Tag Archives: britten

Busiest Weeks | Legsűrűbb hetek

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4 Young People’s Concerts, our annual Free Family show and a SOLD OUT John Williams pops concert is ahead of me with the Huntsville Symphony.
https://www.hso.org
After this busy week I will return to Hungary to conduct the UMZE New Music Ensemble. We will be premiering Fermata by Peter Eötvös, written for an international consortium including Ensemble Intercontemporain and UMZE Ensemble. Our March 6 performance will be the very first time this brand new composition will ever be performed. For the same concert UMZE is also playing another World Premiere by internationally known Hungarian composer Judit Varga, and a new ensemble piece by yours truly. Also on the program Ligeti’s famous Piano Concerto, and a selection from Kurtág cycle, Games (ensemble version).
http://umze.hu
The same week another composition of mine, Lessons with Vivaldi will also be premiered by the Ábrahám Consort.
https://zeneakademia.hu
After the UMZE concert (stay tuned, there will be video available sooner than later) I will be conducting the Hungarian Radio Symphony at the Liszt Academy. We will be playing a beautiful program (postponed twice due to COVID) with pieces by Liszt, Debussy, Britten and Hungarian composer, György Orbán.
This is definitely the busiest time of the season! I am loving it!

4 gyerekkoncert, az éves ingyenes családi szimfonikus show és egy teltházas John Williams pops koncert vár rám ezen a héten a Huntsville Symphony élén.
https://www.hso.org
Március első hetében azután következik az UMZE együttes hangversenye, melyen Eötvös Péter új ensemble darabjának, a Fermata címűnek (egy nemzetközi együttesekből álló konzorcium megrendelése, köztük az Ensemble Intercontemporain és az UMZE). A budapesti koncerten hangzik fel a mű a világon először. Lesz még bemutató Varga Judittól is, és az én Kánon-bagatellek című művem is itt találkozik először a közönséggel, Fejérvári János adja elő Ligeti Zongoraversenyét, és Kurtág Játékok sorozatának darabjait is elmuzsikáljuk, ezúttal ensemble verzióban. Érdemes lesz élőben ott lenni a BMC-ben!
http://umze.hu Ugyancsak március első hetében kerül bemutatásra egy másik művem, a Leckék Vivaldival című, Ábrahám Márta és az Ábrahám Consort előadásában a Zeneakadémián.
https://zeneakademia.hu
Az UMZE koncert után a Rádiózenekarral dirigálhatom majd Liszt, Debussy, Britten és Orbán György műveit (a COVID miatt kétszer halasztott koncert, nagyon szép darabokkal).
Éppen a szezon legsűrűbb hetei zajlanak, én pedig minden percet élvezek!

Die Mutter liebt den Coffeebrauch, Die Großmama trank solchen auch

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Die Katze lässt das Mausen nicht,
Die Jungfern bleiben Coffeeschwestern.
Die Mutter liebt den Coffeebrauch,
Die Großmama trank solchen auch,
Wer will nun auf die Töchter lästern!

The words above are from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Coffee Cantata and they translate as follows

Cats do not give up mousing,
girls remain coffee-sisters.
The mother adores her coffee-habit,
and grandma also drank it,
so who can blame the daughters!

Another piece of music that everybody seems to know about, but that is definitely not performed frequently enough, and under-appreciated despite its humor and musical craft. This short “mini-opera” and Bach’s B-minor Suite for flute and strings were on the program of our 2nd Casual Classics concert this season. We performed in front of a full house at Alchemy Lounge (Lowe Mill Arts and Entertainment) last Sunday. The week before last our 3rd Classical Concert of the season marked the beginning of the Bicentennial Celebration of the State of Alabama in the City of Huntsville. HSO featured its players in Schumann’s Concert-piece for 4 horns and orchestra, and in John Adams’ Absolute Jest for string quartet and orchestra. Beethoven’s 3rd Leonore Overture and Symphony No.8 framed the program in front of a great and enthusiastic house. This week HSO produced 4 kids concerts and a Free Family show with Benjamin Britten’s Young Persons’ Guide to the Orchestra as the main featured composition.
Details in the HSO 2018-19 Season brochure online
http://www.hso.org
On Sunday I am returning to Hungary to start rehearsals with the Hungarian Radio Symphony to record and perform my newest orchestra composition entitled Gloomy Sunday Variations (World Premiere). The other pieces on the program for February 11 at the Grand Hall of the Liszt Academy are: Piazzolla’s Bandoneon Concerto, Stravinsky’s fantastic Petroushka, and another John Adams piece, The Chairman Dances.
http://www.radiomusic.hu

