Sándor Balassa 85

“Let the work be new in thought, rich in its relations, multifaceted in its human gestures. Let it be pure in style: the sounds present should come only from themselves. (…) There is only one yardstick: we have to use this to measure a molehill and Ararat.” Sándor Balassa in an interview given more than 40 years ago said this about the artistic-human expectation that he primarily set himself, and although his compositional style changed over the decades, new compositions adding to his oeuvre have always been conceived in this spirit. The concert celebrating his 85th birthday validates this when, under the baton of Ádám Medveczky, a representative sample of works from the second half of his oeuvre are performed, which even with their choice of titles reflect the preservation of the traditions of national culture and the national past.