Happily, the music of Shostakovich has been undergoing a renaissance over the past few decades, and the Hungarian audience owes a debt of gratitude to András Keller and Concerto Budapest for this, as they play some of the composer's pieces each year. Today's occasion is an exceptional one, as it represents a chance to encounter two of the composer's lighter, jazz-inspired compositions, often used as film music, as well as one of his gloomy, grotesque, and sometimes solemn and even folk-sounding late concertos. Shostakovich's sparkling humour in the first jazz suite and the famous waltz from the Variety suite need no introduction, and neither does István Várdai, the soloist for the Second Cello Concerto. This world-traveling musician has been teaching at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna for a few years now, but we are pleased that he often returns home to take the stage in Hungary as well. In the second half of the evening, the story of the evil wizard Koschei and Tsarevitch Ivan will come to life in music in The Firebird. The 1910 ballet is the first collaboration between Stravinsky and Sergei Diaghilev, and met with tremendous success.

Presented by: Concerto Budapest