19:30 MONDAY 16 SEPTEMBER 2024 PESTI VIGADÓ
Bartók Radio Season Ticket 1
Gyula Bánkövi: Budapest Horizon (world premiere)
Balázs Kecskés D.: Passacaglia (world premiere)
Bence Kutrik: Crossing V (world premiere)
Zsolt Durkó: Una rapsodia Ungherese
András Gábor Virágh: Aquila
Conductor: Gergely Vajda
Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
Ágnes Langer (violin), János Szepesi (clarinet), Hunor Egyed (clarinet)
Is it possible to represent the defining buildings of Budapest or the city’s history in music? The metros, the suburban lines, perhaps the bridges? The composition of Gyula Bánkövi written for the 150th anniversary of Budapest, this ‘orchestral panorama’ extraordinarily rich in ideas, seeks an answer to this and other questions. The first recital of the Bartók Season Ticket series is also the occasion to hear Passacaglia by one of the most outstanding representatives of the young composer generation, Balázs Kecskés D., an early masterpiece by Zsolt Durkó (Una rapsodia Ungherese, 1968), plus a Bence Kutrik world premiere and András Gábor Virágh’s recently debuted grand orchestral creation, Aquila.
Tickets: HUF 3500 (student and senior discount -20%)
19:30 TUESDAY 24 SEPTEMBER 2024 GRAND HALL, LISZT ACADEMY
Dohnányi Season Ticket 1
Mendelssohn: Hebrides – overture, Op. 26
Mendelssohn: Concerto for Violin, Piano and Orchestra in D minor, MWV O 4
Mendelssohn: The First Walpurgis Night, Op. 60
Conductor: Gergely Madaras
Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir (choral director: Zoltán Pad)
Júlia Pusker (violin), Zoltán Fejérvári (piano)
Mendelssohn’s D minor violin-piano concerto is the brilliant product of a 14-year-old genius. It says a lot about the diligence of the young composer that of his concertos penned for solo instruments and orchestra, this work was already his fourth. Similarly to the majority of his early works, the score of the Double Concerto was never published in the lifetime of the composer, and it wasn’t until 1999 that a critical edition of the piece was made available. The work is performed by the most excellent soloists Júlia Pusker and Zoltán Fejérvári. Conductor Gergely Madaras has added two further iconic Mendelssohn items to the programme. The lyrics of the cantata The First Walpurgis Night were brought to the attention of the composer by the poet himself, Goethe. A century and a half ago, a critic wrote of the work also frequently performed in Hungary from the 1870s onwards that although Mendelssohn had written ‘not the hymn to light but music painting the secretiveness of the Druids’, this should be ‘the least of his sins’.
Tickets: HUF 7000 / 6000 / 4500 / 4000 (student and senior discount -20%)
19:30 TUESDAY 1 OCTOBER 2024MÜPA BUDAPEST – BARTÓK BÉLA NATIONAL CONCERT HALL
Lehel Season Ticket 1
Elgar: In the South (Alassio) – overture, Op. 50
Elgar: Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85
Holst: The Planets, Op. 32
Conductor: János Kovács
Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir (choral director: Zoltán Pad)
Truls Mørk (cello)
English composer Edward Elgar’s popular cello concerto features a solo by Norwegian Truls Mørk, one of the most recognized cellists on the international scene. Truls Mørk recorded the work in partnership with Sir Simon Rattle more than a quarter of a century ago, but naturally he has since frequently and keenly played it at his concerts. In the wake of one of his performances a few years ago, one music critic wrote that Mørk’s ‘highly distinct, lean and perfectly luminous tone suited the composition’s bittersweet lyricism as he sank deeply into the often-reflective score and brought detail to each phrase.’ At the concert dedicated to British music, besides Elgar the programme also includes one of the most popular works by Gustav Holst, albeit one not regularly aired in Hungary, The Planets. Three of the seven movements of the suite were performed in 1923, with Ernő Dohnányi conductor of the partial premiere in Hungary at that time.
