This journey through three centuries of music history starts with Bach and guides the listener all the way through to the present day. Framing the programme are performances by the teachers of the master class, with László Fassang opening the concert with his own transcription of Shostakovich's Festive Overture and Zsigmond Szathmáry closing it with Liszt's most famous organ work, the prelude and fugue he composed around the notes to the name “BACH”. The nine participants in the course, students from the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, the Bratislava Conservatory, the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt Weimar and the Conservatoire de Paris, will be performing representative works from the German, French and Hungarian organ schools. Comprising organ works by Bach, Mendelssohn, Vierne, Messiaen, Ligeti and Zsigmond Szathmáry, the programme also features a unique highlight in the form of Soma Lozsányi's organ transcription for six hands of the scherzo from Mendelssohn's string octet. In singular fashion, this public master class shows listeners the route to the final result, not just the result itself. Teachers and students will jointly seek out the possible answers to the most important question in the performing arts: “How can the ideas that the composer has committed to paper as a score be relayed in the most comprehensible possible manner?” What tools does Müpa Budapest's organ provide in service of this transmission? How can the 92 registers be used to mix the colours that best suit the character of the music? What would the composer say about all this if he were alive? And what about if he were right here with us on the stage? Questions and possible questions through which we arrive at the festive concert delivered to the audience. It will be like watching the staff of an exclusive restaurant prepare a banquet dinner under the guidance of two master chefs.

Presented by: Müpa Budapest, Academy of Music