Tag Archives: Richard Strauss

September List | Szeptemberi lista

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Sometimes making a list of things you are doing speaks louder than any essay. By the last day of September I will have conducted these pieces for the following projects.
László Sáry: Cantata Dorogiensis de Eucharistia (live performance for distinguished guests of the International Eucharistic Congress in Dorog, Hungary)
Edward Elgar: Cello Concerto, Richard Strauss: Aus Italien (with the Savaria Symphony for their season opening concert in Szombathely, Hungary. Cello soloist: Tamás Varga)
Marcell Dargay: Ricercar, Dániel Dinyés: Capriccio, Matthias Pintscher: Occultation, Balázs Horváth: Quasi ciaccona metrica (at the helm of the UMZE Ensemble for the opening concert of this year’s edition of ‘European Bridges Festival’ of Palace of the Arts, Budapest. Trumpet solos were played by Simon Hoefele from Berlin, and Tamás Pálfalvi. The extremely difficult horn solo for Mr. Pintscher’s composition was played by János Benyus.)
Liszt: Piano Concerto No.1&2 (for the final round and gala of the International Liszt Piano Competition at the Liszt Academy in Budapest. The orchestral accompaniment was played by the Hungarian National Philharmonic, solos were played by Kevin Chen (1st prize), Giovanni Bertolazzi (2nd Prize), and Gergely Kovács (3rd Prize). Both the Finals and the Gala were live broadcast.)
Dvorák: Slavonic Dances Op.46 No.1-3 & 6-8, Dvorák: Serenade for Winds, Josef Suk: Serenade for Strings (for Classical Concert No.1 of the Huntsville Symphony)
Joshua Burel: Blue Means Water, William Price: Divisions, Amir Zaheri: Queer Canticles I-V (for our first Casual Classics called “Who is Afraid of Living Composers?”. Soprano solo: Amalia (Maya) Osuga)

Thankful to be working, thankful to be doing great music with great musicians. More next month, until then check out the info about the two shows with the Huntsville Symphony here:

https://hso.org

Néha egy lista arról, mi mindent csinál az ember többet mond mint egy esszé. Szeptember utolsó napjáig az alábbi darabokat és projekteket vezényeltem, vezényelem.
Sáry László: Cantata Dorogiensis de Eucharistia (az Eucharisztikus Kongresszus VIP vendégeinek élőben Dorogon az UMZE Együttessel)
Edward Elgar: Csellóverseny, Richard Strauss: Aus Italien (Varga Tamás szólójával, a Savaria Szimfonikusok szezonnyitó koncertje)
Dargay Marcell: Ricercar, Dinyés Dániel: Capriccio, Matthias Pintscher: Occultation, Horváth Balázs: Quasi ciaccona metrica (A MÜPA ‘European Bridges’ Fesztiváljának nyitóhangversenye az UMZE élén. Trombita szólisták: Simon Hoefele, Pálfalvi Tamás. Kürtszólista: Benyus János)
Liszt: I. és II. Zongoraverseny (a Nemzetközi Liszt verseny döntője és gálakoncertje a Nemzeti Filharmonikusokkal, szólistaként a győztesek: Kevin Chen (I. díj), Giovanni Bertolazzi (II. díj), és Kovács Gergely (III. díj). Mind a döntő, mind pedig a gála élőben volt közvetítve.)
Dvorák: Szláv táncok op. 46 Nos. 1-3 és 6-8, Dvorák: Fúvósszerenád, Josef Suk: Szerenéd vonósokra (a Huntsville Symphony szezonnyitó koncertje)
Joshua Burel: Blue Means Water, William Price: Divisions, Amir Zaheri: Queer Canticles I-V (a Huntsville Symphony ‘Casual Classics’ sorozata keretében ‘Ki fél az élő zeneszerzőktől?’ címmel a University of Alabama Huntsville koncerttermében. A szoprán szólista: Amalia (Maya) Osuga)

Örömmel dolgozom sokat és muzsikálok remek zenészekkel. Továbbiak októberben. Addig is a Huntsville-i koncertekről információk az alábbi linken:
https://hso.org

Songs for Alabama/ Dalok Alabamához

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The amazing Susanna Phillips
http://www.susannaphillips.com
gave the US premiere of my orchestral song ‘The Cloak, the Boat, and the Shoes’ on Saturday with the Huntsville Symphony. My piece, just like when it was performed for the very first time in Budapest, preceded Richard Strauss’ Four Last Songs. We had a big and responsive audience at the Von Braun Center. In the first half of the concert Principal Bassoonist of the Rochester Philharmonic, Matthew McDonald played Weber’s Bassoon Concerto. Our last classical concert of the season was part of the Alabama Bicentennial Celebration, and we were happy to team up with Susanna and Matthew, co-artistic directors of Twickenham Fest, and musicians extraordinaire.
http://www.twickenhamfest.org

Sunday and Monday were dedicated to auditions. I am happy to report, that we have a new Principal Bassoonist, a new Second Trombone player, and three new violinist colleagues as well. I am looking forward to making music with old and new members of the HSO alike, since the Bicentennial Celebration continues into our next season and includes out first two classical concerts. Check out the fall program, and HSO’s complete 2019-2020 season here:
http://www.hso.org

Soon I will be on my way back to Budapest to start rehearsing for the revival of my Puppet-Opera, The Giant Baby, and also to get ready for two La Bohème performances at the Budapest Opera. Stay tuned for more!