Tickets: HUF 7500 / 6000 / 5000 / 4000 / 3000 (student and senior discount -20%)
10:00 and 12:00 WEDNESDAY 9 OCTOBER 2024 HOUSE OF MUSIC HUNGARY
10:00 and 12:00 THURSDAY 10 OCTOBER 2024 HOUSE OF MUSIC HUNGARY
Youth concerts
Vivaldi: The Four Seasons
Conductor: János Kovács
Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
Gáspár Kelemen (violin)
The Four Seasons is one of the best-loved, most popular, most comprehensible and most easily experienced pieces of music in the canon. It is no surprise that it ranks as a milestone in getting acquainted with classical music. 16-year-old Gáspár Kelemen interpreting the violin concerto won admission to the Liszt Academy Special School for Young Talents at the age of 11, in the class of Eszter Perényi. He continued his studies from autumn 2022 as a scholarship student of the Yehudi Menuhin School, London, the first Hungarian in the history of the institution. Gáspár Kelemen took first prize at the 2015 Gianluca Campochiaro International Competition arranged in Sicily, in 2016 he was a finalist at the Virtuosi talent competition, in 2019 he won the 6th National Koncz János Violin Competition Grand Prix, and he made it into the final of the 2023 Bartók World Competition.
Free admission but prior registration required
19:30 SATURDAY 12 OCTOBER 2024 AULA MAGNA, ELTE LAW FACULTY
Sapszon Season Ticket 1
Saint-Saëns: Calme des nuits
Saint-Saëns: Les fleurs et les arbres
Debussy: Trois Chansons
Debussy: Les Angélus
Satie: Gymnopédie I. – Lent et douloureux
A. Mahler: Die stille Stadt
A. Mahler: Laue Sommernacht
G. Mahler: Im Abendrot
R. Strauss: Traumlicht
G. Mahler: Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen Schönberg: Friede auf Erden
Conductor: Peter Dijkstra
Hungarian Radio Choir (choral director: Zoltán Pad)
Dutchman Peter Dijkstra is one of the most sought-after choral conductors of our time. In 2003, at the age of 25, he won first prize at the Stockholm Eric Ericson Competition, thus launching his international career. Dijkstra has been artistic director of Bavarian Radio Choir since 2022, and earlier he led choirs of international repute such as Nederlands Kamerkoor and Swedish Radio Choir. He is equally at home in many different styles and historical periods, from medieval polyphonic to modern choral music. His recordings have won several prestigious prizes. The Radio Choir concert comprises compositions from the late 19th – early 20th century.
Tickets: HUF 3000 (student and senior discount -20%)
19:30 SATURDAY 19 OCTOBER 2024 GRAND HALL, LISZT ACADEMY
Dohnányi Season Ticket 2
Brahms: Piano Concerto in B-flat major, Op. 83
Brahms: Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98
Conductor: Riccardo Frizza
Hungarian Symphony Orchestra
Simon Trpčeski (piano)
Pianist Simon Trpčeski, born in the North Macedonia capital of Skopje, debuted at London’s Wigmore Hall at the age of 22. In 2001, he took part in BBC Radio’s New Generation programme, which launched him on an international career. He has played with the New York Philharmonics, San Francisco Symphonics, Los Angeles Philharmonics, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Hong-Kong Philharmonics and Toronto Symphonics. He has released several recordings and has a particular affinity with the concertos of Russian composers – Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev.
Tickets: HUF 7000 / 6000 / 4500 / 4000 (student and senior discount -20%)
19:30 WEDNESDAY 13 NOVEMBER 2024 GRAND HALL, LISZT ACADEMY
Dohnányi Season Ticket 3
Vivaldi-Bach: Concerto in D major, BWV. 972
Bach: Suite in C major (Ouverture), BWV. 1066
Vivaldi-Bach: Concerto in G major, BWV. 978
Bach: Brich dem Hungrigen dein Brot – cantata, BWV. 39
Bach: Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen – cantata, BWV. 51
Conductor: János Kovács
Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir (choral director: Zoltán Pad)
Matthias Höfs (trumpet)
Polina Pasztircsák (soprano)
The brilliant German trumpet player Matthias Höfs conducted music studies in Hamburg and Berlin. As well as his performance artist activities he has spent decades writing arrangements for brass bands as well as his own instrument, the trumpet. At this Budapest concert he plays from Bach’s superb Vivaldi transcriptions, plus he participates in a performance of Bach’s glorious cantata, ‘Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen’, naturally on the trumpet. Matthias Höfs has been Professor at Hamburg University of Music and Theatre since 2000. Concertos are played in arrangements by Mathias Höfs.