Die Katze lässt das Mausen nicht,
Die Jungfern bleiben Coffeeschwestern.
Die Mutter liebt den Coffeebrauch,
Die Großmama trank solchen auch,
Wer will nun auf die Töchter lästern!

A macska nem ereszti el az egeret,
A hajadonok kávénénikék maradnak.
Az anya kedveli a kávézást,
A nagyanya is iszogatott,
Ki csepülhetné hát ezért a leányokat!

Ez a záróversszaka Johann Sebastian Bach Kávékantátájának, amely a h-moll Szvit mellett a múlt vasárnapi Casual Classics koncertünk műsorát adta, és amely számomra régi-új felfedezése Bach humorának és mesterségbeli tudásának. A zene mellé kávét is szolgáltak fel a Lowe Mill központ Alchemy Lounge nevű kávézójában. A websiteon a mini kávézó bolthálózat legújabb helyszínei láthatók, ahol mi játszottunk az hamarosan bezár és költözik.
http://www.alchemyhsv.com

Február 19-én az Alabama állam 200. születésnapját ünneplő naptári év első megmozdulásaként játszotta a Huntsville Symphony Beethoven III. Leonora nyitányát és VIII. szimfóniáját, valamint a zenekar zenészeinek szólójával Schumann négykürtös Konzertstückjét és John Adams Absolute Jest című vonósnégyesre és zenekarra komponált darabját. Ezen a héten pedig az ifjúsági koncertek voltak soron, valamint ma délelőtt az évi ingyenes családi koncert. A műsor központi műve Britten Young Persons Guide to the Orchestra című kompozíciója állt, elhangzottak még Purcell és Bernstein művei, valamint az én saját Purcell Variációm is, amit még annak idején egy hasonló családi koncertre komponáltam az Oregon Symphony felkérésére. Részletek a szezon online elérhető teljes PDF műsorában találni:
http://www.hso.org
Hétfőn érkezem Budapestre és szerdán kezdődnek a próbák a Rádiózenekarral a február 11-i koncertünkre. A zeneakadémiai bérletes műsorban elhangzik legújabb zenekari darabom, a Szomorú Vasárnap Variációk, valamint Piazzolla Bandoneon versenye, Sztravinszkij Petruskája, és John Adamstől a The Chairman Dances.
http://www.radiomusic.hu

Radio Christmas

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Two more concerts left for this year. Tonight I am conducting part of the now traditional year end Christmas Concert of the musical groups of the Hungarian Radio. Here is the program with some links:
Miklos Kocsar: Hungarian Christmas
http://info.bmc.hu
I studied with Mr. Kocsar for a year as a composer student back in the 90s. He is 80yo this year and his Birthday is just two days after the concert. This piece is a wonderful arrangement of traditional Hungarian Christmas songs.
Respighi: Lauda per la Natività del Signore
http://www.osscs.org/notes
Britten: A Ceremony of Carols
Bruckner: Scherzo from Symphony #1
Bruckner: Te Deum
http://en.wikipedia.org

The first and the third pieces are sung by the MR Children’s Choir and conducted by its two choral masters. I get to conduct the charming Respighi and the celebratory, joyous Bruckner compositions. The entire concert is part of the EBU (European Broadcasting Union) Christmas broadcast. As always you can listen to the concert at
http://www.mr3-bartok.hu/
live [19:30 local time] or stream it on your computer for two more weeks.

