In 2008, the Budapest Festival Orchestra and Müpa Budapest organised a Tchaikovsky Marathon. Since then, the day-long concert series has developed into a tradition: each year music lovers mark their calendars in bold red letters in anticipation of the festive winter day when they can truly luxuriate in the oeuvre of a beloved composer as performed by notables of Hungarian musical life and various symphony orchestras, chamber ensembles and soloists. The audience members include "sprinters” who come for an hour or two of music and "half-marathoners” who prove themselves across the middle distance, with a significant portion of the audience each year made up of voracious souls who sit through each and every one of the day's concerts. Following on the heels of Tchaikovsky, Bach, Beethoven, Bartók, Mozart, Schubert, Dvořák and Stravinsky, 2016's event featured two protagonists, with the series focusing on two giants of German romanticism: Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and Robert Schumann.
The 2017 marathon puts Johannes Brahms in the starring role. The great summariser of 19th century music wrote significant compositions in many genres, ranging from symphonic and concert works to vocal and chamber music and pieces for solo piano. The audience will have the problem of abundance to contend with, and even though the detailed programme will only be published later on, it's certain that lovers of the music of Brahms are already looking forward to an eventful day.

A joint production of the Budapest Festival Orchestra and Müpa Budapest

Presented by: Budapest Festival Orchestra, Müpa Budapest