The Reformation Memorial Committee commissioned a ‘Bach cantata’ from Zoltán Jeney on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. The new work is performed at the closing concert of the commemorative year, in the Grand Hall of the Liszt Academy on 19 December 2017. Zoltán Jeney spoke to us about the composition.

A portrait of András Szőllősy, written by Szabolcs Molnár.

Violinist and conductor (sometimes both at the same time), viola player and chamber musician, teacher and philanthropist… Born in Lithuania but resident since childhood in Vienna, Julian Rachlin is one of those rare musician personalities whose diversity and energy is difficult to formulate in words. As one of the most in-demand artists of our day, he takes to the stage of the Grand Hall on 22 November at the head of English Chamber Orchestra, which boasts a tradition going back TO close on 60 years. He conducts Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 and Violin Concerto, the latter also as solo instrumentalist. In this interview with Concert Magazine, he speaks about his multifaceted activities, the musical upbringing of young people, Bartók, and the role of music in public life.

In the wake of Firsts and Lasts and then Turning Point, Magic Mountain, a most apt appellation similarly lifted from literature, becomes the title of the new series of kamara.hu. Many parallels can be drawn between the Thomas Mann novel and the Liszt Academy’s now well established autumn chamber music festival, but artistic directors Izabella Simon and Dénes Várjon did not choose the title purely for these similarities.

In its pure form, folk music is hard to come by. Like an unstable chemical, it cycles through numerous permutations as it reacts with something in its current environment. However, it is not only folk music itself that is fleeting and transmutative, the scientific fields seeking to analyse and define it are also in a constant state of flux. Science, teaching and, most recently, performance art itself try – in their own ways, using the tools at their disposal – to define the essence of the term folk music, but precisely because of its volatility, writers are forced into making lengthy circumlocutions on the subject. And let’s not forget that eternal scientific paradox that states that the observer always has an effect on the material being observed, so observation itself can never be totally objective.