Tickets: HUF 7000 / 6000 / 4500 / 4000 (student and senior discount -20%)
19:30 THURSDAY 21 NOVEMBER 2024 GRAND HALL, LISZT ACADEMY
Vásáry Season Ticket 1
Schubert: Overture in the Italian Style, C major, D. 591
Weber: Andante e Rondo ungarese, C minor, Op. 35 (J. 158)
Smetana: From Bohemia’s Meadows and Forests
Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 3 ‘Scottish’, Op. 56
Conductors: Dániel Erdélyi, Tamás Vásáry
Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
Jákob Bettermann (bassoon)
During this year’s concert season, Tamás Vásáry is inviting young conductor colleagues to join him on the stage. Organist and conductor Dániel Erdélyi is a multifaceted musician; over the past decade he was active in the areas of opera, choral works and the symphonic repertoire. Jákob Bettermann, bassoonist of the Radio orchestra, is his partner in Weber’s Hungarian accented ‘mini-concerto’. The colourful concert programme takes us on an imaginary journey to the lands favoured by the romantics, from Scotland through Italy all the way to the magical Czech forests. Tamás Vásáry conducts Mendelssohn’s Symphony in A minor, about which the critic of Budapesti Hírlap wrote in 1884, in the wake of a concert in the capital, that the composer ‘wrote at the peak of his creative powers, in the richest period of his imagination. The place of the sweet, charming, melody groups frequently indeterminately blurred among the soft lines is replaced by more noble ideas, more passionate impetus and new, rich, typical sound forms.’
Tickets: HUF 9500 / 8000 / 5500 / 3500 (student and senior discount -20%)
19:30 WEDNESDAY 27 NOVEMBER 2024 MÜPA BUDAPEST – BARTÓK BÉLA NATIONAL CONCERT HALL
Lehel Season Ticket 2
Kodály: Dances of Galanta
Chopin: Piano Concerto in F minor, Op. 21
Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major ‘Eroica’, Op. 55
Conductor: Riccardo Frizza
Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
Jeneba Kanneh-Mason (piano)
Jeneba Kanneh-Mason, British pianist, comes from a family of seven children in which all her siblings play violin, cello or piano at professional level. Her father who comes from Antigua in the Caribbean and her mother who is from Sierra Leone in West Africa are also proficient instrumentalists, although neither became professional musicians. This remarkable family is hugely popular in Great Britain; the siblings often appear on stage together. Jeneba Kanneh-Mason is studying at the Royal College of Music in London. The 21-year-old pianist has achieved fantastic results at several competitions and despite her relative youth she has already amassed considerable international concert experience.
Tickets: HUF 7500 / 6000 / 5000 / 4000 / 3000 (student and senior discount -20%)
16:00 SUNDAY 1 DECEMBER 2024 PESTI VIGADÓ
Hungarian Radio Children’s Choir Advent Concert
Conductors: Soma Dinyés, Magdaléna Szűcs, Katalin Körber Vargáné
‘This concert evoking the Advent atmosphere allows us to enjoy not only the heartwarming nativity play put on by the Upper Juniors, but it also provides a glimpse into the busy music life of the children’s choir. They show what sheer joy it is to sing Christmas motets in chamber ensembles, and how uplifting it is to hear the velvety voices of enthusiastic girls and boys on the verge of their voices breaking in youth mixed productions. And last but not least: the abilities of our gifted instrumental soloists shimmer in the spotlight,’ writes Soma Dinyés, senior conductor.
Tickets: HUF 1500 (student and senior discount -20%)
20:00 WEDNESDAY 4 DECEMBER 2024 MATTHIAS CHURCH
Sapszon Season Ticket 2
Bruckner: Ave Maria
P. da Palestrina: Missa Hodie Christus natus est – Kyrie, Gloria
Bruckner: Virga jesse floruit
P. da Palestrina: Missa Hodie Christus natus est – Credo
Bruckner: Christus factus est
P. da Palestrina: Missa Hodie Christus natus est – Sanctus, Benedictus, Agnus Dei
Bruckner: Os Justi
P. da Palestrina: Regina caeli (á 8)
Conductor: Zoltán Pad
Hungarian Radio Choir
Márton Levente Horváth (organ)
Anton Bruckner was born 200 years ago, on 4 September 1824. The music history significance of the oeuvre of the Austrian composer was only recognized after his death. He influenced artists such as Gustav Mahler and Arnold Schönberg. As well as symphonies he was particularly interested artistically in Catholic liturgical music and he devoted considerable attention to the study of Renaissance and Baroque choral music. He firmly believed that older styles and techniques could also be applied in the medium of the renewed, romantic harmonic language. Although Bruckner was composing three hundred years after Palestrina, still the choral compositions of the two masters can engage in lively conversation with each other: Bruckner composed approximately 34 motets in Latin, and he looked on Palestrina’s compositions as models in these works.
