Bruno BETTINELLI: Già mi trovai di Maggio
Pietro CLAUSETTI: Ombra dei boschi d’Aser
Morten LAURIDSEN: Ov’e lass’, il bel viso?
Morten LAURIDSEN: Quando son’ più lontan
Jonathan DOVE: The Passing of the Year
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Willem JETHS: Viaggio italiano (Italian Journey) – Hungarian premiere
Tamás BEISCHER-MATYÓ: Zsoltársorok (Lines from Psalms)

Dóra Bizják piano
Hungarian National Choir (choirmaster: Csaba Somos)

Conductor: Csaba Somos

Viaggio Italiano – an Italian journey. The second concert of the Hungarian National Choir’s Pászti subscription series promises plenty of exciting discoveries. Conducted by Csaba Somos and with Dóra Bizják on piano, the program features works by 20th-century Italian composers like Bruno Bettinelli and Pietro Clausetti, alongside pieces by contemporary American, English and Dutch composers such as Morten Lauridsen, Jonathan Dove and Willem Jeths, whose works connect to sun-kissed Italy through their language or themes. The evening concludes with a recent Hungarian piece by Tamás Beischer-Matyó, broadening the concert’s intellectual horizon yet further.

Italy is not only a perennial dream destination for tourists: musicians have also always enjoyed visiting the cities of the boot of Europe, both to soak up knowledge like the young Schütz and Händel, and also when seeking inspiration, like Brahms and Tchaikovsky. It is no surprise, therefore, that the second evening of the Hungarian National Choir’s Pászti season ticket is a thematic concert that invites us to travel Italy through its title of Viaggio Italiano. The programme is diverse: some of the composers were born on Mediterranean soil, and we will also hear works from those that were not conceived by an Italian but are in the Italian language, while there will also be some pieces whose themes recall the sunlit south. In addition, the concert will also offer up a wealth of exciting novelties as conductor Csaba Somos, with the piano accompaniment of Dóra Bizják, introduces us to works by such lesser-known composers as the Italians Bruno Bettinelli (1910–2004) and Pietro Clausetti (1904–1963), the American Morten Lauridsen (1943–), the Englishman Jonathan Dove (1959–), and Willem Jeths (1959–) from the Netherlands. The programme will even be enriched by a piece of contemporary Hungarian music by Tamás Beischer-Matyó (1972–).

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Named after the founder and former leader of the Hungarian State Choir, the predecessor of the National Choir, the Pászti season ticket unsurprisingly offers a rich bounty of vocal music: early music and contemporary pieces, as well as a cappella works and oratorical masterpieces, all courtesy of composers from both Hungary and elsewhere.

Conducting the first concert will be Mátyás Antal, who headed the Hungarian National Choir for a quarter of a century and is turning 80 this year. After appropriately kicking off the occasion with Haydn’s 80th symphony, he will then go on to lead the ensemble in two legendary masterpieces: Bartók’s Cantata Profana and Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms. For the second concert, current choirmaster Csaba Somos invites music lovers on a journey through Italy with works (where either the composer or the theme is Italian) by Bruno Bettinelli, Pietro Clausetti, Morten Lauridsen, Jonathan Dove, Willem Jeths and Tamás Beischer-Matyó.

The third concert commemorates yet another birthday, this time that of the Hungarian National Choir itself, which to celebrate the 40th anniversary of its founding will perform – again with Somos wielding the baton – works by Brahms and Mendelssohn: the former’s Schicksalslied (“Song of Destiny”) and the latter’s anthem Hör’ mein Bitten and the massive but rarely heard Lobgesang, the “Song of Praise” catalogued as Mendelssohn’s second symphony. The soloists for this evening will be Polina Pasztircsák, Lilla Horti and Szabolcs Brickner.

The final event in the subscription will be truly sensational. The 2025/2026 season of the Hungarian National Philharmonic features several remarkable events, one of which is Massenet’s oratorio La Vierge, now being presented for the first time ever in Hungary, with György Vashegyi on the podium. Taking the stage to sing the title role will be the outstanding French mezzo-soprano Aude Extremo.