On December 23 I will conduct my first concert at the newly remodeled Franz Liszt Academy of Music. On the program three brand new Christmas Cantatas by young Hungarian composers. Just like earlier this season I am the member of the jury for a composers’ competition and the conductor of the final round. Two Christmas themed texts by Hungarian writer Geza Gardonyi was selected for the competitors to put into music. Three finalists were selected by the pre-screening committee and my orchestra and the MR Symphonic Choir will perform their compositions in front of a live audience. This concert can also be heard on the radio.

Let me wish Merry Christmas, a Wonderful Holiday Season and a Very Happy New Year to all my blog readers and music lovers out there! Come back and visit my site in 2014, too!

Music in the Mountains Summer Fest 2013 First Weekend

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First concert of SummerFest 2013 tonight.
Ravel: Le Tombeau de Couperin, Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez (Gyan Riley-guitar), Bizet: Symphony in C
Saturday morning: Free Family Concert, Mozart: Magic Flute Overture, Britten: Young Persons’ Guide To The Orchestra
The fun and amazing band Three Leg Torso is playing a show in the evening.
Sunday: Glazunov: Summer, Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition (original solo piano version: Aleksander Korsantia, piano), Chopin: Piano Concerto #2 (Aleksander Korsantia, piano)
Check out the details here:
http://www.musicinthemountains.org

Mendelssohn, Bartok, Elgar, Britten, Grieg, Vaughan Williams

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Four concerts are coming up in the next two weeks.
Mendelssohn: Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage Overture
Bartok: Piano Concerto #1 with Katherine Chi
http://www.jwentworth.com
Elgar: Enigma Variations
The first half of the concert is being played in a special stage set-up. Because of the Bartok Piano Concerto I arranged the seating as follows: piano downstage, conductor, percussion, woodwinds and brass, strings in the back (with basses in one line on a riser in the back) This configuration is definitely a challenge as far as listening goes. However I believe it is good for us musicians to step outside of our comfort zone from time to time. Before you go there and ask, I did arrange the stage this way because if the Bartok piece itself. Listen to what the strings play and how important the woodwinds and brass are and you will understand. The “calm sea part” of the Mendelssohn with the hymn-like string parts sounds awesome as well (I did not want to have the stage rearranged in the first half.)
More info at:
http://www.hso.org
Two shows of the same program are played by Hungarian Radio Symphony (MR Symphony) in two Hungarian cities: Szombathely and Szekesfehervar. On the program:
Britten: Four Sea Interludes
Grieg: Piano Concerto, Gabor Farkas-piano
Here is a YouTube link him playing Chopin
http://www.youtube.com
Vaughan Williams: London Symphony (#2)

The Grieg will be performed as part of the “Musically Speaking” series at the Hungarian Radio as well.

Lots of work and lost of fun ahead!

YOUTH Concerts, Love & LUST

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Yes, I am getting better at coming up with catchy headlines. 🙂 Just finished the fourth show of our Youth/ Family Concert series. On the program: Mozart Magic Flute Overture, Mendelssohn Violin Concerto 1st Movement/ Elgar Cello Concerto 1st Movement (alternating, solos played by two concerto competition winners), Britten Young Persons’ Guide To The Orchestra [in honor of the Britten Anniversary]. It is always a lot of fun to play for 4th graders and the families on Saturday (this is a FREE concert every year). We had a great crowd especially considering that it is SNOWING today in Huntsville, AL.
This Sunday at 3PM we are doing our third and final concert of the Casual Classics Series at Randolph School. On the program: Debussy Music for the Songs of Bilitis [narrated by Ginny Kennedy from WLRH]
http://www.wlrh.org
and Luciano Berio Folksongs
Karen Bentel sings the solo. She also plays 2nd flute with the Huntsville Symphony.
Ginny Kennedy and myself will do a casual chat about the theme and the pieces. As usual there is no intermission, and there is a meet and great with snack afterwords.
Check out the program notes here:
http://www.hso.org