Conductor: János Kovács Featuring: Vitaly Chanda – percussion, King Saint Stephen Oratorio Choir Brahms–Schoenberg: Piano Quartet in G minor – orchestral transcription László Dubrovay: Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra Johann Strauss: Waltzes and Polkas The predecessor to the King Saint Stephen Symphony Orchestra was founded from students of the Budapest Stephen Secondary School in 1954 by the hugely respected teacher József Záborszky. Along with his son Kálmán, they have nurtured t...he institution to the point where it has become a professional group, regularly performing difficult contemporary works and oratorios with its sister organisation the choir. The orchestra regularly welcomes leading figures in Hungarian music as guests. These include Kossuth Prize winning director János Kovács who is not only a distinguished opera house conductor but is also much in demand on the concert podium. The first work on the programme is a curiosity, an encounter between two leading Viennese composers from different generations. Arnold Schoenberg’s arrangement of his great predecessor Brahms’s G minor Piano Quartet is a bravura work, a fascinating analytical interpretation dividing motifs between instrumental groups. The piano solo is given to the orchestra without a single note being altered, while the sonority is aided by xylophone and tubular bells. Before the concert closes with some fine Viennese music from the pen of Johann Strauss, we will hear a concerto written in 2005 by Hungarian composer László Dubrovay which uses percussion instruments not just as colouring elements but as the principal players. As the composer says, his aim was to show as many faces of the instruments – marimba, vibraphone, chimes, tubular bells – as possible, as well as giving the soloist plenty of ammunition for displaying their virtuoso skills. This three movement concerto, according to Dubrovay, has a message that beside humour, lyricism and drama are also mere games which dissolve into thin air at the end of the composition.
Parking information
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