MARIÁN VARGA & COLLEGIUM MUSICUM

I think this is the best live album by Collegium Musicum because there is a right balance of freshness, being progressive without too experimental and the entire band is contributing unlike on "Live" from 1973 with extreme keyboard dominance. Symphonic music inspiration remains, this time from Hungary (Bartok) and Russia (Prokofiev). Varga shows his versatility by utilising Hammond (quiet and aggressive passages), piano (elegant a la classical music). Drums are intensive, in particular on "Mikrokozmos" they play a nice progressive pattern. Guitar is fine and more than complementary but less distinctive. There is quite a lot of variations, playing never gets too pretentious or complex. Varga shows a variety of styles and moods. His mellow passages with subdued organ sound particularly tasty such as the first elegant part of "Hudba k vodometu" where organ sound reminds of water which matches the song title. We even have the sound of electric piano there. In any case, both Varga and the drummer are in top shape, this album is well worth listening to.