Gérard Korsten was born in South Africa in 1960 and obtained his diploma as a violinist at the American Curtis Institute and the Mozarteum in Salzburg. He was initially invited by Sándor Végh to take the post of concertmaster with the Camerata Academica in Salzburg, before fulfilling the same function with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe from 1987 to 1996, while spending an increasing amount of time on his work as a conductor. He often conducts the Mozarteum Orchestra of Salzburg, the British H...allé Orchestra, the Stockholm Chamber Orchestra and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie. Among the venues he has performed in recently are the Vienna Konzerthaus and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, while last season saw him conduct a new production of Così fan tutte at La Scala in Milan. Korsten has conducted the Festival Orchestra with great success on six previous occasions. Arcadi Volodos was born in Saint Petersburg in 1972. His meteoric career, rather than being launched by victory in a major competition, began when he was noticed by an executive of one of the major record labels on a visit to France, where the Russian pianist was studying at the time. The first meeting was quickly followed by a recording contract, and his first CD, issued in 1997, featured works transcribed for piano and proved a resounding success and was showered with awards. The success story has continued ever since, with a solo recital in Carnegie Hall and invitations from major orchestras and festivals. Critics have likened Volodos’s play to that of Vladimir Horowitz: dazzling technique and an avoidance of conventions while always finding solutions that serve the music at hand, allied to a special ability to mesmerise the listener. This is the first performance of the Russian pianist with the Festival Orchestra. Mendelssohn the wunderkind wrote a dozen symphonies for string orchestra between the ages of 12 and 14. These he regarded as adolescent endeavours, and he did not even publish them. In 1824, the then 15-year-old composer began work on a 13th symphony. Having completed one movement, he decided to remodel the work for a full orchestra. This became the first of Mendelssohn’s five "official" symphonies, which appeared in print under the opus number 11. The work was first heard in the same year at a concert held in the Mendelssohn family home, but its first public performance took place only in 1829 in London, with the composer as conductor. Johannes Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2 is particularly treasured by Hungarians, as its world première took place on 9 November 1881 in Budapest, with the composer himself at the piano. The product of three years of work, the musical richness and scale of this masterpiece set it apart within both Brahms’ oeuvre and the repertoire of concertos for piano. Knowing the significance of this almost 50-minute work in four movements, only the author’s playful sense of humour can explain the letter in which he writes of the new work to a friend: “I have written a trifling little concerto for piano, with a little wisp of a scherzo…” Presented by: Budapest Festival Orchestra
Parking information
We wish to inform you that in the event that Müpa Budapest's underground garage and outdoor car park are operating at full capacity, it is advisable to plan for increased waiting times when you arrive. In order to avoid this, we recommend that you depart for our events in time, so that you you can find the ideal parking spot quickly and smoothly and arrive for our performance in comfort. The Müpa Budapest underground garage gates will be operated by an automatic number plate recognition system. Parking is free of charge for visitors with tickets to any of our paid performances on that given day. The detailed parking policy of Müpa Budapest is available here.
Safe ticket purchase
Dear Visitors, please note that only tickets purchased from the Müpa website and official ticket offices are guaranteed to be valid. To avoid possible inconvenience, we suggest buying tickets to our performances and concerts via the mupa.hu website, the Interticket national network (jegy.hu) or at our official ticket offices.