MÁV Symphony Orchestra

In the first part of the concert the orchestra will play Symphony No.6 in C major by Schubert, who composed this piece at the age of 20. Although it was played once by an amateur orchestra during the composer’s life, the first public performance of this symphony only took place after his death, at a memorial concert in December 1828. Luigi Cherubini (1760-1842) was born in Florence yet we find his name most frequently associated with the history of French music. He wrote his first opera at the age of 20, and a few years later he moved to Paris where he became music director of the city’s Italian opera house. He enjoyed extraordinary respect: Napoleon was in awe of him, he was awarded the Légion d’Honneur, and from 1822 until his death he was director of the Paris Conservatoire and dictator of French music life. His music is linked to the Viennese classical style of his great contemporaries, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. He composed two requiems, the first in 1816 (C minor). This work attracted attention for not using soloists, only choir and orchestra. The D minor requiem penned 20 years later went even further: it scrapped all female vocals and paired only male choir to the orchestra. The puritan simplicity of the music conjures up an image of the singing of medieval monks.