The prelude to Richard Wagner's opera Tristan und Isolde is a masterpiece developed from a single motif - one of the most perfect pieces ever written, it highlights a pivotal episode in the music drama: the moment of tasting the magic potion. The music in György Ránki's opera King Pomádé's New Clothes - and the suite created from it - is, like Ránki's music in general and unlike Wagner's, incredibly eclectic: represented here alongside the numerous operatic elements is the world of film music, combined with the unique features of the genres of jazz and folk music. Dutch composer Johan de Meij composed his T-bone Concerto in 1996 at the request of the Kentucky Music Educators Association, and the premiere of the entire work was held at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw in that same year. The title of the piece is a pun: the abbreviation of the word trombone (T-bone) is also the name of a cut of steak. The titles of the movements, accordingly, are the words for the different degrees of doneness for a piece of meat: "Rare", "Medium" and "Well Done". Concluding the programme will be the Cuban-inspired piece Danzón No. 2 by contemporary Mexican composer Arturo Márquez. The work was originally written for full orchestra, with solos for clarinet, oboe, piano, violin, horn, trumpet, flute and piccolo. Thanks to Oliver Nickel's wonderful transcription, the composition rapidly became a favourite at wind orchestra concerts.

Presented by: Szent István Philharmonic