Lucrezia Borgia was a renaissance genius Gaetano Donizetti proved to contemporary audiences that he could also write dramatic works with his opera Lucrezia Borgia. This work, directed by Ferenc Anger and performed in semi-staged form at Müpa Budapest on 18 November, occupies a very special place among the works of...
Lucie Horsch, 22-year-old recorder virtuoso, is one of the six chosen participants (this year, four soloists and two formations) of the Rising Stars programme. The joint initiative of the European Concert Hall Organisation (ECHO) gives the opportunity for young artists every year to enchant the audience in many different venues...
On 5 November, it will have been one hundred years since world-renowned Hungarian piano virtuoso György Cziffra was born, and twenty seven years since he passed away. The György Cziffra Memorial Year, launched in February under the artistic direction of János Balázs, Kossuth Prize-winning pianist, features more than 100 concerts...
Two monumental symphonic poems in the history of Hungarian music and a thrilling premiere: the Liszt Fest's concert on 23 October, The Sounds of Freedom, is promising to be full of emotion, power and catharsis. “What is our life but a series of preludes to that unkown melody whose first...
“My new album Best of Me is a collection of songs written and inspired by my musical heroes. These songs capture the entire essence of my musical journey so far. I hope they inspire you on your journey.”(Cory Henry) Everyone knows about Franz Liszt that he was a virtuoso, with...
As the years pass by, I find myself increasingly open to musical productions that operate with a fusion of styles that are seemingly distant from each other. Not only the fusion of classical music and jazz, but also the blend of classical and world music has a lot to show...
Gergely Vajda, the well-known conductor and composer, has long been fascinated by Péter Esterházy's novelette, Transporters. The composition, which lasts about an hour, was completed last year and was performed in March in a concert performance at the BMC. The chamber orchestra was conducted by the composer himself, with...
In this welfare-based part of the world where I write these words, we are experiencing a special and unusual case. Namely: the border of youth is pushing forward as we age. I have been hearing for almost two decades now: “don’t worry, you’re still so young”, and anyway, 40 is...
Thomas Hampson, considered to be one of the best baritones of the US, started something huge in 2003. His foundation, Hampsong, was created - as its name shows - to study and proliferate songs. Nowadays, people kind of use ‘song’ as a synonym for ‘music’; an extreme example for this...
Franz Liszt's great organ works will be performed by the young German virtuoso Martin Sturm on 10 October at the Liszt Fest International Cultural Festival. One of the most important international ambassadors of the organ, the youngest professor at the Weimar Academy of Music will play the magnificent, richly coloured...
Viktor Tóth and his fellow musicians prepare something special for us with their concert Right On! in the Müpa. Their improvisational music, operating with different styles and switches between moods, will guard us through a stream from island to island. Our sailors are musicians playing soulful music who offer the...
There are a lot of anecdotes featuring Hungarian nobleman and leader of a war of independence, Francis II Rákóczi. One says that after Rákóczi escaped from political imprisonment, he pretended to be drunk and sang folk songs, almost falling off his horse. Not only people but folk music also helped...
I’m catching pianist Víkingur Ólafsson for an interview during his tour in Los Angeles to discuss his newest album, Mozart and Contemporaries, and the related concert in the Müpa on 22 September. Despite the time zone difference (he’s sitting in front of Zoom at 8 am while I sip my...
I had no idea how an interview with someone like Friedrich Liechtenstein could start. I felt kind of bashful when we started the Zoom room. Then he appeared, asked the first question before me: “Where am I?”, and then explained what he had done the night before: had had a...
The premiere of Don Giovanni happened 233 years ago. Lorenzo da Ponte, librettist of the opera noted that the emperor said afterwards: “An enchanting opera. Might be even better than the Figaro. But my Viennese don’t like this kind of music.” When Mozart heard this, he responded that the Viennese...
Admired female icons with a dark side. Fonogram prize awarded jazz singer Gabi Szűcs investigates in her concert La femme fatale in the Müpa what is really like to be labelled like that as an artist or celebrity. Are these women better lovers than wives, or is it only a...
Speaking of past and present of Hungarian jazz, it is inevitable to mention János Gonda’s name. He did so many things that it is almost impossible to imagine how it could be only one person’s life work. The jazz-pianist-composer died this March; Müpa will commemorate him with the concert Jazz...
"The 85-year-old Maestro came out to the stage with a cane and you could see him happy and inspired by what was coming (or maybe by those who have come?). One way or another, once the long welcoming applause faded, he didn’t need a cane anymore, he didn’t even need...
Last October I had a lengthy conversation with dancer-choreographer-director Bence Vági about the shows of the Recirquel, old and new genres, and the whole philosophy behind contemporary circus. As I’m rather a person of words than movements, I remembered most vividly how he related cirque danse to poetry. Now that...
It is never easy to be a second child. I have read in psychology books various times how it is the firstborn who manages to be more like the parent, to fulfil their (conscious or subconscious) wishes. The second born is subversive, therefore also more innovative. Sometimes they go in...
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