Testvériség (Brotherhood)

Slightly confusingly, the two Hungarian cimbalom players in this quartet are not brothers – I suspect one cimbalom player is enough in any family – but the band comprises two pairs of brothers. The two cimbalom maestros are Jenő Lisztes, who has played with violinist Roby Lakatos for years and appeared in the BBC Proms last summer with the Budapest Festival Orchestra, and Balázs Unger, charismatic leader of the Cimbaliband. Both create a blur of sticks as their hands fly with pinpoint accuracy over the four-octave-plus range of the concert cimbalom. Gergő Unger plays guitar as well as koboz and tambura (lute), while László Lisztes plays double bass.

The repertoire ranges from the flamboyant Gypsy jazz of the opener ‘Djangodance’ through the lyrical and delicate ‘Tiszán Innen’ – a tune familiar from Kodály's popular Háry János-Suite – to Jewish tunes and repertoire from Aladár Rácz (1886-1858), the Kossuth Prize-winning master of the cimbalom. Listen how their lines interweave as they morph from melody into accompaniment and back. It's a thrilling virtuoso ride and there aren't many cimbalom albums better than this, although it's essentially a showpiece rather than anything deeper.