The key in music is just as important as the key to a door or a lock. The key determines whether the tone of the music is basically hard (duro in Italian) or soft (molle). And there are all the shades of difference within the two! Take a „hard” tonality and note the difference between a sonorous E flat major or a warm, rounded A flat major! The E flat major will be beautiful on the horns, the F major shines in royal splendour on the trumpets: these are traditions that influenced the birth and overall sound of a composition already in Beethoven’s time. The German composer wrote in D major his concerto that exploited the upper, glistening register of the violin in a novel way. But closest to him were the serious, grave, somber tonalities. One of the most powerful of these is the Coriolan Overture in which the restless, desperate though combative spirit is contrasted with a second theme suggestive of tender emotions. In the Eroica Symphony, the same heroic C minor becomes staggering funeral music, then turned into a major key, shines in a dignified, royal, divine light, for instance, in the Triple Concerto or in the Mass in C major.

Built around these tonalities, the Martonvásár concerts, these nights with a special atmosphere feature the best instrumental and vocal solists of the young generation of musical performers. The National Philharmonic Orchestra is conducted by its music director Zoltán Kocsis, the choirmaster of the National Choir, Mátyás Antal and a pianist and conductor of equally great esteem, Tamás Vásáry.