Having studied in Leningrad and Moscow, and then in Vienna under Hans Swarowsky, the international career of the Russian conductor Dmitri Kitayenko was launched when he won the Herbert von Karajan competition for conductors in 1969. By the age of 29, he was principal conductor of the Stanislavsky Theatre in Moscow. From 1976, he spent 14 years as principal conductor of the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, embarking on highly successful tours of Europe, the United States and Japan. Living abroad si...nce 1990, he was music director of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1990 to 1996. A regular guest conductor for leading European, Japanese and North American symphony orchestras, he has recorded the complete symphonies of Scriabin, Rimsky-Korsakov, Prokofiev and Shostakovich, among others. Born in 1974 in Lithuania, Julian Rachlin moved to Austria with his parents in 1978. At the age of 14, he won the title of Eurovision “Young Musician of the Year,” and immediately after was the youngest soloist to ever play with the Vienna Philharmonic, then under the direction of Riccardo Muti. One of the most charismatic and exciting artists of his generation, Rachlin is a regular guest of major orchestras and festivals. Since 2000, he has also performed as a violist, recording for the most prestigious labels. He has taught at the Vienna Conservatory (Konservatorium Wien) since 1999, and has been a Lithuanian Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF since 2010. Rachlin will perform on the “ex Carrodus” Guarneri violin, made in 1741. (Not) A Midsummer Night’s Dream was commissioned for the Salzburg Festival and evokes the memory not of Mendelssohn but of Salzburg’s most famous son Mozart – with acerbic humour and irony. The piece begins with a subtle faux-Mozartean theme, which gradually transforms and distorts to reach a massive dissonant climax, before “regressing” once more into the innocent starting melody in C major. Shostakovich wrote his last concerto in 1967 for the 60th birthday of David Oistrakh in 1968. Compositions that summarise and bid farewell to a life in music crop up increasingly often among the works Shostakovich produced at this time, and sometimes have the feel of music written by the seriously ill composer for his own funeral. Although the Violin Concerto No. 2 is among the more relaxed-sounding works from this period, it retains a grave and lugubrious tone nonetheless, enhanced by the choice of key (C sharp minor). The idea of putting Byron’s rendition of the story of Manfred to music was presented to Tchaikovsky by Balakirev. It was also his idea to weave a single theme through all four movements in a similar fashion to Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique. Composed in 1885, the symphony had its première in Moscow on 11 March 1886. Each of the four movements elaborates on an image from Byron’s poem. The first presents the figure of the protagonist Manfred as he flees, all hope lost, from the shadows of the past. The second movement is an image of nature, of the wild and passionate poetry of the Alpine landscape. The third movement portrays the idyllic and simple life of the mountain folk, while the fourth leads Manfred into a confrontation with Arimanes, lord of the underworld, in his subterranean realm. The hero fails, but his death redeems him from his suffering and the monumental work ends in an atmosphere of atonement and absolution. 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.
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