At this concert, a masterpiece by Béla Bartók and a masterpiece by Franz Liszt are paired up, which is not an unusual or unjustified match: after all, Hungarian composer Bartók gave his inaugural lecture at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences on Franz Liszt. Befittingly, the first piece to be staged will be Bartók’s 1943 work “Concerto for 2 Pianos, Percussion and Orchestra” performed by two outstanding young pianists Mihály Berecz and Fülöp Ránki. This music was inspired by Bartók’s “Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion” created in 1937. Bartók composed this piece with the very practical aim of having a representative two-piano music at hand in his American emigration so that he could perform at orchestral concerts jointly with his wife Ditta Pásztory. “More important than the novelty of the actual details is the completely new and unprecedented concept of content, which is revealed in his main works, for example […] in the first and last movements of Franz Liszt’s Faust Symphony...” This quote actually comes from Bartók’s above-mentioned inaugural lecture. In the second part of the concert conducted by János Kovács, the audience will be able to experience and appreciate the still impressive originality and novelty of Franz Liszt’s 1854 Faust Symphony.

Programme:

BARTÓK: Concerto for 2 Pianos, Percussion and Orchestra, BB 121

LISZT: Faust Symphony

Performed by

Mihály BERECZ and Fülöp RÁNKI – piano

Boglárka FÁBRY and Bence CSEPELI – percussions

István KOVÁCSHÁZI – tenor

Conductor: János KOVÁCS

For further information, please visit the following website:

Concerto Budapest