Discover excellence Budapest Festival Orchestra w i n concetrer ts
IVÁN FISCHER
Renowned STRINGS Fans of string instruments, sit back and take note: This is going to be your night! BFO musicians are in their element playing Brahms symphonies. Bartók’s musical language is their mother tongue, and Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos are pure, undiluted joy. Vivaldi’s Four Seasons represent the apex of Baroque music, along with Bach’s six Brandenburg Concertos. These are the big ones when it comes to classical music. String instruments have the lead in Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, which will be performed by the BFO’s Baroque ensemble. Played on period instruments, the piece will take the audience back to Bach’s time. Iván Fischer says Bartók’s music – “a bit Baroque” – is related to the Brandenburg Concertos: It is performed by two small ensembles facing one another. It’s an unusual piece, not just as a composition for strings, but also in its rhythm. According to the conductor, the BFO is the best interpreter of this most original 20th century masterpiece. This is only natural; its musicians are “native speakers of Bartók’s musical language”. What is certain is that, among Brahms’s symphonies, No. 3 is the shortest; the music critic Eduard Hanslick finds it the most perfect as well. Free and joyous, lyrical, passionate and mysterious. The perfect transition between the optimistic Second and the gloomy Fourth Symphonies.
DECEMBER
02 1945 03 1530 04 1945
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major BÉLA BARTÓK Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta JOHANNES BRAHMS Symphony No. 3 in F major conductor IVÁN FISCHER
MÜPA BUDAPEST Béla Bartók National Concert Hall
Tuned to SURPRISE A holiday is truly a holiday if it is filled with surprise! Continuing the tradition, the BFO will offer its audience a unique Christmas concert treat this year. The holiday concert will allow the audience to determine the programme, and there will be plenty to choose from. While the Festival Orchestra is a symphonic ensemble, its members also play, in addition to orchestral pieces, contemporary and Baroque chamber music, jazz and folk music – or they even sing and sometimes dance. They can take anything and use it to make music, be it a paint bucket or a thimble. Iván Fischer, as usual, has several secret gifts in store for the audience that night. Tamás Barta, a member of the audience, has said: “Every time, Mr. Fischer reveals new secrets about what the orchestra is capable of. That itself is the miracle!”
DECEMBER
26 1945
conductor IVÁN FISCHER BUDAPEST CONGRESS CENTER
IVÁN FISCHER
BAROQUE from here and beyond Sometimes mud can turn into gold, just as a shortcoming can turn into an advantage, or nothing into everything: as in the case of the pieces on this programme. “This is a sacred piece for flautists”, says Iván Fischer of Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor, inspired by dance music – which the composer actually did not hold in high regard. The fast-moving, glimmering work is the perfect opportunity for flautists to display their technical brilliance while retaining the grace, delicacy and charm of their music. Robert Schumann wrote many pieces for the piano but only finished one piano concerto which will be performed by the Grammy Award winner Radu Lupu. The 72-year-old master with Romanian roots does not like publicity, but feels alive in music. His playing is transparent, ethereal and deeply humane. Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 1 was a spectacular failure, throwing the composer into depression, which also made composing more difficult for him. Symphony No. 2, however, the brilliant result of an arduous process, healed his wounds and became a tremendous hit. Although the romantic piece was completed before the era of the silent film, it evokes a distinctly film-like effect.
JANUARY
21 1945 22 1945 23 1945
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor, BWV 1067 ROBERT SCHUMANN Piano Concerto in A minor SERGEI RACHMANINOFF Symphony No. 2 in E minor RADU LUPU (piano) / conductor IVÁN FISCHER
MÜPA BUDAPEST Béla Bartók National Concert Hall
RADU LUPU
LEONARD BERNSTEIN
A classic of the American DREAM Fans of Leonard Bernstein, get ready! The Festival Orchestra and Müpa Budapest will host their eleventh joint musical marathon, this time paying tribute to the works of the American composer. He was one of the first American composers to be taken seriously in concert halls. Symphonic orchestras, iconic soloists and chamber ensembles will take the stage, back to back. “He was versatile: a composer, a conductor, an educator, a humanist, and a genuinely deep thinker. I’ll never forget what he said, ‘I love music, but I love people even more’”, said Iván Fischer of one of his most important masters. Bernstein’s pieces are eclectic, bringing together jazz, Jewish music and the theatre. His most popular work is West Side Story, successfully bridging the gap between classical and pop music. While not prolific, Bernstein was active in several genres, including symphonies and solo pieces, music for the theatre and ballet, opera, chamber music and choir pieces. “I can’t live one day without hearing music, playing it, studying it, or thinking about it,” said Bernstein, whose infinitely rich legacy will be ours to enjoy for an entire day.
