The concert by the National Philharmonic Orchestra pitted the music of Bartók and Debussy against each other. As the opening number, Zoltán Kocsis conducted a rarely heard composition: Debussy's symphonic poem Printemps. This is an early work (1887), written while the composer was enduring his Prix de Rome scholarship. Following on from Kocsis's baton, the […]
Since becoming chief musical director of the National Philharmonic Orchestra, Zoltán Kocsis has not desisted from thinking and acting like a pianist. Evidence of this has been his concerto invitations extended to highly talented soloists whom Hungarian audiences have not been able to enjoy before. For example, the Russian Arkadi Volodos, who performed at the […]
Kun Woo Paik gives a concert at the Music Academy;;At first glance, he is the embodiment of peace – combining the familiar Asian pleasantness and politeness. Kun Woo Paik however quickly warned me that this image is a deception – "We Koreans in many ways resemble the Russians, we live in extremes as they do. […]
The cellist Clemens Hagen performs at the National Philharmonic Orchestra's concert on Sunday Clemens Hagen, the Salzburg cellist will play Shostakovich's First Cello Concerto tomorrow evening at the Music Academy with the National Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Zoltán Kocsis. The concert will be followed by Tchaikovsky's Manfred Symphony. Clemens Hagen has toured the […]
The Music Director, and Principal chef, Zoltán Kocsis, invited his guests to a table laden with a gourmet's selection. We could describe every item on the menu as the chef's favourite, since the program alternated works by Debussy and Bartók, the two composers to whom Kocsis the pianist is most closely associated. This evening, the […]
(…) The fifty four year old world star has been standing on concert podiums for forty years, and as both soloist and chamber musician, played all the classical-romantic repertoire a hundred times over. I don't even want to contemplate how many times he must have performed the Beethoven concerto which he played this evening. For […]
(…) The pianist Jenő Jandó is this year giving a series of concerts to mark his fiftieth birthday (although is he giving or receiving this present?). He is playing in solo concerts, as well as chamber and orchestral performances. Unless I am mistaken, a Hungarian performing artist has never before been given such a fiftieth […]
Those less informed, attending last Sunday's concert, could pick up a 128 page mini-book as they arrived at the Music Academy. It contained details of the programmes for all the National Philharmonic Orchestra's concerts this year, along with programme notes and biographies of the performers. In recent years, it has been a common complaint that […]
Concert film by Zsolt Hamar and Zoltán Czigány on Duna Television. A fascinating concert film has been made of Béla Bartók's masterpiece from 1930, Cantata Profana, to be shown on Duna Television on Sunday evening at quartet to ten, as part of Hungarian Culture Day. We spoke Zsolt Hamar, who conducted the National Philharmonic Orchestra, […]
The Government has decided that from January, the National Philharmonic Orchestra should operate within a new, more modern economic framework as a public benefit company. Thus since January the musicians have been working as employees, and the ensemble can operate under more flexible financial conditions, because as a public benefit company [Kht in Hungarian] it […]
