László Dubrovay: Symphony No. 6 (‘Spring’)
György Ligeti: Concert Românesc

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Claude Debussy – Zoltán Kocsis – Marurice Ravel: Images (oubliées), L. 87
Leó Weiner: Hungarian Folk Dances – suite, op. 18

Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra

Conductor: Gábor Káli

Zoltán Kocsis made it his worthy custom to give a charity concert each year on his birthday, the 30th of May. This tradition was later revived by his former ensemble, the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra, and his alma mater, the Liszt Academy, when they jointly established Hungarian Classical Music Day in 2021. On Kocsis’s birthday, the concerts pay tribute to Hungarian classical music and its creators – in part with the unconcealed aim of encouraging new works of Hungarian classical music to be born.

László Dubrovay originally wrote his 2009 ‘Spring’ Symphony No. 6 for concert brass ensemble, but later created a symphonic version as well, which is what we will be hearing here. György Ligeti’s youthful opus Concert Românesc (1951) is a testament both to the budding composer’s enthusiasm for Romanian folk music and his respect for the output of Bartók. Although Debussy’s 1894 series Images (oubliées) is not a Hungarian work, it did become one at least in part when Kocsis found a congenial way to arrange the first and third of the three movements, originally written for piano, for orchestra (the middle movement, Sarabande had already been arranged by Ravel in 1923). In performing the cycle, we pay tribute to Kocsis’s universal knowledge, a frequent subject of admiration. Leó Weiner’s cycle Hungarian Folk Dances not only enchants listeners with its elegance, it also reminds us that there is much the Hungarian music world has to do when it comes to Weiner’s oeuvre, which, still under the shadow of those of his two giant contemporaries Bartók and Kodály, continues to receive less attention. Taking the podium will be Gábor Káli, an outstandingly talented young Hungarian conductor who has achieved considerable success both here and abroad in recent years.