Sándor Veress (1907–99) was born in Kolozsvár, then in Hungary (it is now Cluj-Napoca in Romania), but spent the last half-century of his life in Switzerland as an exile from Communism. In the 1930s he worked as Bartók’s research assistant in his work on Hungarian folksong, with results audible in the two early string quartets. By the time of the Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra three decades later, Veress had developed a lean and muscular style. It incorporates elements of modernism but retaining a powerful sense of onward momentum, expressed in an original voice which combines head and heart in an exhilarating blend of freewheeling invention, fantasy and wit. This is the first recording of the Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra.