Greeting

Let’s meet again!

This is what I wrote last year: “Covid helped us find out we just can’t make do without concerts.” This has become quite obvious since then, and I have even learned a new phrase: streaming fatigue is often mentioned in different countries. This recovery has been a little slow, but people are really hungry for culture. We are yearning for sold-out live concerts!

I’ll tell you why I have chosen Britten’s opera, The Turn of the Screw. Because it is highly relevant to our times: it is about different realities. Some can see the ghosts, some can’t. Those who can see them don’t believe that the others can’t. As if we were looking for the truth in different bubbles. So, after the performance, have a discussion about what each of you considers to be the truth. I leave it open. This is an extremely exciting opera.

We will also have a number of beautiful concerts this year, Haydn, Mozart, Mahler, Beethoven, and others, and also a very important anniversary: the 100th birthday of György Ligeti. This anniversary will be celebrated all over the world, and we want to play our part as well, since Ligeti is one of the giants of the 20th century, of whom we are very proud.

Do buy a season pass! I will be delighted to meet you again next year, as the BFO’s core audience is perhaps the happiest club in Budapest and Hungary. Let’s share our joy of appreciating the orchestra, the concerts and even the intervals in the concerts, when we can always meet old and new friends.

With love, Iván Fischer