoso violin playing, the album presents the cosmopolitan repertory associated with professional Hungarian Roma orchestras, moving across Hungarian, Romanian, Viennese, Russian, classical, operetta, popular, and international material. Its program includes works and pieces such as Hora staccato, Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, The Lark, Kalinka, and Viennese popular repertory, demonstrating the wide stylistic range expected of Roma professional musicians working in entertainment and hospitality contexts. The recording is particularly valuable as documentation of the late twentieth-century prímás tradition and of a musical practice in which Roma musicians became prominent interpreters and mediators of Hungarian and broader Central European musical culture. The English marketing title and Budapest imagery on the cover also document the international tourist presentation of Hungarian “Gypsy music” during the period.