Concerto Budapest

Nikolai Lugansky is one of the greatest pianists of our time, blessed with extraordinary abilities. He always takes to the stage in a somewhat reserved manner, and his playing appears (but only appears!) to be emotionless. Playing the solo part in the Piano Concerto in E minor by a 20-year-old Chopin, who was then bidding farewell to Poland and Warsaw, the pianist is set once again to reveal to a Budapest audience that astounding gift and profound artistry proven on so many other occasions. There is a symphony both before and after the piano concerto: the teenager-Mozart composition regularly called the ‘little’ G minor symphony and one of the steadfastly popular works of the Romantic Slav orchestral repertoire. The composer of the Eighth, Dvořák’s most popular symphony along with New World, dedicated it to the Bohemian Academy of Emperor Franz Joseph for the Encouragement of Arts and Literature, in gratitude for being elected a member of the academy. The work dating from 1889, written during one of the successful and more stable periods of his career, preserves the cheerful mood of Dvořák at that time while it also reveals the deep connection he drew on from Czech landscapes.