"The Calvinist Hymns concert, organised annually since 2002, is the largest musical celebration of the Calvinist Church in the Carpathian Basin. The event is held to allow concert recordings to be made of psalms and choral works from the Calvinist hymnbook sung by professional musicians, which are then made available on CD and DVD. Now numbering 350 members, the Carpathian Basin United Calvinist Choir is responsible for bringing a wealth of excellent chorus masters, soloists, chamber choirs and organists to the series. Year by year, the event attracts more and more "secular” music lovers and international guests in addition to the local Protestant congregation. The audience will sing a number of hymns together with the chorus at the concert, bringing the number of people singing praises in the National Concert Hall of the Palace of Arts to as many as 1,700 on occasion. Each of the four blocks of music will begin with a biblical sermon, while the concert will end with the mass singing of the national anthem before the congregation is discharged with an episcopal blessing.
Besides choirs from Hungary, the Carpathian Basin United Calvinist Choir - as an expression of our solidarity with ethnic Hungarians abroad - each year invites choirs from the once Hungarian regions of Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania and Serbia. Of the conductors, we should make special mention of Sándor Berkesi and János Arany, two highly knowledgeable teachers and personalities who have been a vital part of the event every year since 2002. It is also worth recalling the names of all the organists who have performed on the 13 CD and six DVD concert recordings so far: János Pálúr, Csilla Alföldy-Boruss, László Fassang, László Draskóczy, Antal Kéménczy, László Varga, András Gábor Virágh, Gábor Szotyori Nagy Jr. and Gyula Szilágyi.
The 13 CDs released so far feature a total of 230 Calvinist hymns and choral works. Some of the pieces are sung in a single vocal part for use in church services and to allow them to be sung and studied in schools. Others are performed in several vocal parts to be presented and preserved as choral masterpieces. Much work still remains for us to do as part of this ongoing service to ensure that as many as possible of the 512 hymns in the Calvinist hymnbook are recorded for the present and for posterity. We are delighted and proud to report that the first and second albums of Calvinist Hymns (Református Énekek) have gone platinum, while the third, fourth and fifth albums are gold platters.” (Gergely Böszörményi - publisher, concert director)

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