Susanna Phillips, http://www.susannaphillips.com
a Metropolitan Opera sztárja, és a Huntsville közeli Twickenham Fest egyik művészeti vezetője volt az HSO szombati koncertje második felének szólistája. ‘The Cloak, the Boat, and the Shoes’ című zenekari dalom amerikai bemutatója, a pár évvel ezelőtti budapesti ősbemutatóhoz hasonlóan, Richard Strauss Négy utolsó éneke előtt hangzott fel, amelyet aztán Richard Wagner A bolygó hollandi nyitánya követett. A hangverseny első felében a Rochester Filharmonikusok első fagottosa, a Susanna Phillipshez hasonlóan huntsville-i születésű, Matthew McDonald, aki a Twickenham Fest
http://www.twickenhamfest.org
társ-művészeti vezetője is, adta elő Weber Fagottversenyét. A koncert első fele Weber Freischütz nyitányával indult, és a Berlioz által hangszerelt Felhívás keringőre című művével zárult. Nagyszámú és lelkes közönség ünneplésével fejeztük be az évadot, és erre számítunk a következőben is. Az őszi koncertek még a 2019-es Alabama Bicentenáriumi Ünnepségek részét képezik majd, és annak fényében a Hunsvtille Symphony zenészeit, valamint a Huntsville Community Chorus-t és helyi vokális szólistákat állít a programok középpontjába. Részletek az alábbi linken találhatóak
http://www.hso.org

Vasárnap és hétfőn egész nap meghallgatásokat tartottunk. Felvettünk egy új első fagottost, egy második harsonást, és három új kollégát a hegedű szólamba. Hamarosan indulok Budapestre, ahol kezdődnek a próbák Az Óriáscsecsemő című báboperám felújítására, és a Magyar Állami Operaház Bohémélet 2.0 előadásaira is.

Don Quixote and Captain Tobias Hume / Don Quixote és Hume kapitány

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About to start the rehearsals for the last classical show of the season of the Huntsville Symphony. On the program: Don Juan and Don Quixote by Richard Strauss, and the super-chambermusic-concerto for cello and orchestra by Schumann. See the details here:
http://www.hso.org
And here is the website of the soloist: my friend, Emilio Colón, cello player and professor extraordinaire:
http://www.emiliocolon.com

Somehow it feels appropriate to end this successful season with two musical portraits, one about Don Juan, the man who never stops searching for the ideal woman (according to the tale by poet Nikolaus Lenau), and one about Don Quixote, Knight of the Sad Face, who never stopped fighting for good causes, and even went agains the giant windmills. In case you did not make the connection let me spell this out for you: classical music business is constant seduction (that of the audience) and a constant battle of the windmills (that of balancing a budget while serving your community and focusing on your mission statement). We are looking forward to a great crowd this weekend, and to another great season of which you can read about in details here:
http://www.hso.org

It is funny, how things align in one’s professional life. As I am studying and performing Don Quixote, I am about to start composing a solo cello piece for Tamás Varga, principal cellist of the Vienna Philharmonic.
http://www.wienerphilharmoniker.at
Tamás requested a piece for solo cello with the special tuning of the Kodály Solo sonata so he can perform three contemporary compositions and the Kodály on the same concert without having to retune, or to have two cellos ready. I decided to compose a piece called, ‘Captain Hume’s Last Pavin’ based on the last letter of Tobias Hume
http://www.wikipedia.org
I go from the Sad Faced Knight portrayed by a cello to a soldier and viol-player in just a few weeks.
There is another commission coming up for me, this time for solo violin. The project was started by violinist Yevgeny Kutik and it is called ‘Meditation on Family’. Check out the Kickstarter video here:
http://www.kickstarter.com

Thanks for reading!
I will keep you posted on more exciting projects for the month of May, June and July!