Tickets: HUF 3000 (student and senior discount -20%)
18:00 TUESDAY 17 DECEMBER 2024 GRAND HALL, LISZT ACADEMY
Hungarian Radio Children’s Choir Christmas Concert
Conductors: Soma Dinyés, Magdaléna Szűcs, Katalin Körber Vargáné
‘The programme spans centuries of beautiful music from the Christmas season. The broad palette covers superb works by artists from Renaissance choral musicians through Kodály to contemporary composers. The Upper Juniors are going to guarantee the Christmas vibe with their folk nativity play, the Youth Mixed Choir are offering a very special repertoire and chamber vocal ensembles prove their touching virtuosity,’ writes Soma Dinyés, senior conductor.
Tickets: HUF 3500 / 3000 / 2000 / 1500 (student and senior discount -20%)
20:00 WEDNESDAY 18 DECEMBER 2024 MATTHIAS CHURCH
Bartók Radio Season Ticket 2 – Anno Sacri 1
Corelli: Christmas concerto grosso
C.P.E. Bach: Magnificat
Conductor: Zoltán Pad
Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Hungarian Radio Choir
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach completed his first major vocal composition in 1749. In his childhood he must have heard, countless times – sometimes even arrangements by his father – Magnificat songs at church services in Leipzig, moreover in Latin at Christmas. We don’t know precisely for which occasion he dedicated the work, it is possible that it was when he was applying for the post of conductor to the court of the Princess Amalia of Prussia, but it is not inconceivable that it was for the position of cantor at the Church of St. Thomas in Leipzig. Corelli’s celebrated G minor concerto suits the Advent season perfectly: the Rome master creates such a magical atmosphere in the last movement that it is as though shepherds are arriving for the midnight mass.
Tickets: HUF 3500 (student and senior discount -20%)
18:00 WEDNESDAY 1 JANUARY 2025 GRAND HALL, LISZT ACADEMY
New Year Overture
Joint concert with Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Liszt Academy and MTVA
Verdi: Aida » Triumphal March
Doppler: Hungarian Fantasia, Op. 35
Brahms: Hungarian Dance No. 2
Lehár: Wild Roses – waltz
Bellini: Oboe Concerto in E-flat major » Allegro polonaise No. 3
Grieg: Peer Gynt – Suite No. 1, Op. 46 » Morning Mood No. 1
Erkel: Hunyadi László » Palotás
Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 5 in A major, K. 219 » Rondeau No. 3. Tempo di Menuetto
Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2
Rota: Trombone Concerto » Allegro giusto No. 1
Shostakovich: Jazz Suite – Waltz No. 2
Bizet: L’Arlésienne – Suite No. 2 » Farandole No. 4
Conductor: Domonkos Héja
Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, gifted young artists of the Orchestra and Liszt Academy
For the past five years, lovers of music could start off the New Year in style on the evening of 1 January with a joint concert by Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Liszt Academy. The concert, broadcast by public service TV and radio stations, comprises popular works under the direction of the finest conductors in Hungary. The ensemble and young artists of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music were first conducted by Tamás Vásáry, followed in successive years by János Kovács, Ádám Medveczky, Oliver von Dohnányi and Gábor Káli. This year continues the tradition: fizzing melodies are performed under the baton of Domonkos Héja on the first day of 2025, and once again the entire concert is broadcast by the public media channels.
Tickets: HUF 14,000 / 12,000 / 10,000 / 6000 (student and senior discount -20%)
19:30 WEDNESDAY 15 JANUARY 2025 GRAND HALL, LISZT ACADEMY
Vásáry Season Ticket 2
Beethoven: Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, Op. 112
Beethoven: Choral Fantasy, Op. 80
Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 in F major ‘Pastorale’, Op. 68
Conductors: Gábor Hontvári, Tamás Vásáry
Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Hungarian Radio Choir (choral director: Zoltán Pad)
Valentin Magyar (piano)
Gábor Hontvári, youthful conductor of the Mainfranken Theater, Würzburg, is guest for the Vásáry Season Ticket 2 concert. The Junior Prima and Ernst-von-Schuch laureate conductor has won prizes at several international competitions, for example, the Deutscher Dirigentenpreis and Sir Georg Solti Conductor Competition. As guest of Tamás Vásáry, he leads two rarely heard Beethoven works. Valentin Magyar, one of the most gifted artists of the current generation, takes to the stage as piano soloist of the Choral Fantasy. The Choral Fantasy was performed at the famous concert of December 1808 during which Beethoven also unveiled two new symphonies, ‘Fate’ and ‘Pastorale’.
