Haydn, Balogh, Schumann – Ádám Cser

Joseph HAYDN: Symphony No. 102 in B-flat major, Hob. I:102
Máté BALOGH: Symphony No. 1 (Omaggio à Giuseppe Haydn)

***
Robert SCHUMANN: Symphony No. 4 in D minor, Op. 120

Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor: Ádám Cser

The 12 “London” Symphonies represent the crowning achievement of Joseph Haydn’s (1732–1809) orchestral output. The tenth work in the series, the Symphony No. 102 in B-flat major (1794), is perhaps slightly less well known than some of its companions, yet many consider it to be one of Haydn’s finest. The famous “miracle”, when a falling chandelier caused no injuries during a performance, did not occur at the premiere of the work long known as the “Miracle” Symphony (No. 96), as was believed for many years. Instead, the accident came about at the King’s Theatre in May 1795 on the occasion of the London premiere of the symphony to be performed here. Could there be a better moment to perform a contemporary work entitled Omaggio à Giuseppe Haydn than immediately after a Haydn symphony? Máté Balogh’s (b. 1990) Symphony No. 1 (2021) was commissioned by the Győr Philharmonic Orchestra and employs the same orchestration as Haydn’s Symphony No. 47. The composer describes his work as follows: “My aim was not to write a stylistic exercise in the manner of Haydn, but something far more ambitious: I wanted to use the form as a vehicle for expressing my own ideas, with Haydn as a point of reference.” Robert Schumann (1810­–1856) wrote his Symphony No. 4 in D minor in 1841 and revised it in 1851. This weighty, passionate and dramatically charged confession is notable above all for its concise nature and the thematic coherence that binds its four movements together. Ádám Cser (b. 1979) is a conductor, composer and the music director of the National Theatre of Miskolc.

Photo: József Wagner Csapó

Supported by Hungarian Academy of Arts