Szabolcs Szörényi, Kossuth Prize-winning composer, music director, former bass guitarist of the Illés and then the Fonograph ensemble, died at the age of 81, the family announced on Saturday.
Szabolcs Szörényi was born on September 26, 1943 in Budapest. In September 1956, together with his brother Levente, his parents enrolled him in the state boarding school for boys in Sobi, where they entered the institute's mandolin band. Szabolcs played the guitar, then switched to the bass guitar and stayed with this instrument. Two years later, he went to the high school in Vác, where Levente also followed him, where they formed a trio.
They made electric ones at home from acoustic instruments, and with their band called Mediterrán, in which Imre Kőszegi and János Bajtala played in addition to the brothers, in 1962 they reached the semi-finals of the national Ki Mit Tud?.
In January 1965, Levente brought him to the Illés group, which had been operating for many years, and during the year the classic line-up was formed, in addition to the two Szörényis, Lajos Illés, who plays keyboard instruments, János Bródy, the guitarist, and Zoltán Pásztory, the drummer.
In 1966, they won the second prize shared at the 1st Dance and Song Festival with their song Meg sáj mundan csók, then at the 1968 festival, they won almost all prizes, including the main prize, with their folk music-rooted composition When I Was Still a Little Girl. Szabolcs served in the army for a few months between the two festivals in 1967, until then János Bródy replaced him on his instrument in the band.
The Illés group gained incredible popularity in the second half of the sixties and the beginning of the seventies, with only Omega and Metro as their rivals. Most of the music for their songs was composed by Levente Szörényi and Lajos Illés, the often resonant, politically sensitive lyrics written by János Bródy expressed the feelings of the youth rebelling against the behavioral patterns of the previous generation. Szabolcs Szörényi rarely appeared as an author, but he wrote, among other things, the songs Újra itt van, Sárika, Az és a importanto, nem a haj - he also sang the latter in his characteristic bass voice - and one of Zsuzsa Koncz's greatest hits, Mister Alcohol.
In 1974, Szabolcs Szörényi, together with his brother and Bródy, became a member of the Fonograph band. In 1984, the three sold-out farewell concerts practically also meant the retirement of Szabolcs Szörényi from the stage. After that, he was there at Illés' performances in 1990, 1996, and 2001, as well as at the 2005 concerts, which were considered his final farewell.
In honor of the 50th anniversary of the foundation of the Illés Orchestra, Szabolcs Szörényi took part in the concerts in Budapest and the countryside organized under the title Beatünnep in 2014 in the same way as in the wildly successful concerts of the Fonograph band in 2004 and 2018.
In 1990, his solo album Lökd ide a...! was released. Pub songs. As a music director, he has collaborated in many stage productions and records, for example the original soundtrack of the rock opera István, a király, who turned forty this year and sold two million copies.
Szabolcs Szörényi received the Kossuth Award in 2000, sharing it with the members of the former Illés ensemble, in 2012 he received an Award for Budapest, in 2018 the capital's XIII. he was awarded the title of honorary citizen of his district. In 2019, together with his brother Levente, he received the international lifetime achievement award of the Höfner guitar shop at the fourth National Beatles Meeting held in Kobuci Kert in Óbuda.
MTI
Featured image: MTI / Tibor Illyés
