Enchanting Scents [One Mic Recording] [Pure DSD]

Scents have always captivated me, above all the scents of plants, trees, and flowers. They awaken emotions, summon memories. Their presence unfolds in a thousand subtle shades. Blended together, they weave almost endless combinations – entire symphonies of fragrance. Not long ago, I stumbled upon a poem by the Hungarian poet Lőrinc Szabó (1900–1957), Varázsló illatok / Enchanting Scents.

Poetry has long given shape to the moods awakened by scents – yet music, too, can lend a voice to these elusive sensations. I began seeking musical works woven from metaphors of fragrance, pieces that do more than portray plants and perfumes as simple elements of nature, but use them as gateways into personal emotion, quiet reflection, and the stories that linger within us.

My intention was to offer the listener a glimpse of this luxury through the music on the album – each track an essence unto itself, a delicate bubble of sound, capturing and distilling its own small, fragrant universe.

Some of the pieces are operas, operettas and ballet excerpts, as well as orchestral works and song transcriptions for piano. “Quotations” intended for salons rather than for a grand concert hall or theatre. There must have been happy times when the transcription of a masterpiece could become a hit with the public. I believe that even in the 21st century we can still find a foothold in such an intimate atmosphere. Of course, this comes with a certain nostalgia, but these works bend the gateways of time in multiple ways. After all, the authors of the transcriptions, apart from a few exceptions, brought a piece of an earlier composer into their own era, and by now that era, too, has naturally become the past. These pieces invite us to wander In Search of Lost Time.

A special feature of the programme is the inclusion of an operetta by Joseph Kosma (Kozma József), performed in my own transcription. I happened to buy a Kosma sheet music by chance in Paris from a second-hand bookseller. Leafing through the yellowed, fragile pages, I immediately saw and heard its distinctive harmonic world. I was instantly drawn to it. An antiquarian shop and a score: those were the seed from which the whole idea grew. This is the very reason why I added Kosma’s chansons to my repertoire.

Mariann Marczi – piano