Tickets: HUF 9500 / 8000 / 5500 / 3500 (student and senior discount -20%)
19:30 WEDNESDAY 22 JANUARY 2025 MÜPA BUDAPEST – BARTÓK BÉLA NATIONAL CONCERT HALL
Lehel Season Ticket 3
Sibelius: The Swan of Tuonela
Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D major
Prokofiev: Cinderella Suite Nos. 1-2 – excerpts
Conductor: Domonkos Héja
Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
Barnabás Kelemen (violin)
Just as books, so too music has its own fate. In late 1914, for example, when pondering on Finland struggling for its liberty a music critic felt that the mythical swan of Tuonela evoked by Sibelius represented nothing less than the Finnish nation fighting for survival. ‘Tuonela, the isle of the dead, with silent pine forests, rock buttressed lakes with still waters. Silence, stillness undisturbed by falling leaf or chirping bird. The water of death flows around Tuonela, and on the water swims the bird of death, the Tuonela swan, singing the monotonous, sombre song of death.’
Tickets: HUF 7500 / 6000 / 5000 / 4000 / 3000 (student and senior discount -20%)
19:30 FRIDAY 24 JANUARY 2025 SZILÁGYI DEZSŐ SQUARE REFORMED CHURCH
Sapszon Season Ticket 3
Barna Szabó: By the Side of Via Crucis – passion oratorio
Conductor: László Norbert Nemes
Hungarian Radio Choir (choral director: Zoltán Pad)
László Borbély (piano)
Barna Szabó’s passion oratorio for mixed choir and piano dates from 2015. The unusual feature of the libretto compiled by the composer is that he selected solely those text parts from the Gospel narratives which are associated with participants of the story of the Gospel, in other words, there is no evangelist, that is, narrator. Thus events unfold as though we are listening to a radio play; as the composer himself put it, ‘we perceive the story as those who are blind’. At the same time, the individual parts are performed not by soloists but the choir.
Tickets: HUF 3000 (student and senior discount -20%)
19:30 SATURDAY 1 FEBRUARY 2025 GRAND HALL, LISZT ACADEMY
Bartók Radio Season Ticket 3
Bartók: Dance Suite
Bartók: Cantata Profana
Dohnányi: Piano Concerto No. 2
Kodály: The Peacock – variations on a Hungarian folk song
Conductor: Martin Rajna
Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir (choral director: Zoltán Pad)
István Horváth, Miklós Sebestyén (vocals)
Fülöp Ránki (piano)
Artistic collaboration between conductor Martin Rajna and pianist Fülöp Ránki, two towering talents of the new musician generation, began back in the years they spent at the Liszt Academy of Music. Their painstakingly designed and mature joint concerts sparked serious attention when they were just in their early twenties. The key to their constantly expanding performance repertoire is an insatiable curiosity exhibited by both artists. They are particularly attracted to compositions representing a great challenge. Now, they reach a milestone in their careers with Fülöp Ránki’s recital of Ernő Dohnányi’s Piano Concerto No. 2, and Martin Rajna’s conducting of Cantata Profana.
Tickets: HUF 7000 / 6000 / 4500 / 4000 (student and senior discount -20%)
19:30 TUESDAY 11 FEBRUARY 2025 GRAND HALL, LISZT ACADEMY
Vásáry Season Ticket 3
Haydn: Divertimento for Two Orchestras in E-flat major ‘Echo’, Hob.II:39
Brahms: Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77
Mozart: ‘Linz’ Symphony in C major, K.425
Conductor: Gergely Dubóczky, Tamás Vásáry
Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
Eun Che Kim (violin)
In recent years Gergely Dubóczky has drawn attention to himself with experimental performance modes of contemporary and classical music, and his ensemble (Budapest Sound Collective) established ten years ago. By nature, he is attracted to composers with an innovative approach, so Haydn is particularly close to him. According to the composer’s concept, the early Haydn piece originally written for two string trios, Divertimento in E-flat major, should be performed at the same time, but in two separate rooms. Korean Eun Che Kim performs the solo of the Brahms Violin Concerto in the first half of the concert. The young violinist won the Flesch Károly International Violin Competition in 2023, and she also received an invitation from Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra as a special prize.
