Summer Optimist | Nyári optimista

Today is the day of our annual Major Donors’ Reception. This wonderful event, recognizing our major donors, sponsors and board members, was postponed, and is happening now, in the middle of summer. I will be talking about the upcoming season, about being optimistic of the time ahead, and about the season’s trajectory. We will be going from carefully crafted shorter and less demanding programs towards Mahler’s titanic Symphony No.2. The “Resurrection” Symphony will be played for our last classical in the 21-22 close to Easter time. For today’s reception my son, Vince Vajda will be playing the piano. He is coming back to Huntsville next January to play a Mozart Piano Concerto with us for our Casual Classics series. Tonight’s event is the perfect way to introduce him and his playing to the wider HSO family.
About 10 days ago I’ve had the privilege of conducting Beethoven’s St. Stephen Overture and Symphony No.9 at the helm of the Hungarian National Philharmonic orchestra and chorus. We closed the traditional open-air Beethoven concert series of the National Phil. After my Huntsville stay I will be back in Europe, teaching at the European Creative Academy in beautiful and picturesque town of Annecy, France. Here is the link to the program.

https://eneuropeancreativeacademy.wordpress.com

A fenti linken az augusztusi European Creative Academy idei eseményeiről lehet olvasni. A festői Annecy-ban, a francia Alpokhoz közel lesz idén is az ECA, Stravinsky és Eötvös Péter fúvós-oktettjeivel a programban. Fiatal karmesterek és zeneszerzők lesznek a tanítványok, a profi hangszereseket pedig a francia Ars Nova együttes biztosítja.
Kb. két hete nagy örömmel dirigáltam a Nemzeti Filharmonikusokat és kórust, valamint kiváló énekes szólistákat Beethoven Szent István nyitányában és a IX. szimfóniában. Mindenki örömére idén mindhárom szabadtéri Beethoven program megvalósult Martonvásáron.
Most Huntsville-ban vagyok, ahol ma este tartjuk az éves Major Donor Reception-t, ahol bérleteseinknek és a Board tagjainak beszélek majd a szezonról. Vince fiam – aki jövő januárban muzsikál majd velünk itt a Causal Classics sorozatban – zongorázik is mindannyiunk örömére. A Huntsville Symphony 21-22-es szezonja óvatos optimizmussal, rövidebb, egyszerűbb programokkal indul, majd 22 Húsvétja környékén Mahler II. Szimfóniájával zárul. Reméljük, hogy a “Feltámadás” szimfónia nemcsak jelképesen, de hangzó valójában is jelzi majd a pandémiából a normális életbe való teljes visszatérést.

Second Wave of Operas | Második hullám: operák

Postponed and rescheduled shows are piling up this fall with online live-streaming backup plans in case of a second wave of COVID-19.
My upcoming productions at the Budapest Opera:
Jake Heggie: Dead Man Walking
https://opera
Monteverdi- Máté Bella: The Coronation of Poppea
https://opera.hu

Concert with the National Philharmonic Orchestra celebrating the 70th Birthday of Hungarian composer Iván Madarász:

The program includes the concert version of his opera based on the Biblical story of Lot.
https://www.filharmonikusok.hu

The announcement of the upcoming concert season of the UMZE New Music Ensemble is coming soon. Please follow us on Facebook and check out our website after August 21.
http://umze.hu

A fenti linkeken található minden információ a szeptemberben és októberben bemutatásra kerülő, tavalyról halasztott operai produkciókról. Mind a Ments meg, Uram!, mind pedig a Poppea megkoronázása közönség előtt mutatkozik be, majd zárt körben folytatódik, ahol a produkciókról professzionális online közvetítésre alkalmas anyag készül arra az esetre, ha a COVID-19 második hulláma miatt ismét korlátozásokra kerülne sor. A Nemzeti Filharmonikusok élén vezényelt Madarász Iván szerzői esten is elhangzik majd egy opera, a 40 éve keletkezett Lót. Az UMZE együttes következő szezonjáról augusztus 21 után lehet részleteket megtudni a Facebook oldalunkon, vagy az együttes weboldalán.

Orchestra Tour in Poland

…then there are days when you really don’t have the time to write.

I have just finished my concert with the Hungarian Radio Symphony at the Liszt Academy on November 22 when received a call from the tour manager of the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra. They were on the road in Poland and the conductor, János Kovács was hospitalized. I agreed to step in after my Eötvös-Bartók performance in Hamburg (November 23) and joined the orchestra in Wroclaw, Poland the next day. We had a one hour acoustical rehearsal at the amazing new concert hall built for the program of “Cultural Capital of Europe, Wroclaw 2016″, and we hit the ground running with the following program:

Kodály: Dances of Galánta
Liszt: Piano Concerto No.1 (Dávid Báll -piano)
Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra
(Encores: Brahms Hungarian Dance No.1 and Berlioz Rakóczi March)

Thee more concerts followed with great success (and a whole lot of bus riding in between). The Hungarian National Phil musicians and myself were having a ball.

Poland is a lucky country to have so many great, new concert halls. Three out of the four we have performed at were built in the last two years. Among these, the venue for our tour-closing performance was probably the best I have ever performed at (including Disney Hall!). The concert hall of the National Polish Radio Orchestra in Katowice is not only a great work of architecture but also the perfect mix of beauty and functionality with amazing acoustics for symphonic music.

Take a look!
http://nospr.org

This orchestra tour was part of the Hungarian Season in Poland commemorating the 1956 Revolution. Originally Zoltán Kocsis, world famous pianist and music director of the Hungarian National Philharmonic, who just recently passed away, was supposed to conduct all the concerts. We have been performing in his memory as well.

I am back in Hamburg, Germany today. The very last performance of the Eötvös: Senza sangue, Bartók: Bluebeard’s Castle production is tomorrow evening at the Staatsoper. The revival is schedueled for February 2018.