Tag Archives: Telemann

My Father’s Son

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It’s not so much that “the show must go on”, rather, that I am my father’s son.
My Dad, József Vajda, former principal bassoonist of the Hungarian Radio Symphony and retired professor of the Liszt Academy in Budapest passed away 10 days ago. Since then I have done a Casual Classic show with the Huntsville Symphony and I am getting ready to start rehearsals for our Classical 5 program with the Canadian Brass. My Dad worked all his life and was a master of his craft, and a great teacher. I am finding that work helps me cope with my loss and staying active means staying true to my father’s spirit.

Here are the two programs for Huntsville:
Casual Classics 2 at the Historic Train Depot Roundhouse
Telemann: Tafelmusik Suite #3 “Il delirio fantastico”
Telemann: Alster Echo Suite

Classical 5 “The Americas” at the Von Braun Center
Marquez: Danzon #2
All American music played by Canadian Brass
Bramwell Tovey: Manhattan Music for brass quintet and orchestra
Bernstein: Divertimento

http://www.hso.org

Next week I am going to start a project with the Pannon Philharmonic in southern Hungary. We’ll be playing a show at the Kodaly Center in Pecs and will repeat it at the Liszt Academy as well.

“Dance on the Moon”
Griffes: Poem
Schönberg: Pierrot lunaire (with special projections and lights)
Stravinsky: Song of the Nightingale
Ibert: Flute Concerto

http://www.pannonfilharmonikusok.hu

I will be spending a lot of time with my family members while in Hungary, attending the funeral and doing a Celebration of Life in memory of my Father.

Same Airport, Different Music

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HSV-BUD-HSV
I can definitely say that by now I know every little corner of the Huntsville and of the Budapest airports. I have seen these cities from the sky from every possible angle during take off and landing. Every time I depart and arrive however I am carrying different scores in my bag. I’ve got different music for familiar airport lounges.
This time my carry on was heavy of scores by Verdi, Telemann, David Lang
http://davidlangmusic.com/music/child
Kornel Fekete Kovacs
http://feketekovacs.com
and others.

2015 starts off with an all trumpet concert on January 5, honoring the 70th Birthday of Gyorgy Geiger, former principal trumpet player of the Hungarian Radio Symphony.
See a CD here him and I recorded together quite a few years ago:
http://amazon.com

Hungarian trumpeters from all over the world are coming together to celebrate and all of them are playing something fun. I am looking forward to a delightful mix of Baroque and contemporary music and some good times with friends who are also great musicians.
http://tarkovigabor.com
http://gabor-in-concert.com
http://www.berliner-philharmoniker.de

On January 11 Ensemble UMZE and special guest, flute player extraordinaire Claire Chase
http://www.clairechase.net
from NYC will be performing under my direction, again at the beautiful Budapest Music Center. The contemporary musical pieces on the program are all about marriage, birth, children and childhood memories. I am looking forward to hear Claire and the musicians of UMZE performing the Hungarian Premiere of my composition ‘Conversation With Children’!
Read about the concert here:
http://bmc.hu

On January 12 I will be on my way back to Huntsville to conduct Verdi’s magnificent Requiem for the classical series of the Huntsville Symphony. Then back again to Budapest…, but I will write about that in my next posts.

Here are the first two months of the New Year for me in airport codes:
HSV-BUD-HSV-BUD-HSV-BUD-HSV
Delta Lounge, here I come!

Scarlatti and The Musical Robots

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On Saturday, November 30 at 5PM local time I get to conduct a concert at the helm of the Budapest Strings
http://www.budapestivonosok.hu
at the Palace of The Arts in Budapest, Hungary. The concert includes two world premieres, one by the world famous composer, Peter Eotvos. It is a composition for French Horn and string orchestra, a very elegant and sensitive piece of music. It is an honor to be able to do the World Premiere of a new composition by Eotvos, who is turning 70 in January 2014 and whom I can call my teacher and mentor in both composition and conducting.
See the composer’s webpage about this new composition entitled Hommage a Domenico Scarlatti:
http://www.eotvospeter.com

More compositions by Eotvos will be included in my 13-14 season.
As part of the so called “Mini Festival” at the end of January in cooperation with Neue Oper Wien and Palace Of The Arts I get to conduct the Hungarian premiere and the studio recording of Eotvos’ latest opera: Paradise Reloaded (Lilith).
In February Huntsville Symphony is presenting an orchestral composition of his entitled “The Gliding of The Eagle in The Skies”, and also a very interesting action-piece called “Brass The Metal Space”.
Watch my blog posts about these performances in the next few months!

The other world premiere this Saturday is that of my “Gulliver Suite” for Tubular Bells and Strings, an 11 minute long composition based on “Gulliver in Faremido”, a piece of mine for narrator and 5 players. You can buy the commercial recording of the latter piece by going on iTunes or to this website:
http://www.bmcrecords.hu
The story behind the music is based on a Gulliver-sequel by 20th Century Hungarian author, Frigyes Karinthy. In this modern voyage Gulliver ends up on a planet where robot-like beings communicate by music instead of speech. More program notes and the story itself can be found on the Budapest Music Center link above. The movements of “Gulliver Suite” are: 1) Gulliver in Faremido 2) Robot Concert 3) Story Of The Two Headed Monster 4) Be That As It May

Since the performance is part of the “Master and Student” conversation-concert series Mr. Eotvos and I will be joined by musicologist Prof. Imre Foldes. I am hoping for an interesting and stimulating conversation about the new pieces and the two Baroque compositions by Georg Philipp Telemann.
http://en.wikipedia.org

I picked Telemann’s Gulliver Suite (originally for two solo violins, but we play it with 5+4 players in a stereo setting) and one of his Horn Concertos to compliment the modern music performed. This will be my first time to work with the great, young horn player, Szabolcs Zempleni.
http://www.zempleni.com