FEBRUARY
04 1030 – 2200
artistic director IVÁN FISCHER A joint event by Müpa Budapest and the BFO MÜPA BUDAPEST Béla Bartók National Concert Hall MÜPA BUDAPEST Festival Theatre
Charmed by BEAUTY The Polish-German conductor, Marek Janowski, known for his pure and refined approach to leading the orchestra, is not averse to risk and playing to the emotions of the audience – which is precisely what he will do at this concert. Richard Strauss loved nature and the mountains, and he set his admiration to music in his Alpine Symphony. Employing a gigantic orchestra, the piece is considered the masterpiece of programme music. It draws upon a childhood experience of the composer when he was caught in an alpine storm. The symphony sweeps through forest springs, waterfalls and blooming meadows; the fog then settles in and a storm breaks out, until the landscape calms down. Two-time Oscar-winning Erich Wolfgang Korngold is a father of film scoring; he was just nine when Mahler called him a musical genius. Still, his greatest successes came while working for Hollywood studios. Jewish by birth, he left Austria and concert halls behind, returning to the latter only after the war. Then he composed the high-romantic Violin Concerto, to be played by Arabella Steinbacher.
FEBRUARY
12 1945 13 1945 14 1945
ERICH WOLFGANG KORNGOLD Violin concerto RICHARD STRAUSS An Alpine Symphony (Eine Alpensinfonie) ARABELLA STEINBACHER (violin) / conductor MAREK JANOWSKI
MÜPA BUDAPEST Béla Bartók National Concert Hall
ARABELLA STEINBACHER
JONATHAN COHEN
The INTIMATE charm of chamber music The season’s second Baroque concert of the passionate Jonathan Cohen will feature Italian vibrations, beautiful and energetic passages, and a wonderful soprano voice from Sweden. The concert begins with a piece by Wassenaer, the onetime Dutch diplomat, whose Concerti Armonici series radiates the atmosphere of Italy and beauty. Featured on the programme will be Concerto Grosso No. 5 by Charles Avison, evoking a special atmosphere that will quickly sweep the audience onto the set of a passionate Italian film. The first half of the evening will conclude with a Handel motet, Silete venti, featuring the Swedish-born soprano Malin Christensson. Baroque gestures will make the performance complete. In the second half of the evening Christensson will perform two dramatic Cleopatra arias from the Handel opera Julius Caesar in Egypt. While Tomaso Albinoni took up composing only as a hobby, his works have nonetheless remained popular, and that holds true especially for the adagio movement of his Oboe Concerto No. 2. The evening will conclude with Handel’s dark and melancholic Concerto Grosso No. 3.
