Tag Archives: Capriccio

A Radio Romance/ Rádiórománc

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Back in my days with the Oregon Symphony I have met Garrison Keillor in person, and asked him to sign the Hungarian language version of his book, A Radio Romance, I owned. He kindly did so, then said the following: “This is a nice book, look, they even put pictures in it!” Indeed, as it happens perhaps more often in Europe than in the US with these kind of books, it was full of illustrations, and pleasing to the eye. It seems, I am having my own romance with Radio this weekend. On Saturday morning at 10AM local time I will be on the air as the guest of a show called Capriccio at KlasszikRadio. Should you want to practice your Hungarian, and listen to some music I am bringing, you can tune in via the linke below. [This program is going to be on at a later day, actually. I will keep you posted!] On Sunday afternoon at 5PM local time, I am invited to another live classical music radio show called Close To Music. Well-known Hungarian media legend, Előd Juhász, now host of this show at the Catholic Radio, will interview me, again illustrated with music suggested by me. You can listen by clicking on the other link below.

I am spending a few more days in Budapest, Hungary before returning to the US to start the season with the Huntsville Symphony. I will be posting about our first classical show soon. Tomorrow, Friday, I am attending the first concert of the season of the new-music ensemble UMZE, of which I became the Artistic Director not long ago. This is going to be the first program planned by me. The theme is: Eastern Spirituality, Western Music. Pieces by Claude Vivier and Tour Takemitsu along with compositions by two young Hungarians will be performed along with a a conversation between the evening’s conductor, László Tihanyi and author, tibetologist László Sári. I am looking forward to listening to the conversation myself, since there are many exciting topics to touch on related to music and spirituality, especially when one looks at different cultures. Here are the details about this program:

https://bmc.hu

Not that I am trying to bury the news in the middle of my post, but this is the time and place to let you know, I have resigned as the Artistic Director of the Armel Opera Festival effective July 10, 2019. It has been an exciting and challenging ride, and I am thankful to Armel for many great projects! I am happy to be able to dedicate more time to my Artistic Director job with the UMZE Ensemble, and to my Program Director position with the Peter Eötvös Foundation in the future.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned, if not for the Hungarian language radio shows, but for more blog posts here!

CAPRICCIO/ KLASSZIKRÁDIÓ
https://klasszikradio.hu

ZENEKÖZELBEN/ KATOLIKUS RÁDIÓ
https://katolikusradio.hu

A fenti linkeken hallgathatók majd a velem készített élő zenés rádió interjúk, a Capriccióban szombat reggel 10-kor [ez az adás mint kiderült “ál-élő”, tehát nem a felvétel időpontjában kerül sugárzásra, hogy mikor, arról majd még posztolok itt vagy a FaceBookon.], a Zeneközelben műsorában pedig vasárnap 17 órakor. Igyekeztem izgalmas, és különböző zenéket válogatni, így talán érdemes mindkét adást hallgatni, ha valami miatt nem élőben, akkor online utólag is. Az én hétvégi románcom a rádióval emlékeztetett arra a napra még oregoni éveim alatt, amikor a híres amerikai rádiós személyiség, Garrison Keillor, dedikálta nekem saját könyvének, a Rádiórománcnak magyar nyelvű kiadását. “Szép könyv és mennyi sok szép képet raktak bele!” -mondta az illusztrált kötetre, amiből persze, a címen és a saját nevén kívül, semmi mást nem tudott elolvasni.

A szezon kezdetére a rádiós megjelenéseken és koncert-híreken kívül még tartogattam azért egy bejelentést. Idén július 10-től lemondtam az Armel Operaveseny és Fesztiválnál betöltött művészeti vezetői pozíciómról. Erről itt nyilatkoztam egy kicsit részletesebben:
https://papageno.hu
Itt is megköszönöm Havas Ágnesnek és az Armel csapatának az elmúlt 6 évet, és a sok izgalmas kihívást és lehetőséget! Kívánok az Armelnek további szép sikereket!

A belinkelt hármas interjúban olvasható a holnapi UMZE koncertől is, amelynek keretében, természetesen izgalmas és minőségi zenék mellett, Sári László író, tibetológus és Tihanyi László zeneszerző, karmester beszélgetnek majd Kelet-Nyugat, avagy spiritualizmus-zene tárgykörben. Mindenkit várunk szeretettel!

Grand Opera, 20th Century Classics and New Music

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First performance of Verdi’s Don Carlo went well on Friday. I am ready for the second one tonight, and two more in the next two weeks (Nov 28, December 5). What a truly grand work full of unparalleled beauty and endless inventions!
In the meantime UMZE Chamber Ensemble and myself have been preparing for our Monday evening concert at the Budapest Music Center.
I programmed pieces by Hungarian composers living abroad along with 20th Century classics for ensemble.

Pierre Boulez: Dérive 1
Bálint Karosi: Ciaccona (Hungarian premiere)
Bálint Karosi: Sanguine (Hungarian premiere)
Claude Debussy: Brouillards – (Préludes II/1)
András Hamary: Brouillards – Three Movement to the Prelude of Claude Debussy (Hungarian premiere)
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András Hamary: Hommage à Janáček for piano (for right hand) and winds (Hungarian premiere)
Leos Janáček: Capriccio for piano (for left hand) and winds

The two Hamary http://www.hamary.de compositions are clear homages to Debussy and Janáček, and are full of strong, simple and original musical ideas. Ciaccona by Karosi http://www.karosi.org is a inventive take on Boulez’s Dérive 1 while his Sanguine is a fun and virtuoso ensemble piece.

Peter Kiss will be the soloist for both the Janáček Capriccio and Hamary’s ‘Hommage à Janáček’ and he will be playing the original piano prelude by Debussy as well.
http://kisspeterpianist.hu

All About Horns

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No, not about the fantasy-horror with Daniel Radcliffe in the main role. Huntsville Symphony’s 5th Classical concert this season was about different horns like the post horn, a tuba and French horns. Our soloist on Saturday, playing the Tuba Concerto by Williams was my good friend and amazing musician- Alan Baer, Principal Tuba, New York Philharmonic.
http://www.baertracksmusic.com
I conducted this beautiful piece a long time ago, but with a bass trombone soloist. In all honesty, the piece works much better with tuba. I am surprised that it is not on the repertoire of all the orchestras around the world. I guess it takes some courage to invite a tuba player as a soloist instead of a violinist or a piano player :). The audience loved the piece and rewarded the performance with a long standing ovation.

The second half of the concert started with one of my all time favorite compositions, the Sextet from the opera ‘Capriccio’ by Richard Strauss (I rearranged it for a small string orchestra) and ended with Till Eulenspiegel’s Marry Pranks. HSO rocked the piece!

In the first half, as an homage to Richard Strauss’s admiration for Mozart’s music we performed the Posthorn Serenade. I had the flutes, oboes and bassoons seated in the front of the orchestra. This emphasized the fact, that the two middle movements of the Serenade are really a hidden Sinfonia Concertante for woodwind instruments.
Chris Coletti http://www.trumpetchris.com
played the famous Post horn solo beautifully. Other than the famous 2nd Trio of the 2nd Menuet with the post horn in it, the trumpet section played on natural trumpets for the entire piece.

One more casual classic about The Science of Music and a classical concert with Liszt, Bartok and Brahms on the program are in store for this season with the HSO. Visit our website for details!
http://www.hso.org