Bartók composed his Dance Suite for the 50th jubilee of the joining of Pest, Buda and Óbuda, where it was performed alongside Kodály's Psalmus Hungaricusa and Dohnányi's Festival Overture. All five movements of the piece are original Bartók inventions, even if they often appear to be rooted in folk songs. The predecessors to today's touring pop stars were the virtuoso performers, who dazzled audiences with their skills wherever they went. Every instrument had its stars, but, even today, the archetypal virtuoso remains Niccolo Paganini. It was not just his flamboyant technique and ability to exploit every conceivable aspect of the instrument, but also his electric personality that so enchanted audiences. When listening to a work composed for his unique talents, it is easy to see why Paganini was known as the “Devil's Violinist”. Tchaikovsky wrote his Symphony No. 5 in 1888, exhausted following a European concert tour and in the midst of a bout of depression. In its own way as much a defining symphony as his Fourth Symphony and Beethoven's Symphony in C minor, it too is founded on a single thought. So if we are looking for precedents, it is not the programme symphonies of Liszt and Berlioz – based on transformations of a theme – that provide the inspiration, but Beethoven, whose Fifth Symphony soars to greatness on similar principles of composition, before finally announcing victory over the cruel hand of fate. Born in 1974, Paganini and Liszt award-winning violinist József Lendvay was a student of Miklós Szenthelyi at the Budapest Academy of Music. He also attended masterclasses held by Yehudi Menuhin, Ida Haendel, Igor Ojsztrah, Jaap van Zweeden and Sándor Végh. Lendvay regularly appears with the Budapest Festival Orchestra and has given successful concerts in the US, Austria, Germany, Britain, Japan and France. Presented by: The Budapest Festival Orchestra

Presented by: