Tag Archives: Budapest

Scarlatti and The Musical Robots

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On Saturday, November 30 at 5PM local time I get to conduct a concert at the helm of the Budapest Strings
http://www.budapestivonosok.hu
at the Palace of The Arts in Budapest, Hungary. The concert includes two world premieres, one by the world famous composer, Peter Eotvos. It is a composition for French Horn and string orchestra, a very elegant and sensitive piece of music. It is an honor to be able to do the World Premiere of a new composition by Eotvos, who is turning 70 in January 2014 and whom I can call my teacher and mentor in both composition and conducting.
See the composer’s webpage about this new composition entitled Hommage a Domenico Scarlatti:
http://www.eotvospeter.com

More compositions by Eotvos will be included in my 13-14 season.
As part of the so called “Mini Festival” at the end of January in cooperation with Neue Oper Wien and Palace Of The Arts I get to conduct the Hungarian premiere and the studio recording of Eotvos’ latest opera: Paradise Reloaded (Lilith).
In February Huntsville Symphony is presenting an orchestral composition of his entitled “The Gliding of The Eagle in The Skies”, and also a very interesting action-piece called “Brass The Metal Space”.
Watch my blog posts about these performances in the next few months!

The other world premiere this Saturday is that of my “Gulliver Suite” for Tubular Bells and Strings, an 11 minute long composition based on “Gulliver in Faremido”, a piece of mine for narrator and 5 players. You can buy the commercial recording of the latter piece by going on iTunes or to this website:
http://www.bmcrecords.hu
The story behind the music is based on a Gulliver-sequel by 20th Century Hungarian author, Frigyes Karinthy. In this modern voyage Gulliver ends up on a planet where robot-like beings communicate by music instead of speech. More program notes and the story itself can be found on the Budapest Music Center link above. The movements of “Gulliver Suite” are: 1) Gulliver in Faremido 2) Robot Concert 3) Story Of The Two Headed Monster 4) Be That As It May

Since the performance is part of the “Master and Student” conversation-concert series Mr. Eotvos and I will be joined by musicologist Prof. Imre Foldes. I am hoping for an interesting and stimulating conversation about the new pieces and the two Baroque compositions by Georg Philipp Telemann.
http://en.wikipedia.org

I picked Telemann’s Gulliver Suite (originally for two solo violins, but we play it with 5+4 players in a stereo setting) and one of his Horn Concertos to compliment the modern music performed. This will be my first time to work with the great, young horn player, Szabolcs Zempleni.
http://www.zempleni.com

To The Moaning And The Groaning Of The Bells

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Last Friday I conducted the concert version of Puccini’s La Boheme with the Huntsville Symphony, the Community and Children’s Chorus and a wonderful cast at the Von Braun Center. This was the first time ever in my life when I started a dress rehearsal with not all the principals present. Due to an unforeseen illness we needed to hire a replacement Mimi. She drove 4 hours from Atlanta and was just pulling into the parking lot as I started Act One (5 minutes late). She just walked on stage about 10 minutes into the act (Mimi’s first appearance) and did a wonderful job. See names and more read more details in FaceBook posts by Huntsville Symphony and myself. No matter in what format you are doing opera, the usual “operatic excitements” always do occur.
From the happy morning bells of Act 3 in La Boheme I have arrived to some very different bells in Budapest, Hungary. As part of the Hungarian Radio Symphony’s (MR Symphony) 70th Anniversary season concert series I am conducting a concert at the Palace of the Arts (MUPA) this Saturday. On the program:
Andras Szollosy (a great composer, often remembered as “The Great Third Master” with Gyorgy Ligeti and Gyorgy Kurtag): TRASFIGURAZIONI
Stravinsky: SYMPHONY OF PSALMS
Rachmaninov: THE BELLS

Fro the lyrics of the latter composition (a great symphony for orchestra, chorus and solo voices) see the following link
http://www.recmusic.org

I designed the entire concert program around “The Bells” theme. Andras Szollosy (FYI the letter “SZ” next to Bartok’s compositions refers to his name, since he was the one -a composer AND a musicologist- who put together the chronological order of Bela Bartok’s works) was obsessed with the sound of the bells. In this energetic and very much “Rite of Spring”-like piece (16 minutes of music) has a lot of great bell-effects masterfully orchestrated for a group of triple woodwinds, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, 3 (!) violin sections, violas, celli and basses (note that the lack of percussion instruments including any type of bells here!) Szollosy was a big fan of Igor Stravinsky and his music. Needless to say, that the unmistakable Russian bell sound plays a big part in this unique and captivating composition entitled Symphony of Psalms. Here is the unusual orchestration of this piece:
5 flutes (incl. piccolo), 5 oboes (incl. English Horn), 4 bassoons (incl. Contrabassoon) 4 horns, 5 trumpets (incl. Piccolo Trumpet), 3 trombones, tuba, timpani + percussion, two pianos, celli and basses. Yes, you read it right, while the Szollosy piece has three violin sections this piece has NO violins or violas whatsoever.
The Psalms used by Stravinsky for the three movements are:
Psalm 38, verses 13&14
Psalm 39, verses 2,3 & 4
Psalm 150 (complete)

Here are the words for Psalm 150

1 Praise the Lord.
Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty heavens.
2 Praise him for his acts of power;
praise him for his surpassing greatness.
3 Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,
praise him with the harp and lyre,
4 praise him with timbrel and dancing,
praise him with the strings and pipe,
5 praise him with the clash of cymbals,
praise him with resounding cymbals.
6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord.

