SOLD OUT Dinner & Russian Music / Teltházas vacsora és orosz mesterek

Our second classical concert of the season here in Huntsville is coming up on Friday. Prokofiev: Symphony No.1 “Classical”, Shostakovich: Piano Concerto No.2 with the amazing Kathy Chi returning
https://www.katherinechi.com
and Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.5
Join us for this powerful program of Russian music at the Von Braun Center!
https://www.hso.org

On Sunday as our first Casual Classics show of the season, at the beautiful Carriage House of the Huntsville Botanical Garden, we’ll be presenting our annual dinner concert. And we are officially SOLD OUT. Everyone who will be there will find out if Stravinsky’s Octet for Winds improves digestion, and if Mendelssohn’s Octet for Strings is sweet enough to make it to the Dessert Menu.
https://www.hso.org

E hét pénteken a Huntsville Symphonyval, a Von Braun Center színpadán orosz mesterek műveit játsszuk. Zongora szólistánk, visszatérő vendégként, a fantasztikus Kathy Chi lesz Kanadából.
https://www.katherinechi.com
Nyitánynak Prokofjev Klassszikus Szimfóniája, a második félidőben pedig Csajkovszik Ötödikje hangzik majd fel.
https://www.hso.org

Vasárnap az idei szezon első Casual Classics koncertjét tartjuk, amelyen a vacsora mellé felszolgált zenei menü Mendelssohn és Sztravinszkij egy-egy oktettje lesz, előbbi vonókra, utóbbi fúvóshangszerekre. Az évente egyszer megrendezésre kerülő koncert-vacsora rendkívül népszerű, és egy pár hete már minden jegy elkelt.
https://www.hso.org

Jó étvágyat!

Slavic Feast at Silicon Valley

Tonight and tomorrow afternoon Symphony Silicon Valley presents its second to last weekend of their 15-16 classical concert season. As a returning guest conductor I get to lead the orchestra in the following program:

Martinu: Overture
Prokofiev: Piano Concerto #3 – with Natasha Paremski as soloist
Prokofiev: Love for Three Oranges Suite
Janáček: Sinfonietta

This is my first time doing the Martinu piece, a lovely neoclassical, “all C-major” type of opening and also the reduced version of Sinfonietta (I think I am sticking with the original version in the future).

Check out the program here:
https://www.symphonysiliconvalley.org

This is my third time in Silicon Valley around Cinco de Mayo. Since Wednesday evening was kind of quiet I anticipate to run into more parties downtown tonight. I will look around after the concert for sure.

2 Fifths on the 5th (Huntsville Season Finale)

I guess we should have scheduled this program for May. Beethoven 5th and Prokofiev 5th on May 5th (well OK, not quite a Cinco de Mayo program). In any case, Life is writing the best script. I wanted to finish the season with this special “Symphony #5” pairing and we happened to have a date on hold at the concert hall for April 5th. Two Fifths on the Fifth is definitely a catchy title.
Despite the busy weekend in downtown Huntsville we only have under 300 tickets to sell for this show and we still have 24 hours to go. Great job, PR Marketing Department! I guess the programming is not too bad, either…:)
We had a great season in Huntsville with many new and exciting ideas and great hits. The success of the Casual Classics series has exceeded all my expectations. Taking the Free Family Concert on the road was also a viable idea (and great fun as well). We had more than one sold out classical concerts, great attendance for the POPS series. We hosted inspiring guest artists like Alexander Corsantia and the amazing Bela Fleck.
Two days ago at the Major Donor Reception our CEO and President Dan Halcomb and myself announced the 14-15 season which is going to be our 60th. More and detailed information is coming here soon. I encourage you to visit Huntsville Symphony Orchestra website in the next couple of weeks and watch our page on FaceBook and on Twitter!

Operas & ballets 1998-2013 (40 is the new 40/2)

Tonight is the second performance of Ferenc Erkel Istvan Kiraly (King Stephen) at the Margaret Island Open Air stage. Almost by the time we start the second half of the performance (right after the August 20 Festivities fireworks) Duna TV (Hungarian Public Media’s only satellite channel) starts the broadcast of yesterday’s performance. (21:35 local time) This is a nice occasion to list all the operas, musical theater works and ballets I have conducted in the last 15 years. My own operas are not included here.
Side note: being 40 does not feel any different than being 39. 🙂

Operas:
Bartok: Bluebeard’s Castle
Erkel: King Stephen
Peter Eotvos: The Three Sisters
Peter Eotvos: Radames
Gounod: Romeo and Juliet
Ligeti: Le Grand Macabre
Emil Petrovics: C’est la guerre
Puccini: La Boheme
Rossini: La Cenerentola
Gyorgy Ranki: The King’s New Clothes
Schoenberg: Erwartung
Verdi: Masked Ball
Wagner: Lohengrin

Fully Staged Ballets:
Bartok: The Miraculous Mandarin
Dohnanyi-Seregi: Variations on a Nursery Song
Prokofiev: Rome and Juliet

Musical Theater:
Bartok: Cantata Profana (fully staged)
Ligeti: Aventures & Nouvelle Aventures
Peter Eotvos: As I Crossed a Bridge of Dreams