Tickets: HUF 9500 / 8000 / 5500 / 3500 (student and senior discount -20%)
19:30 MONDAY 3 MARCH 2025 GRAND HALL, LISZT ACADEMY
Dohnányi Season Ticket 5
Dohnányi: Symphonic Minutes
Barber: Knoxville, Summer of 1915
Gershwin: Songs
Gershwin: An American in Paris
Conductor: Riccardo Frizza
Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
Pretty Yende (soprano)
an Pretty Yende burst onto the international opera scene like a comet. She completed her studies at the Teatro alla Scala Academy of Young Artists in 2011. Almost immediately thereafter she was invited to the top opera houses of the world, performing at London Covent Garden, the Opéra National in Paris, Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, the Berlin Deutsche Staatsoper and Opernhaus in Zurich; in San Francisco she sang the role of Violetta (Verdi: Traviata) and in Vienna that of Manon (Massenet: Manon Lescaut). She released her first independent CD in 2016. She appeared at a song recital in Carnegie Hall where the critic of the New York Times registered ‘gracefulness that can seem decidedly divine’.
Tickets: HUF 7000 / 6000 / 4500 / 4000 (student and senior discount -20%)
19:30 FRIDAY 7 MARCH 2025 SZILÁGYI DEZSŐ SQUARE REFORMED CHURCH
Sapszon Season Ticket 4
Alessandro Scarlatti: Messa ad usum capellæ pontificæ
Ildebrando Pizzetti: Tre compositione corali
Conductor: Martina Batič
Hungarian Radio Choir (choral director: Zoltán Pad)
Augustin Szokos (organ)
World-renowned Slovene conductor Martina Batič conducts Hungarian Radio Choir on the fourth recital of the Sapszon Season Ticket series. The superb artist studied at the Music Conservatory of Ljubljana and University of Music and Performing Arts Munich. On her return home, she was appointed head of such outstanding ensembles and institutions as the Choir of the Slovene National Opera House and the Choir of the Slovene Philharmonics. Her decision to pursue an international career was heavily influenced by winning the Eric Ericson Award, which resulted in a series of invitations as guest conductor: she has, for example, conducted the Danish Radio Choir, Danish Vocal Ensemble, several German choirs (Deutsche Kammerchor, BR Chor, MDR Chor, SWR Vokalensemble, Chorwerk Ruhr) and regularly taken to the stage at concerts of the Swedish Radio Choir, Eric Ericson Chamber Choir, RIAS Chamber Choir and Holland Radio Choir.
Tickets: HUF 3000 (student and senior discount -20%)
10:30 and 12:30 WEDNESDAY 12 MARCH 2025 HOUSE OF MUSIC HUNGARY
10:30 and 12:30 THURSDAY 13 MARCH 2025 HOUSE OF MUSIC HUNGARY
Youth Concert – ‘From Dawn to Dusk in City Park’
The sun rises over Vajdahunyad Castle…
Haydn: ‘Morning’ – Symphony in D major, No. 6. 1st movement
A stroll in the park…
Grieg: ‘Morning mood” – Peer Gynt suite
Grasshoppers…
Telemann: ‘Il grillo’ – Sinfonia 2nd movement
Sounds from the Zoo…
Telemann: ‘Il grillo’ – Sinfonia 3rd movement
G.A. Boltraffio: Madonna and Child in the Museum of Fine Arts…
Vivaldi: Gloria – Domine Deus
The view from the balloon…
Kodály: This Side of the Tisza, Beyond the Danube – Háry suite
Ethnographical Museum at closing time…
Bartók: Evening with the Szeklers – Hungarian Pictures
Conductor and programme director: Marcell Dénes-Worowski
Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
The programme of today’s concert is inspired by its venue, City Park. Gazing out of the imposing windows of the House of Music Hungary, one can wander in thought and in music, absorbing all the beauty of Budapest’s largest park.
