The 2026/27 season of the Hungarian Radio Art Groups spans nearly four hundred years in music history: it stretches from Baroque masterpieces to Péter Eötvös’s late saxophone concerto. Music Director Domonkos Héja spoke about this season’s musical diversity, his personal favourites, some rarely-heard works and the Art Groups’ unique strength.
The new season spans nearly 400 years in music history. What kind of stylistic flexibility does this vast historical arc demand of the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra?
One of the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra’s greatest strengths lies precisely in that it is equally at home in the music of every era. The reason for this is historical: thanks to radio recordings, the musicians of the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra have always had to perform an extremely diverse repertoire at a high standard of quality. This diversity and adaptability continue to define the Orchestra up until today. The Choir of the Hungarian National Radio can sing anything as they showed and proved it to us last season: from Baroque works through Wagner’s compositions and an Arabic-language opera to contemporary pieces – they performed all the works really beautifully. The Choir is by nature at home in Romantic and Classical music as the members of the Orchestra have imbibed all this. Their knowledge of and love for Baroque music have been “trained” through a variety of works, to which the greatest conductors, choir masters and soloists of this music era have all contributed. In the meantime, the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra has also become younger, but all this precious knowledge has been passed on to the new generation. And it is being armed with this knowledge that this new generation now takes to the stage and performs to its audience.
On 2nd September the season opens with a Baroque concert in Budapest’s Matthias Church to be followed on 30th September at Müpa Budapest by a performance of Stravinsky’s Petrushka and Rachmaninov’s cantata entitled The Bells. Both pieces are conducted by you. Why does the season open with these particular works?
I love Baroque music very much, and it is a real treat for me to conduct the Choir of the Hungarian National Radio and the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra at Matthias Church. The Choir and the Orchestra will certainly create a fantastic atmosphere. For 30–35 years now, I have been an enthusiastic and devoted admirer of Russian music, including Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Stravinsky, Mussorgsky and so on. Rachmaninov’s The Bells is a rarely-heard, marvellous work in which both the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Choir of the Hungarian National Radio can showcase their exceptional qualities and talent. In addition, brilliant Georgian singer Avtandil Kaspeli adds further lustre to the evening concert.
A striking number of oratorical pieces are featured in this season. Is this the result of deliberate programme planning?
It is very important for me that the Choir of the Hungarian National Radio performs with the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in as many concerts as possible, and we also organise concerts in which the Hungarian Radio Children’s Choir takes to the stage. We wish to make the most of this diversity and flexibility, and therefore we have structured the season to include many oratorios. Something like this rarely occurs in the season of an average orchestra. I think it is fair to say that in Hungary the Art Groups will perform the most oratorios in this next season.
On 20th January 2027 three exceptional works will be performed at Müpa Budapest: Schönberg’s Transfigured Night, Ernő Dohnányi’s Stabat Mater and Richard Strauss’s symphonic poem entitled Death and Transfiguration. What links these three works, and what makes this concert particularly exciting?
Transfigured Night is one of the highest points of music history. It is my great hope and wish that the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra’s string section, with its warm-toned sound, will be able to demonstrate just what the section is capable of. In fact, many in the audience are terrified by the name Schönberg as they associate him with dodecaphony, for example. However, the piece on show now is actually an early, post-Romantic work of Schönberg’s. The composition tells a romantic love story in an extraordinarily moving and beautiful musical language. The concert will also feature Ernő Dohnányi’s Stabat Mater. Ernő Dohnányi is very important to me: he is one of the greatest figures of 20th-century Hungarian post-Romanticist music. The Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra has a special connection to his lifework, which is why it always gives us great pleasure to return to his compositions. The concert will feature two outstanding Hungarian sopranos, Gabriella Balga and Kinga Kriszta. Also, Richard Strauss’ symphonic poem Death and Transfiguration will provide a fitting ending to the evening.
Brahms’s A German Requiem will be performed on 11th March 2027 at Liszt Academy. What makes this work special, in your understanding?
A German Requiem is the piece in which the Choir of the Hungarian National Radio can truly demonstrate that it is, deservedly, one of the finest choirs in Hungary. It is no coincidence that this concert will feature only this one work. Judging by the title, an unsuspecting concert-goer might think that, just like Verdi’s or Mozart’s Requiem, A German Requiem is a funeral service, whereas this is not the case. A German Requiem is about love and reconciliation in a secular form despite the composer’s use of quotations from the Old and New Testaments. Beyond the fact that these values embody eternal truths, it is quite timely to emphasise them again today.
Which other concerts would you recommend to our readers’ attention?
St. Mark Passion is a unique work. Clarinettist, organist, conductor and composer Bálint Karosi – a truly versatile artist – has completed J. S. Bach’s lost work entitled St. Mark Passion. Only fragments of the original work have survived: the libretto and the sketches of a few movements. Bálint Karosi based his own reconstruction on these fragments. I always liken such initiatives to seeing old buildings in those countries where historical and modern architecture blend with exceptional taste. In art, something like this is perhaps even more exciting to experience. I am eagerly looking forward to seeing what the performance will be like. The other work I find particularly interesting is Liszt’s The Legend of Saint Elizabeth. True, though, I will not be conducting this work myself on 10th February 2027. I have already had the possibility to conduct this piece before, and, what is more, I did so in the presence of the Pope at the Vatican. This is an incredibly exciting piece; perhaps it is the only work by Franz Liszt which, with a little goodwill, could be described as an opera. The Legend of Saint Elizabeth features an enormous cast, and tells a long, authentic story, and every character in the work plays an important role in the narrative. In the spring of 2027, we will also be welcoming a true star guest in the person of Renaud Capuçon. He will provide the audience with a memorable experience not only as an outstanding violinist but also as a conductor. In the first half of the concert, he will perform Bach’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor and Beethoven’s Two Romances, and after the interval he will conduct Brahms’ Symphony No. 4, which is actually my favourite symphony by Brahms.
You are working with Principal Conductor Máté Szabó Sipos on numerous concerts in this season. What is it like to work with him?
Máté Szabó Sipos is a talented and highly intelligent musician with deep emotions. As a result, it is very easy to get along with him, and I am certain that working with him will be of great benefit to the Choir of the Hungarian National Radio.
Tickets to the above events are available at mrme.jegy.hu/?lang=en. Further information on the Hungarian Radio Art Groups’ upcoming season is available at https://radiomusic.hu/?lang=en as well as on Facebook and Instagram.