Holnap kezdődnek az idei szezon utolsó klasszikus koncertjének próbái a Huntsville Symphony élén. Richard Strauss Don Juan és Don Quixote című szimfonikus költeményei, és Schumann Csellóversenye a program.
http://www.hso.org
Az alábbi linken a cselló szólistáról, Emilio Colónról lehet ovasni, aki Bloomingtonban Starker János utódja, és akivel hosszú évek óta ismerjük egymást.
http://www.emiliocolon.com

Érdekes, hogy a mindig az ideális nőt kereső Don Juan (legalábbis Nikolaus Lenau költeménye szerint) és Don Quixote, a Búsképű Lovag története zárják az idei szezont. Valahogy a klasszikus zenei biznisz is ehhez hasonló, egyfelől állandó csábítás (a közönségé), másfelől meg folyamatos szélmalomharc (adminisztráció és pénzügyek). Azért nem kell aggódni, a képem nem bús, és akárcsak Don Quixote, sosem állok meg. Ennek bizonyítéka az HSO következő szezonja, amelyről itt lehet olvasni:
http://www.hso.org

Ami a zeneszerzést illeti, a cselló által megszemélyesített képzeletbeli lovagtól egy valódi katona és viol-játékos történetéhez érkezem hamarosan. Barátom és régi kamarazene-társam, a Bécsi Filharmonikusok szóló csellistája, Varga Tamás
http://www.wienerphilharmoniker.at
kért fel egy mű megírására, amely Kodály Szólószonátájának speciális hangolását veszi alapul. A darab címe “Hume Kapitény utolsó pavinja” lesz, amely Captain Tobias Hume utolsó levelének szövege inspirált. Hume rendkívül érdekes történetéről itt lehet olvasni:
http://www.wikipedia.org
Egy másik felkérés is érkezett nemrég, ezúttal szóló hegedűre írott kompozícióra, amely Yevgeny Kutik hegedűs ‘Meditation on Family’ projektjének része lesz. A projekt Kickstarter kampány videója itt tekinthető meg:
http://www.kickstarter.com

Hamarosan újabb izgalmas hírekkel jelentkezem a következő néhány hónap eseményeiről, addig is köszönöm a figyelmet!

Sudden and Light

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‘What do you make so fair and bright?’

‘I make the cloak of Sorrow:
O lovely to see in all men’s sight
Shall be the cloak of Sorrow,
In all men’s sight.’

‘What do you build with sails for flight?’

‘I build a boat for Sorrow:
O swift on the seas all day and night
Saileth the rover Sorrow,
All day and night.’

What do you weave with wool so white?’

‘I weave the shoes of Sorrow:
Soundless shall be the footfall light
In all men’s ears of Sorrow,
Sudden and light.’

The poem above is by Yeats and it provides the lyrics to my orchestral song composed for my next concert in Budapest. On Tuesday at the helm of the Hungarian Radio Symphony I conduct a program of the following compositions:

Haydn: Farewell Symphony
R. Strauss: Morgen!
—
Haydn: The Desert Island (L’isola disabitata) Overture
G. Vajda: The Cloak, The Boat and The Shoes [World Premiere]
R. Strauss: Four Last Songs

The concert program is designed as an homage to Jozsef Vajda, my late father who has passed this February at the age of 68. He served as the principal bassoonist of the Radio Symphony for 28 years. It is an honor to be able to present a concert in his memory as part of the Liszt Academy concert series of the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.

The program revolves around the gesture of ‘farewell’ and includes pieces I have heard my Father play several times (like the Haydn Symphony). The wonderful Eva Batori will be singing the soprano part for all the songs. Please listen to the concert live or stream it for two weeks after the concert at:
http://mediaklikk.hu

Read a great analysis here about the Yeats poem I put into music in my “Lullaby for Soprano and Orchestra”:
http://stuffjeffreads.wordpress.com

Hotel Room With Seven Doors

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“Which hotel room has seven doors and enough place for a torture chamber, an armory and a treasure chamber?” – asks critic Peter Jungblut of http://br-klassik.de in his review about the Eötvös/ Bartók double bill of Staatsoper Hamburg. Stage director Dimitri Tcherniakov merged “Senza sangue” and “Bluebeard’s Castle” into a 2 hour long evening with no intermission, and made the two operas into one “Dramatic Soul-Exploration”. After participating in the long rehearsal process of the production (we had our very first rehearsal on September 26) and attending the premiere with composer Peter Eötvös himself in the pit, I am now looking forward to conducting my first of this impressive show. Great singers, powerful music, touching video shorts, captivating images with mesmerizing lighting: this is all Senza sangue-Bluebeard’s Castle, and more. Come and experience it live if you can this month in Hamburg!
I will be the conductor of two more performances after today’s show: one on November 23 and the last one of this run on November 30. In between two shows, on November 22, I will be conducting a concert with the Hungarian Radio Symphony at the Liszt Academy in Budapest. The program is comprised of a World Premiere orchestral song for soprano I composed in memory of my Father and compositions by Haydn and Richard Strauss.
More about this concert soon!

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

Three Heroes (Radio Symphony Season Finale)

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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