Archival Recordings of the Legendary Lead Violinist from Myjava in 1929-1957

Samko Dudík (1880-1967) was a Slovak Gypsy fiddler and band leader, but more than that he was a larger-than-life personality and a Czechoslovak national export. The composer Leoš Janáček selected Dudík and his band to represent Czechoslovakia at the International Music Exhibition in Frankfurt in 1927 and they also performed in London, Paris and Moscow in 1929. In the centrefold of this CD's booklet there's a picture of the seven members of the band dressed in felt trousers, leather boots and waistcoats. Dudík is standing with his hands on his hips and looking directly at the camera. His elder brother Pavel is on bass and younger brother Štefan on cimbalom.

The photo was taken when the band recorded for Pathé in Prague in 1929 and the first disc here contains those and other HMV sessions around the same time. The recordings sound surprisingly good. Several of the songs and dances are linked to Myjava, Dudík's home town, about 100km north of Bratislava. There are some curious scripted wedding songs and a few operetta-like songs recorded in the 1940s. But it's the second disc of recordings from Radio Brno (1955-57) that are more rewarding thanks to both better audio quality and the energy and panache of the playing. Several of the pieces have a strong Hungarian influence – they play the ‘Rákóczi March’, for instance – but there's music from Yugoslavia too. It's a shame the detailed notes by Alžbeta Lukáčova, Dudík's granddaughter, aren't in English as well.