FEBRUARY
26 1945 27 1945
UNICO WILHELM VAN WASSENAER Concerto No. 4 in G major CHARLES AVISON Concerto Grosso No. 5 in D minor GEORG FRIEDRICH HANDEL Silete venti, HWV 242 TOMASO ALBINONI Oboe concerto in D minor, Op. 9 No. 2 GEORG FRIEDRICH HANDEL Concerto Grosso No. 3 in E minor Piangerò la sorte mia; Da tempeste il legno infranto MALIN CHRISTENSSON (soprano) / artistic director JONATHAN COHEN baroque gestures SIGRID T’HOOFT
LISZT ACADEMY Grand Hall
Concert calendar DECEMBER 02 1945 03 1530 04 1945 MÜPA BUDAPEST Béla Bartók National Concert Hall
BACH, BARTÓK, BRAHMS
Johann Sebastian Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major Béla Bartók: Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 3 in F major conductor: Iván Fischer HUF 14.300
26 1945 BUDAPEST CONGRESS CENTER
8.800
6.200
4.800
2.700
CHRISTMAS CONCERT – AUDIENCE CHOICE PROGRAMME conductor: Iván Fischer HUF 18.900 14.300 8.800 6.200 4.800 2.700
JANUARY 21 1945 22 1945 23 1945 MÜPA BUDAPEST Béla Bartók National Concert Hall
BACH, SCHUMANN, RACHMANINOFF
Johann Sebastian Bach: Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor, BWV 1067 Robert Schumann: Piano Concerto in A minor Sergei Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 2 in E minor Radu Lupu (piano) conductor: Iván Fischer HUF 14.300
8.800
6.200
4.800
2.700
FEBRUARY 04 1030 – 2200
MARATHON 2018 – BERNSTEIN AND THE AMERICAN MUSIC
MÜPA BUDAPEST Béla Bartók National Concert Hall
A joint event by Müpa Budapest and the BFO
MÜPA BUDAPEST Festival Theatre
HUF 990 / concert
12 1945 13 1945 14 1945 MÜPA BUDAPEST Béla Bartók National Concert Hall
26 1945 27 1945 LISZT ACADEMY Grand Hall
artistic director: Iván Fischer
KORNGOLD, RICHARD STRAUSS
Erich Wolfgang Korngold: Violin concerto Richard Strauss: An Alpine Symphony (Eine Alpensinfonie) Arabella Steinbacher (violin) conductor: Marek Janowski HUF 14.300
8.800
6.200
4.800
2.700
BAROQUE NIGHTS I.
Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer: Concerto No. 4 in G major Charles Avison: Concerto Grosso No. 5 in D minor Georg Friedrich Handel: Silete venti, HWV 242 Tomaso Albinoni: Oboe concerto in D minor, Op. 9, No. 2 Georg Friedrich Handel: Concerto Grosso No. 3 in E minor Piangerò la sorte mia; Da tempeste il legno infranto Malin Christensson (soprano) artistic director: Jonathan Cohen baroque gestures: Sigrid T’Hooft HUF 11.000 6.600 4.600 3.700 2.700
Useful information HOW TO GET THERE
MÜPA BUDAPEST 1095 Budapest, Komor Marcell utca 1 Tram: 1 – Közvágóhíd / 2, 24 – Millenniumi Kulturális Központ Bus: 54 – Közvágóhíd / 15 – Boráros tér Suburban railway: H7 – Közvágóhíd LISZT ACADEMY 1061 Budapest, Liszt Ferenc tér 8 Tram: 4, 6 – Király utca Trolleybus: 70, 78 – Király utca Metro: M1 – Oktogon BUDAPEST CONGRESS CENTER 1123 Budapest, Jagelló út 1–3 Tram: 61, 17 – BAH csomópont / 59 – Apor Vilmos tér Bus: 8, 112, 139 – BAH csomópont / 102, 105 – Apor Vilmos tér Metro: M2 – Déli pályaudvar
PARKING
MÜPA BUDAPEST Parking is free in the outdoor parking lot and underground garage for the ticket holders. LISZT ACADEMY Guests of the concerts can park for a discount at the parking house in Akácfa utca 60. The one-hour free pass is available at the ticket office of Liszt Academy and is valid together with the parking and concert tickets. BUDAPEST CONGRESS CENTER Guests can use the surface parking lot between Novotel Hotel and Budapest Congress Center for a fee.
Tickets www.bfz.hu AT TICKET OFFICES
BUDAPEST FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA 1033 Budapest, Polgár utca 8–10. B tel: +36 1 489 4330, e-mail: rendeles@bfz.hu MÜPA BUDAPEST 1095 Budapest, Komor Marcell utca 1, tel: +36 1 555 3300 1061 Budapest, Andrássy utca 28, tel: +36 1 555 3310 LISZT ACADEMY 1061 Budapest, Liszt Ferenc tér 8, tel: +36 1 321 0690 RÓZSAVÖLGYI SALON 1052 Budapest, Szervita tér 5, tel: +36 1 266 8337 Rózsavölgyi Salon is BFO’s priority ticketing point.
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CONTACT US
Office: 1033 Budapest, Polgár utca 8–10. B tel: +36 1 489 4330 e-mail: info@bfz.hu Published by the Budapest Festival Orchestra Foundation. Responsible publisher is the executive director of BFO, Stefan Englert.
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