Hungarian Gems Series - Concert #5

The ambitious closing concert – conducted by András Keller – of the Concerto Budapest’s Hungarian Gems Series showcases an exceedingly rich image of the Hungarian concerto repertoire of the 20th century. The solo parts of the featured pieces will be played by pre-eminent instrumentalists of the Hungarian and international music scene, such as Orsolya Kaczander, Barnabás Kelemen and Dénes Várjon. The concert will begin with György Ligeti’s Concert Românesc (1951), a piece based on various Romanian traditional folk music elements. It will be followed by Sándor Veress's Concertotilinkó for flute and strings, which the master composed not long before his death. It was only a few years ago when the Violin Concerto written by Mihály Nádor, a victim of the holocaust, became known to a wider public: it premiered in the Carnegie Hall in 2013, interpreted by Barnabás Kelemen. As a legendary master of the Liszt Academy, Leó Weiner had a decisive impact on generations of great Hungarian musicians ranging from György Solti to Antal Doráti, Dénes Kovács or György Kurtág. This time, we can enjoy his Concertino for Piano and Orchestra. The concert will be concluded with Bartók’s Concerto, whose title – as Bartók himself pointed out – can be best explained with the soloistic treatment of the individual instruments or instrument groups.