Free admission but prior registration required
19:30 SATURDAY 22 MARCH 2025 MÜPA BUDAPEST – BARTÓK BÉLA NATIONAL CONCERT HALL
Lehel Season Ticket 4
Verdi: Requiem
Conductor: Riccardo Frizza
Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir (choral director: Zoltán Pad)
Leah Crocetto (soprano), Szilvia Vörös (alto), Piero Pretti (tenor), Gábor Bretz (bass)
‘Verdi’s Requiem is one of a kind; it encourages the listener – far more so than any other in the 19th century (Berlioz’s or Brahms’s) – to reflect on individual voices; not literally in the choir, the soprano, mezzosoprano, tenor and bass, but rather on the identities of the anonymous characters personified in the vocal soloists, and the obvious interaction with each other and the choir. Verdi uses four solo voices and gives long musical segments to solo singers instead of handling soloists as a kind of miniature four-part choir, which is always forced to sing as an ensemble.’ (Excerpt from the booklet note Mourning and Apocalypse in Verdi’s Requiem by Carolyn Abbate.)
Tickets: HUF 7500 / 6000 / 5000 / 4000 / 3000 (student and senior discount -20%)
19:30 WEDNESDAY 26 MARCH 2025 GRAND HALL, LISZT ACADEMY
Jubilee concert by the Hungarian Radio Children’s Choir on the 70th anniversary of its foundation
Conductors: Sofi Jeannin, Soma Dinyés, Magdaléna Szűcs, Katalin Körber Vargáné
Hungarian Radio Children’s Choir, La Maîtrise de Radio France (choral director: Sofi Jeannin)
Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
Balázs Szabó (organ)
‘Hungarian Radio Children’s Choir give a selection of popular works from the past several decades at this remarkable evening. The other special feature of the concert is that we get a glimpse into the French choral repertoire not so well known here in Hungary with a children’s ensemble coming from Paris, not only in the performance of the world-famous French children’s choir but also through jointly presented works. As well as the collaboration of the orchestra, we exploit the tonal range of the Liszt Academy organ originally built specifically for this sound,’ writes Soma Dinyés, senior conductor.
Tickets: HUF 3500 / 3000 / 2000 / 1500 (student and senior discount -20%)
19:30 FRIDAY 4 APRIL 2025 GRAND HALL, LISZT ACADEMY
Vásáry Season Ticket 4
Beethoven: Egmont – accompaniment, Op. 84
Beethoven: Ah perfido – scena and aria, Op. 65
Schumann: Symphony No. 1 in B-flat major ‘Spring’, Op. 38
Conductors: Ádám Cser, Tamás Vásáry
Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
Natália Tuznik (soprano)
Conductor and composer Ádám Cser has been music director of the Miskolc National Theatre since 2012, and in the past few years he has collaborated on performances of operas by Mozart, Verdi, Wagner and Bartók, as well as operetta and musical productions. This evening he conducts stage music: accompanying music composed for Beethoven’s Goethe drama. Soloist of the hugely popular, grandiose concert aria Ah! perfido (Ah! Deceiver) dating from the early 19th century is the young soprano, finalist of the 2022 Éva Marton International Singing Competition, Natália Tuznik, who feels equally at home in the world of Mozart and she does in the operas of Verdi, Puccini or Wagner.
Tickets: HUF 9500 / 8000 / 5500 / 3500 (student and senior discount -20%)
19:30 WEDNESDAY 16 APRIL 2025 GRAND HALL, LISZT ACADEMY
Virtuosi Recital
Conductor: János Kovács
Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
Finalists of Virtuosi 2024
The classical music talent show Virtuosi was launched by MTVA in 2014 and it is now in its tenth season. Today’s programme includes young artists discovered by the show, with accompaniment by Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Tickets: HUF 3500 (student and senior discount -20%)
20:00 WEDNESDAY 23 APRIL 2025 MATTHIAS CHURCH
Anno Sacri 2
Bach: Christ lag in Todesbanden – cantata, BWV. 4
Buxtehude: Jesu, meines Lebens Leben – cantata
Telemann: Lobet den Herrn, alle seine Heerscharen – cantata TWV. 1:1061
Conductor: Domonkos Héja
Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir (choral director: Zoltán Pad)
In comparison with Good Friday, the liturgy of Easter Sunday is perhaps slightly less observed in the Lutheran practice. It is almost as though this is also reflected in the oeuvre of Bach, whose creative and performance energy was so bound up with the passion music that nothing has survived of Easter Sunday music from his mature period. The Christ lag in Todesbanden cantata dating from 1707-1708 is a rare exception. Stylistically it shows great similarities to Buxtehude’s church works in terms of the scoring and structuring, so there is every justification to assume that Bach wrote it at the end of his period at Arnstadt, after his famous hike to Lübeck (1705) to study at the feet of Buxtehude.
