This evening brings a world-famous Canadian conductor to the helm of the Hungarian National Philharmonic: the former chief conductor of the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, Keri-Lynn Wilson worked as Claudio Abbado's assistant at the Salzburg Festival early in her career, and today is a recurring guest at many prestigious European opera houses.
The programme features two symphonies, each of them special in their own way. Krzysztof Penderecki entered the front rank as one of the leading avant-garde composers of the '60s and '70s, but today only writes “easily digestible” works that, both pleasing and potent, have gained extraordinary popularity with audiences. Completed in 1980, the Symphony No. 2 opened a new neo-Romantic period in the career of this composer, who turns 84 this year. The one-movement composition repeatedly returns to snatches from the originally German Christmas carol Silent Night, hence the work's sobriquet.
One of the reasons why Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 4 is unique is its orchestral lied in the fourth movement, which also serves as a post-facto explanation of the preceding three movements. Pervading the remarkable emotional atmosphere of this work are an otherworldly idyll permeated with wise serenity or, as the composer's close friend Bruno Walter put it, “intimate devotion dreaming a heavenly dream.” Eszter Zemlényi, the outstandingly talented vocal soloist for the performance, took a special prize at the 2016 József Simándy International Competition in Szeged and won the Emil Petrovics Singing Competition in Szeged outright.

Presented by: Hungarian National Philharmonic