“Z” recordings

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In the last couple of days I have been doing two so called “Z” recordings with the MR Symphony (Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra) and Chorus. Letter “Z” stands for “Zene” which in English simply means Music. In the good old days they used to mark the tapes with a letter Z (versus radio talk shows and other non-musical recordings) for easier cataloging. In Studio 6 at the historic Hungarian Radio building, downtown Budapest we recorded two compositions. Ernst von Dohnanyi’s lively Symphonic Minutes and a contemporary composition called Requiem, Symphony #3 by young Hungarian composer Peter Zombola. Check out his website here:
http://zombolapeter.uw.hu
Zombola’s Requiem (Symphony #3) was named Classical Contemporary Composition of the Year in 2012 by the Hungarian Copyright Office, Artisjus. As for the Dohnanyi piece we recorded it for a very interesting project. Since my orchestra is celebrating its 70th anniversary season the Hungarian Radio is preparing a series of radio programs to celebrate our work. One of them is a show about how radio recording technology developed since the beginnings. They are using different recordings of Symphonic Minutes made throughout decades to demonstrate the progress. We also made a video spot for the European Broadcasting Union (including an archival news footage of Dohnanyi himself conducting the last movement of Symphonic minutes in the same Studio 6 where we did it!) that will be available on our website soon. Stay tuned!

Opera-Symphony, Anti-Anti Opera and the missing link

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Busy 6 weeks ahead in Budapest, Hungary. I am starting with the final classical subscription concert of the MR Symphony Orchestra (Hungarian Radio Symphony) at Palace of the Arts. The program includes two symphonies numbered 9, one by Shostakovich and one by Beethoven. Two very different “Number Nines” juxtaposed. Now that I am doing Beethoven’s Choral Symphony three times in three months (April: Huntsville, May: Budapest, June: Music in the Mountains, California) I rediscovered the operatic, theatrical side of the final movement of this titanic piece for myself. (BTW I always thought that the Funeral March of Eroica was “music for a play”, just like Egmont) The famous opening lines by the bass-baritone
“O Freunde, nicht diese Töne!”(“Oh friends, not these tones!”)
written in recitativo style set the tone for this very special Rescue Opera called “The Last Movement of Beethoven Nine”.

http://www.mupa.hu

As part of a now decade old tradition the Palace of the Arts remembers the great composer Gyorgy Ligeti on (or around) his Birthday. He would be 90 years old this year. The time has come for Ligeti’s only opera, well his Anti-Anti-Opera as he called it to be performed as part of the Hommage To Ligeti series. I’ll be the conductor of the concert performance of the 1997 Salzburg Version of The Macabre at the helm of the Pannon Philharmonic in cooperation with
Neue Oper Wien
http://www.neueoperwien.at
and Amadinda Percussion Group
http://www.amadinda.com

Here is the summary of the story of this Anti-Anti-Opera
http://www.guardian.co.uk
Link to the Palace of the Arts production
http://www.mupa.hu

Now it seems that I could just move into the Palace of the Arts for the next couple of weeks. (BTW check out the architecture on their website. It is a gorgeous building.) After finishing the Ligeti project I dive into a “Real Opera” at last. As part of the internationally known Budapest Wagner Days I get to conduct Lohengrin semi-staged.
http://www.mupa.hu
The great thing about being a conductor, or a musician in general is that you get to wear many hats. From Beethoven through Ligeti to Wagner: one feels like an actor playing different characters. You are only as good an actor as much you can be yourself in the role you are playing. Studying Lohengrin is giving me great pleasure. Just like I re-discovered the operatic nature of Beethoven 9 for myself I did just make a discovery about Wagner’s romantic “Knight on a Swan” tale. Learning this opera made me realize how organically Wagner’s artistry is rooted in German musical theater tradition. It might sound like a cliche or a no-brainer to many (or to all who knows even a little about W) but it is different knowing something from your studies and actually living it as a musician. NOW I see (and feel) that Lohengrin is the “Missing Link” (along with The Flying Dutchman and Tannhauser of course) or rather the straight path between Weber’s Freischutz and Tristan und Isolde.

Ligeti 90
Wagner 200
Vajda 39 and One Lucky Guy with great pieces to conduct between now and mid June.

The Shostakovich-Beethoven and the Ligeti performances will be streamed live by the Hungarian Public Radio at
http://www.mr3-bartok.hu

Mozart Symphony tailored to fit Mahler 4

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First concert of “Voices and Symphonies” series with Hungarian Radio Symphony (MR Symphony)
http://www.mrze.hu
at Palace of the Arts, Budapest.
First half: Mahler Symphony #4
http://www.wikipedia.org
Second half: Mozart “Prague” Symphony with ‘Un moto di gioia’ concert aria as the “missing minuet”
http://www.wikipedia.org

I designed this program to tell the ‘story’ of the “Lied Symphonie”. Mahler’s Fourth is the last of his symphonies inspired by “The Boy’s Magic Horn” collection of poems.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Des_Knaben_Wunderhorn
I picked a three movement Mozart Symphony for the second (!) half of the program and inserted an aria about “the joyous movement of the heart” (written as an addition to Marriage of Figaro). It rhymes with the Mahler Symphony and “completes” the three movement classical symphony into a four movement piece. It is also a reminder that back in the days of Mozart the usual concert format was very different. They often mixed genres. A concert-aria could end up after one or two movements of a symphony paired with a concert rondo for piano and orchestra for example.

I am curious what the critics will have to say about this. 🙂