Bach -Berio / Bartók / Ránki / Keller

Not every musician believes in God, but all believe in Bach, goes the saying, the truth of which is proven more than once in this concert. For instance, the endlessly experimenting, 20th century great Luciano Berio, who transcribed for 23-member orchestra in one of his late works, in 2001, the last, frequently analysed piece of TheArt of Fugue contrapuntal series. Naturally, our great pianist and double Kossuth Prize laureate Dezső Ránki also pays homage to Bach, in his performance of two keyboard concertos in collaboration with András Keller and orchestra, in the first half of the programme: the G minor concerto lifted from the Violin Concerto in A minor, and the Piano Concerto in A major perhaps based on an oboe d’amore concerto that has since been lost. Just as with Berio’s transcription, and The Art of Fugue, so Bartók’s concerto also represents the end days of his oeuvre. In 1944, the composer himself characterized the Concerto thus: “The general mood of the piece, with the exception of the humorous second movement, represents a gradual transition from the seriousness of the first movement and the mournful dirge of the third to the desire for life in the closing movement.”