An archduke and a pair of professional court musicians – legend has it that Beethoven composed his Triple Concerto for this select artistic grouping, devoting the piano part to his distinguished student, the young Archduke Rudolf. At least this would explain why the work is clearly more demanding of the violin and cello instrumentalists than of the pianist. For this performance, the violinist is the highly accomplished Júlia Pusker, while the cellist is 18-year-old Gergely Devich, who has added a Junior Prima Prize to his numerous international competition wins.

After the intermission András Keller conducts the late Bartók work with the name that matches the orchestra: Concerto. Béla Bartók himself had this to say about the naming of the five-movement orchestral composition written in the United States in 1943 for Serge Koussevitzky, conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra: “The title of this symphony-like orchestral work is explained by its tendency to treat single orchestral instruments in a concertante or soloistic manner.”