The National Philharmonic Orchestra's concert at the Music Academy last Sunday saw the realisation of a witty program selection: the opening and closing works of the evening projected the world of storytelling onto a symphonic musical canvas – first with Maurice Ravel's 1912 depiction of Snow White, Tom Thump, the Princess of the Pagodas and […]
One of the interesting aspects to the 20 Hungarian Folksongs performed in the opening concert of the Budapest Music Weeks, was that it was partly orchestrated by Zoltán Kocsis. Another thing of interest is that as things stand, we will never hear it again. Of course, as we had the opportunity for an interview, we […]
The broadcast of the opening concert of the Budapest Music Weeks was also interesting from a television perspective and although it was shown a week after the event, at least it preserved what should be preserved. The television people had to solve a complex task, partly because the premiere of the Twenty Hungarian Folk Songs […]
The National Philharmonic Orchestra opened the season with a Bartók concert. The conductor Zoltán Kocsis also featured as a composer. Bartók transcribed five (nos. 1, 2, 11, 14, 12) of his Twenty Hungarian Folksongs (1929) for orchestra, but Kocsis now presented the whole work in an orchestral version. It is perhaps not an exaggeration to […]
When I first chanced upon the announcement of the National Philharmonic Orchestra's April 27th concert in the Concert Calendar, I immediately knew that that was the place for me. The choice of programme is virtually a symbol for Zoltán Kocsis's efforts at developing both the orchestra and the audience. Two Stravinsky works, which are rarer […]
