HUNGARIAN SYMPHONIC PANORAMA Featuring: Budapest Academic Choral Society (choirmaster: Ildikó Balassa), Budapest Youth Choir (choirmaster: Ágnes Gerenday) Conductor: Gábor Hollerung János Vajda: Variations Bernstein: Divertimento Grofé: Grand Canyon The Dohnányi Orchestra Budafok has always been willing to perform works placed on the borders between serious and light music. János Vajda’s composition Variations – based on lines from Domokos Szilágyi’s “Variations on an imaginary verse by Weöres” – is precisely such a work; it is quite possible it will make the audience chuckle. Leonard Bernstein composed his Divertimento in 1980 for the one hundredth anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The work features uplifting Latin-American rhythms and a rich percussion section which ensures the music is not just valuable but also fun. Apart from samba, rumba and blues, Bernstein finds room for other European dances such as the mazurka and the waltz. American Ferde Grofé led a varied life: he was a milkman, a courier, a ticket seller, a bouncer, a liftboy, a bar pianist and also played in Paul Whiteman’s jazz orchestra. He became famous overnight when he orchestrated Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. His most famous original composition was his Grand Canyon suite, written in 1931, which features masterly orchestration and a suggestive depiction of moods. From January to March 2005, before its official opening, the Palace of Arts underwent a testing phase during which Hungarian orchestras performed almost daily, giving us not only a sense of the hall’s capabilities but also presenting a fascinating picture of Hungary’s orchestral life. The positive experiences gathered during this “spontaneous” festival spawned the concept of turning it into a permanent feature of the Palace of Arts’ concert series and it has now become an established new tradition. Thus in 2006, the series Symphonia Hungarorum – Hungarian Symphonic Panorama was created and in 2007, no less than fifteen Hungarian symphonic ensembles will represent themselves at the festival. As last year, the orchestras are free to choose their own programmes with the proviso they perform in each concert at least one 20th or 21st century Hungarian work.

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