Ferenc LISZT–Zoltán KOCSIS: Goethe-Festmarsch (Goethe Festival March), S. 521
Claude DEBUSSY–Zoltán KOCSIS: Images [Oubliées] (Forgotten Images)
Ernő DOHNÁNYI: Variations on a Nursery Tune, Op. 25
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Béla BARTÓK: Concerto for Orchestra, Sz. 116, BB 123

Mihály Berecz piano
Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra

Conductor: András Keller

As many people will remember, Zoltán Kocsis gave a charity concert for disadvantaged children every year on his birthday as conductor of the Hungarian National Philharmonic. Five years after his death, a new initiative was launched: since 2021, we have paid tribute on this significant day to the treasures of Hungarian music in partnership with the Liszt Academy, while also evoking the memory of our former general music director. On Hungarian Classical Music Day, 30 May 2027, works by three of Hungary’s most distinguished composers – Franz Liszt, Ernő Dohnányi and Béla Bartók – will be performed. In addition, a work by Claude Debussy will represent the spirit of a foreign master whose example inspired Kodály and Bartók in the early 20th century, when the two Hungarian masters sought to break free from the constraints of Germanic thinking. Zoltán Kocsis’s spirit will also be present when Liszt’s commemorative piece, the Goethe-Festmarsch, is heard in his orchestration, along with the French composer’s Images [Oubliées] cycle. These two intriguing rarities will be followed by Dohnányi’s humorous masterpiece, Variations on a Nursery Tune, and, after the interval, Bartók’s great work from his American years, the Concerto for Orchestra. On this evening, András Keller, artistic director of Concerto Budapest, will stand at the helm of the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra. Through his work, he has already done much to earn recognition for the finest examples of Hungarian classical music.