one interval
Conductor:
Featuring:
Levente Gyöngyösi
Sinfonia concertante for four percussionists and orchestra
Tchaikovsky
The Swinging Nutcracker (revised version)
Although one would be justified in associating Levente Gyöngyösi's Sinfonia concertante with works in a similar genre by Haydn and Mozart, this one features a percussion ensemble juxtaposed against a symphony orchestra. Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker is one of the most popular pieces in music and a universally beloved part of the Christmas holidays. The Swinging Nutcracker presents the work in a new guise: some of the passages are played as Tchaikovsky originally envisioned them, while others - like the story itself - are presented in a reimagined form.
The structure of Gyöngyösi's piece is the traditional order of two fast movements bookending a slow one. The percussion ensemble will be fielding an entire arsenal of familiar and unfamiliar instruments, with the melodic ones - the marimba, vibraphone, xylophone and tubular bells - naturally taking pride of place. The opening and closing movements, are dominated by a virtuosically rhythmic atmosphere reminiscent of popular music, while the second movement awards a prominent role to the African talking drum. By incorporating the Szekler folk song Szivárvány havasán ('Rainbow Over the Snow-Capped Mountains'), the composer intended to pay tribute to the memory of the world-famous Zsolt Erőss, the first Hungarian mountain climber to conquer Mount Everest. Some of the movements in The Swinging Nutcracker revolve around the unique musical ideas and sound world of the Talamba Percussion Ensemble, Richárd Révész and Roland Szenpáli, while other are given new life courtesy of the imagination of Péter Sárik. At this concert, the well-known instrumental suite will be supplemented by a few additional movements from the ballet as well. Like some of the music, E. T. A. Hoffmann's original The Nutcracker fairy tale will be related in an updated and revised format.
Presented by: Dohnányi Orchestra Budafok, Müpa Budapest
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