Can We Still Ride the Bike? | Tudunk még biciklizni?

In Hungary, and most parts of Europe the world is re-opening. The curve has been flattened and we all are learning to adjust to new rules of social distancing, until one or more vaccines are developed and widely available. As fast as music events have shut down, they are now back, even though very few things are on as they were originally planned as part of the summer season. Last weekend I have conducted two sessions of a more music recording. Now I am in Szombathely, in Western Hungary, with the Savaria Symphony. We are doing a free indoor concert (allowed to be held for 500 or less people) for the subscribers of the symphony. The program includes two all time symphonic favorites, Mozart’s G-Minor Symphony, No. 40, and the Third Symphony of Johannes Brahms. In two weeks I will be conducting the studio recording of a contemporary cantata by composers László Sáry with soloist, a small chorus and the musicians of the UMZE ensemble, all this at the wonderful Budapest Music Center. In the meantime a couple of new engagements are popping up for early fall as well.

They say that one cannot forget how to ride a bike. I have not conducted a live concert for months, and it kind of feels like when one rides the bike after a long hiatus. Your muscles do remember, but there is always a little bit of a doubt in the back of one’s head: can I still do this? Musicians of the Savaria Symphony and myself are having tremendous fun working on pieces like the Mozart and the Brahms symphonies, and we are thankful to be able to play in front of a live audience in a couple of days. Live concerts are truly a celebration of human existence, and it is amazing to be able to have such an amazing profession. Szombathely’s Bartok Hall’s registration list for the concert has filled up in a matter of a few days. Audiences are hungry for live music. I think we all remember what fun it is to ride a bike, and we are ready to do it again.

Azt mondják, biciklizni nem lehet elfelejteni. Azért persze amikor hónapokat kihagy az ember, akkor – még ha az izmok emlékeznek is – kis félelem mindig van, vagy legalább is a kisördög biztosan kérdezget halkan, miszerint “megy ez meg neked”? Biztos vagyok benne, hogy a Savaria Szimfonikusok muzsikusai is így vannak ezzel. Hétfőn kezdtünk el próbálni, és csütörtök este, a bérletes közönségnek szervezett ingyen ajándékkoncert keretében adjuk majd elő Mozart “Nagy” g-moll, és Brahms III. szimfóniáját. A “próbabiciklizés” már nagyon jól megy, örömmel és kimerítően dolgozunk a részleteken, és mindannyian várjuk nagyon az élő közönség előtt való muzsikálást.

A múlt hétvégén két napot filmzene felvétel dirigálásával töltöttem, július közepén pedig Sáry László kantátáját vesszük majd fel a Budapest Music Centerben énekes szólistákkal, kamarakórussal és az UMZE zenészeivel. Tulajdonképpen amilyen gyorsan abbamaradtak a zenélési lehetőségek, szerencsére majdnem ugyanolyan gyorsan vissza is térnek, még ha nem is olyan formában, ahogy megszoktuk. Már kora őszre is érkezett néhány új felkérés, közöttük olyan is, ami nem is volt tervbe véve az elmúlt szezonban. Olvastam, a Scala újra játszik, és máshol Európában is “nyit a zenebolt”. Ha vigyázunk egymásra, akkor nem kell zene és zenélés nélkül kibírnunk amíg a vakcina elkészül, és mindenki számára elérhető lesz.

Three Heroes (Radio Symphony Season Finale)

The 70th Season of the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (MR Symphony) is coming to an end. On Wednesday, May 14 I am conducting the season finale of the orchestra’s classical series with the following program.
Bela Bartok: Two Portraits
Gregory Vajda: Csardas Obstine (Hungarian Premiere)
Franz Liszt: Piano Concerto #2
Richard Strauss: Ein Heldenleben (The Hero’s Life)

Starting my very own “Strauss Year Celebration” (I will be doing two more tone poems in the coming year) I programmed ‘Ein Heldenleben’ as the main piece of the concert. I love the wit and the audacity of Strauss writing a piece about himself as The Hero. Since the tone poem was conceived as a modern version of Beethoven Symphony #3 “Eroica” (and a more effective and artistic version of “Wellington’s Victory”) it is clear that Strauss knew exactly who he was and what he could do and where he belonged. He belonged with all the great artists whose life itself was enough for a story to be put to music. Strauss had the ‘Chutzpah’ to write about nothing else but his own personal life (love-life included). Guess what, it worked!
As my much shorter in length and much more humble personal ‘Ein Heldenleben’ is titled “Csardas Obstine”. This composition was written in 2011 for the Liszt Anniversary and was premiered at two summer festivals in the US. Based on the experiences of these performances I created a new orchestration for the Hungarian Premiere. In this new version, instead of the full Liszt size orchestra, the solo piano is accompanied by 2 flutes (2. also piccolo), 1 english horn, 2 clarinets (2. also Eb clarinet), 1 bassoon, 2 trumpets, 1 tuba, 1 harp, 3 (or more) percussion players -#1 and #2 positioned down stage next to the solo piano-, 3 violins, 3 violas, 3 cellos, 3 basses. This reduction makes it easier for the chamber orchestra to keep up with the virtuoso material of the soloist. I have composed Csardas Obstine as a short (15 minutes) piece to go with Liszt Piano Concerto #2 which is the way we perform it this time as well. The title is borrowed from Liszt himself, who has also written two Csardas Obstines for solo piano. Other than an homage and a tribute to Franz Liszt (or Liszt Ferenc as Hungarians call him) my composition is telling the story of The Hungarians, just like the original two Obstinate Csardas’. There is a lot of energy in the piece, a lot of imagination, many ideas that start but then quickly end and do not develop into anything more substantial. Much like the A-major concerto by Liszt my composition has a form like Peer Gynt’s onion.
http://www.monologuearchive.com/i/ibsen_002.html

I hope we’ll all have fun peeling the musical layers together!

Talking about Peer Gynt, last time I’ve worked with pianist Gabor Farkas was two years ago and it was Grieg’s Piano concerto on the program. 🙂
http://biromusic.com/eng/muveszek/gabor-farkas/

To open the concert I picked one of Bartok’s most directly personal piece called Two Portraits. The two movements are “The Ideal” (practically the first movement of Violin Concerto #1) and “The Grotesque”. Both movements are based on the theme “D-F#-A-C#” which is the musical signature of violinist Stefi Geyer. Read more about the story of the First Violin Concerto and Two Portraits here:

http://www.cso.org

Three Heroes of mine: Bartok, Liszt and Richard Strauss. Three compositions with a personal story: Bartok, Vajda, Strauss. Two piano concertos and a wonderful pianist. This is all the Season Finale of the Hungarian Radio Symphony, and much more. Palace of the Arts is filming the performance. I hope I get to see it soon on TV!

PS: A day before stepping on the stage of Palace of the Arts again I am giving a presentation at the only English language Rotary Club in Hungary. The topic: “The Symphony Machine” -Programming, funding and fundraising in the world of Symphony Orchestras in the US and in Hungary.
Rotary Club Budapest-City
http://www.rc-budapest-city.hu/en/home.html