News

We are very grateful for Colin Clarke's excellent review of our TACET recording of Shostakovich's Symphonies No 9 and No 5. The review is available on the Classical Explorer classical music portal.

lLThe International Classical Music Awards ICMA today announced the nominations for their Awards 2024, celebrating the best musicians and recordings. This year’s nominations include many renowned soloists, ensembles, conductors and orchestras as well as a lot of young musicians, many of them being first-nominees.

Listen and watch the one-day contemporary music festival of Concerto Budapest- Ligeti Ensemble. Click here for the live stream!

At the Bartók World Competition, the jury was looking for what a young artist could do to capture our hearts, says world-renowned violinist-conductor András Keller, with whom we talked about this year's event, the problems and challenges of a competition, and more.- interview woth András Keller

The conductor has had to get his orchestra, the Concerto Budapest Symphony, through punishing times. It’s  ust one of the unexpected twists in his life. - by Michael Dervan Irish Times

- Review by Irwin Hewitt Telegraph - By what miracle did a superb Hungarian orchestra appear last night in a regional concert hall, with a top-rank solo pianist? As an economic proposition the concert was very risky, as the venue was modestly sized and in any case the orchestra does not have the lustrous name that can bring in huge crowds.

As Concerto Budapest performs Ligeti’s Century – Roaming in the Past, Kurtág sits behind its music director, András Keller, shadow-conducting from the score which quivers in his hands, and making the sounds he thinks the instruments should be making. “Yo-reee, not yo-ri”, he says. “Pa-DAL!”, he shouts, his elbow pushing into the arm of his wheelchair. As his opera arrives at the Proms, the avant garde master gives a rare interview for The Guardian. 

In Keller’s Hungarian-accented reflections, and in his conducting of Concerto Budapest, their philosophy lives on. “We have a very strong identity together as an orchestra. Each sound has meaning. This is what I fight for every day. And it’s normal that I must push the musicians, because each of them would like to be better from one day to the next. And in pushing for more, we are searching for our own sound, and our own understanding. It’s important not to stay on the surface of the music, because when you imitate something, it’s not yours.”

via bachtrack.com

Boasting a rich history that spans over a century, today it is recognised for being one of the most progressive and versatile symphonic orchestras whose playing is characterised by the passion, energy, and the commitment of its musicians which they bring to every performance.

The Concerto Budapest Symphony Orchestra will be performing at the Fairfield Halls next month, the latest highlight in the Croydon venue’s International Orchestral Series.