It is a centuries-old tradition in music history for organists to be polymaths. To be not only performers, but to also be thoroughly acquainted with the instrument itself, music theory and the liturgy (since most organists are also church musicians), in addition to being able to improvise masterfully in different styles - while also creating their own written works as composers. All of these are things that can be said about the outstanding French organist. Long known and beloved by the Hungarian audience, the organist Thierry Escaich will be giving a performance of French organ music at Müpa Budapest's Béla Bartók National Concert Hall with a programme alternating between the Romantic works of César Franck and Escaich's own compositions, along with an improvisation in tribute to Franck.
It offers some excitingly colourful and varied listening. The evening will be framed by two of Escaich's own compositions, both pairing the organ with an orchestra: La Barque solaire (The Solar Ship) and Quatre Visages du temps (Four Faces of Time). Concerto Budapest, the organist's partner in these pieces with the young Gábor Káli conducting, will also play independently of the organist in the middle of the program, performing César Franck's rarely heard symphonic poem Le Chasseur maudit ...(The Accursed Huntsman). Born in Belgium but later a lifelong Parisian, Franck is one of the great figures of French Romanticism and one of Escaich's predecessors in terms of his set of activities, as he divided his time between creative work, organ performance, teaching and functioning as a church musician. Two of his works for solo organ will also be included on the programme for the evening. Escaich was born in Nogent-sur-Marne, near Paris, in 1965 and studied at the Conservatoire de Paris, where he has been teaching improvisation and composition since 1992. He performs concerts all over the world. He is not exclusively an "organ composer", as he writes compositions for all kinds of different formations.
The concert will be preceded from 6.30 pm by a conversation entitled Prologue, where ticket holders will be invited to get to know the performing musician and the works to be performed more closely.
The host of the discussion is Gergely Fazekas.
Presented by: Müpa Budapest
Ticket information
You may purchase tickets online and in person for this performance using a Müpa Budapest gift voucher or by debiting the leisure allowance on OTP, K&H or MKB SZÉP cards.
If you purchase the tickets in person, then we also accept Edenred Gift Vouchers, and Edenred gift cards (Benefit and Family cards) as well as the culture subaccount allowance on OTP Cafeteria cards.
Parking information
We wish to inform you that in the event that Müpa Budapest's underground garage and outdoor car park are operating at full capacity, it is advisable to plan for increased waiting times when you arrive. In order to avoid this, we recommend that you depart for our events in time, so that you you can find the ideal parking spot quickly and smoothly and arrive for our performance in comfort. The Müpa Budapest underground garage gates will be operated by an automatic number plate recognition system. Parking is free of charge for visitors with tickets to any of our paid performances on that given day. The detailed parking policy of Müpa Budapest is available here.
Refreshments – Without the Queue
Thanks to our new catering service at the Átrium Snack Bar, you can forget about waiting in line during intermissions for some refreshments and get your order prepped especially for you by the time the intermission actually starts. Find out more about pre-ordering here.
Safe ticket purchase
Dear Visitors, please note that only tickets purchased from the Müpa website and official ticket offices are guaranteed to be valid. To avoid possible inconvenience, we suggest buying tickets to our performances and concerts via the mupa.hu website, the Interticket national network (jegy.hu) or at our official ticket offices.
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