News

Can music have a meaning? Should music have a meaning? Anyone who has so much as opened a book about classical music, or distractedly read some programme notes, has probably encountered this question. Ever since Liszt and Wagner coined two notorious terms – ‘symphonic poem’ and ‘absolute music’ – the ebb and flow of music history has left a variety of opinions on the shore. In the case of András Keller, founder of the Keller Quartet and Chief Conductor of Concerto Budapest, the answer is unequivocable: music not only can, but must have a message – and it is a musician’s task to convey it, or bring it to light when it is not immediately clear. By Elena Luporini on bachtrack.com

We're coming to you LIVE from Budapest, Hungary, for an all-concerto concert at the Bartók Festival presented by Concerto Budapest.

To mark the 80th anniversary of Béla Bartók’s passing on September 26th, Concerto Budapest is launching a festival celebrating the legacy and works of the renowned composer. The festival will feature Concertos, Sonatas, and Rhapsodies by Bartók in a series of five concerts.

Concerto Budapest Symphony Orchestra is one of Hungary’s leading orchestras, with rich history and dynamism of its young musicians. It is one of the most progressive and versatile symphonic orchestras, with a repertoire ranging from well-loved masterpieces to newly composed works of the twenty-first century. The orchestra is seeking a musician of outstanding ability for one of our violin tutti positions. Click for more details!

Season ticket series consisting of optionally selected concerts from the 2025/26 Season of Concerto Budapest. The subscription discount is valid for three, four or more concerts and for any number of tickets. We provide various discount rates upon the simultaneous purchase of tickets for three performances:- 15%, for four performances: -20%, for five or more performances: -25%. The optional concerts can be selected by clicking on BUY TICKET in the website menu. Your discount will be automatically applied when the ticket is placed in the shopping cart. 

We look forward to welcoming you and share with us the joy of live music performances in season 2025/26 as well.  Season tickets are on sale to the general public from Tuesday 20 May 2025. Click here for further information!

We are happy to announce you can re-watch the most breathtaking moments of our Mozart Day '25 concerts by clicking on our Youtube channel! Join us!

The concert held at the Liszt Academy on January 18th with the participation of conductor András Keller and renowned violinists was a great success, and can also be viewed online for ten days on various streaming platforms.

On January 18th, four masterpieces of violin literature, the violin concertos by Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn, Brahms and Bartók, were performed by Concerto Budapest under the baton of András Keller in the Great Hall of the Liszt Academy, with such excellent soloists as Abouzahra Mariam, Kristóf Baráti, Barnabás Kelemen and Lilia Pocitari. The artists paid tribute to the memory of three great Hungarian violin legends, Dénes Kovács, who passed away twenty years ago, and György Pauk and János Rolla, who recently passed away. The host of the evening was Tamás Körner.

The live stream can be viewed on the Concerto Budapest YouTube channel for 10 days after the broadcast, and can also be viewed on the Papageno Live platform.

The Concerto Budapest festival entitled A Celebration of the Violin will not take place in January due to technical reasons, the orchestra will instead reschedule the festival for early summer. Concerto Budapest will hold a Violin Gala on 18 January, in which several artists from A Celebration of the Violin will participate. “The staging of A Celebration of the Violin unfortunately encountered a number of technical issues and severe logistical obstacles related to the orchestra’s international commitments. Since the festival is of key importance, we wish to uphold not only its content, but also its artistic concept, so we had no choice to postpone the series of events. We are holding a Violin Gala on 18 January featuring Mariam Abouzahra, Kristóf Baráti, Barnabás Kelemen and Lilia Pocitari, who will perform concertos by Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn, Brahms and Bartók,” chief music director András Keller stated.

After the visits of Christian Tetzlaff and Augustin Hadelich, another international star violinist is coming to Concerto Budapest to lead a session. Anthony Marwood, a violinist with a distinguished career as a soloist, conductor and chamber musician, will hold a free master class for exceptional talents studying at the university level at Concerto Budapest’s headquarters on Páva Street on 6 December from 17:00 to 19:00.

Mozart Day 2024 by Concerto Budapest – Live stream at Gramophone and Index.hu, broadcast under the artistic direction of András Keller and directed by Imre Szabó Stein, made it to the finals of the LOVIE Awards in the general category Music & Entertainment in Film & Video, where it is up against Epidemic Sound by Swedish Acumen Media for the gold, silver or bronze award, which will be announced in early November.