Hungarian Gems - Rhapsodic Melodies

MIHÁLY NÁDOR: Violin Concerto
LISZT: Hungarian Historical Portraits arranged by Sándor Veress – excerpts
- intermission -
BARTÓK: Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra, BB 36b
BARTÓK: Rhapsody No. 2 for Violin and Piano, BB 96a

Barnabás Kelemen (violin), Krisztián Kocsis (piano)
Concerto Budapest
Conductor: Domonkos Héja

The programme of works in this concert also evoking the memory of Hungarian music’s two giants, Ferenc Liszt and Béla Bartók, starts off with a piece the first drafts of which were sketched out in the 19th century, but only took on their final form in 1942. What is more, the world premiere had to wait right up until just a few years ago, in 2014. The late Romantic Violin Concerto by Holocaust victim Mihály Nádor is performed (just as was the case at its debut) by Barnabás Kelemen in order to profit from his astonishing virtuosity especially in the final movement. In the wake of this work that was discovered only seven decades after its completion, we have extracts of the 19th century piano series definitely familiar at least in its title, yet in a 20th century arrangement: in publishing the score of Hungarian Historical Portraits in Milan in 1956, Sándor Veress made a full orchestral version out of the Liszt work. In the second half of the concert, the two Bartók rhapsodies provide a forum for a pianist, too: we can enjoy the skills of Krisztián Kocsis who is still only in his early twenties, firstly accompanying Concerto Budapest under the baton of Domonkos Héja, and then in chamber mode in the company of Barnabás Kelemen.