"The Octet began with a dream. I saw myself in a little room, surrounded by a small group of instrumentalists playing some music that appealed to me. Although I was listening carefully, I was unable to recognise it and couldn't recall it the following day; however, I remember that in my dream I was wondering how many musicians there were. I also remember that I figured they were eight of them, then I looked again and saw that they were playing bassoons, trombones, trumpets, a flute, and a clarinet. I woke up happy and expectant from this little concert, and next morning sat down to compose my Octet, something that had not even occurred to me the previous day, although I had been having an urge for quite a while to write a piece of chamber music. I liked the interplay of instruments in the Octet and I may add that I achieved exactly what I set out to accomplish (…) I was the conductor of the first performance, and had terrible stage fright too, probably because it was the first occasion: this was my first concert piece that I premiered myself. The stage of the Paris Opéra seemed a gigantic space for eight musicians, yet this was narrowed by the application of curtains so the sound was well balanced.” Among other things, this is what Stravinsky tells Robert Craft about the genesis of his Octet, premiered in 1923.

Duo Concertant for violin and piano is from 1932 and is also a ‘by-product' of the violin concerto, documenting a great musical partnership. In 1931, Stravinsky met the outstanding violinist of Polish descent, Samuel Dushkin. The composer premiered the piece with Dushkin in Berlin in 1932 and in the following years the two of them played it in several concerts all over Europe.

The earliest (and shortest) piece of this concert was written by Stravinsky for solo piano in 1919. The work was inspired by his first encounters with American jazz. Stravinsky, a new émigré after the October revolution, first saw jazz on sheet music only (conductor Ernest Ansermet provided him with the copies), yet by the time of composing Piano-Rag-Music he had already listened to jazz in concert. The short piece is characterised by features of the composer's Russian period as well as the influence of ragtime. Originally Stravinsky wrote the piece for Arthur Rubinstein, but it was premiered by another pianist instead; José Iturbi played it on 8 November 1919 in Lausanne.

• Tickets of each of the 50 minute concerts are 990 HUF, anyone purchasing three tickets is entitled to enter the fourth free of charge. So the cost of attending all 11 concerts is 8910 HUF instead of 10890 HUF.

Presented by: Budapest Festival Orchestra, Palace of Arts