Tickets: HUF 3500 (student and senior discount -20%)
19:30 WEDNESDAY 30 APRIL 2025 MÜPA BUDAPEST – BARTÓK BÉLA NATIONAL CONCERT HALL
Bartók Radio Season Ticket 4 Lehel Season Ticket 5
Ravel: Le Tombeau de Couperin
Ibert: Flute Concerto
Debussy: Jeux
Debussy: La mer
Conductor: János Kovács
Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
Emmanuel Pahud (flute)
Swiss flautist Emmanuel Pahud is a true star in the international music firmament and his concerts in Hungary always command considerable attention. He has taken his place among the greatest as soloist, chamber musician and orchestral flautist. One of the true gems of his repertoire is Jacques Ibert’s Flute Concerto, which he recorded 20 years ago. One critic emphasized the penetrating sound of Pahud’s instrument, the chromaticity and irresistible intensity of his play. The Flute Concerto stands at the forefront of Ibert works; the musical solutions inspired by different composers – Mozart, Wagner, Stravinsky – are in perfect harmony with each other.
Tickets: HUF 7500 / 6000 / 5000 / 4000 / 3000 (student and senior discount -20%)
19:30 SATURDAY 10 MAY 2025 GRAND HALL, LISZT ACADEMY
Dohnányi Season Ticket 6
Wagner: Siegfried idyll
Mozart: Violin Concerto in D major, K. 218
Mahler: Symphony No. 5
Conductor: Riccardo Frizza
Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
Noah Bendix-Balgley (violin)
Violinist Noah Bendix-Balgley was born in the United States. As a violinist he is extraordinarily multifaceted, and as soloist, chamber musician and first concertmaster of the Berliner Philharmoniker he is completely at home in the widest possible repertoire. He started playing the violin at the early age of four, with his talent being recognized by Sir Yehudi Menuhin, among others. He graduated from Indiana University and the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich. He has won prizes at the Queen Elisabeth Competition, Brussels, the Long-Thibaud Competition in France and the Postacchini Competition, Italy. Noah Bendix-Balgley is a renowned klezmer violinist, becoming acquainted with the traditional style when still young.
Tickets: HUF 7000 / 6000 / 4500 / 4000 (student and senior discount -20%)
16:00 SUNDAY 1 JUNE 2025 PESTI VIGADÓ
Hungarian Radio Children’s Choir Whitsun Concert
Conductors: Soma Dinyés, Magdaléna Szűcs, Katalin Körber Vargáné
Upper Junior Choir and Youth Mixed Choir of the Hungarian Radio Children’s Choir
‘This Whitsun concert imbued with the joys of impending summer is a chance for us to marvel at just how much more virtuoso our instrumental soloists have become in this school year; how the Upper Juniors go about electing a Whitsun king in the Whitsun folk play; we can enjoy multi-choir motets as interpreted by chamber vocal ensembles; while the Youth Mixed Choir entrance us with a programme spanning a multiverse of music styles,’ writes Soma Dinyés, senior conductor.
Tickets: HUF 1500 (student and senior discount -20%)
16:00 SATURDAY 7 JUNE 2025 GRAND HALL, LISZT ACADEMY
Hungarian Radio Children’s Choir Season-closing Concert
Conductors: Soma Dinyés, Magdaléna Szűcs, Katalin Körber Vargáné
Krisztián Cser (vocals)
‘Alongside the traditional children’s choral repertoire, the surprise of this recital will be a very special stage production, Telemann’s The Schoolmaster cantata. The Whitsun play of the Upper Junior Choir promises to be as exciting as ever; folk songs and gems of Hungarian folk culture will not be lacking in their independent production. The Youth Mixed Choir provide us with a selection from their ever-expanding repertoire, and chamber vocal ensembles evoke one of the most magnificent eras in the centuries-long music tradition with multi-choir motets,’ writes Soma Dinyés, senior conductor.
Tickets: HUF 3500 / 3000 / 2000 / 1500 (student and senior discount -20%)