ROBERT BACHMANN Rotation 90° N – Hungarian première
Swiss-born composer Robert Bachmann (born: 1944) seeks to evoke the “uniquely mystical sense of elemental solitude at the Earth's centre of rotation”. In 1990, he spent four days at the North Pole, seeking a place of meditation far removed from civilisation and our manipulated environment. Rotation 90° N is an eternal canon in which there is the inexorable recycling of a relatively short, 17-beat piece of music. Bachmann believes not only that his music transforms his polar experience into a reflection of “the eternal orbiting of our planet in the universe”, but also that it expresses “tranquillity and peace”. The score for five violas, five cellos and four double basses is a musical vision of some kind of dark, murky and inchoate early state. One critic reckoned the work was as appealing as frost-bite.
RICHARD STRAUSS Divertimento after Couperin, Op. 86
In 1923, Richard Strauss compiled ballet music from an orchestral scoring of François Couperin keyboard pieces for the ballet Faded Celebrations: Dance Visions from Two Centuries. In 1942, with the addition of two extra movements, he expanded the ballet music into an eight-movement orchestral suite, in which he scored 17 works for keyboard Couperin composed between 1713 and 1730. The work was premiered by the Vienna Philharmonics on 31 January 1943. On hearing this light-hearted, carefree music, one can hardly believe that at the moment of its debut a large part of Europe was engulfed in flames.
PÉTER TORNYAI - BALÁZS HORVÁTH - MÁTÉ BALOGH - BÁNK SÁRY - MARCELL DARGAY - KORNÉL FEKETE-KOVÁCS - MÁTYÁS WETTL - REZSŐ OTT - ÁKOS ZARÁNDY 6:3 - world première
Give or take the Siege of Belgrade or the triumph at the Battle of Pákozd, who could dispute that the most heart-warming victory of the Hungarian nation was 6:3, when on 25 November 1953, the Golden Team crushed the England national 11, undefeated for 90 years on home soil, in front of 105,000 spectators crammed into Webley Stadium. Ever since, this win has been indisputable proof of our “national grandeur”. The earth-shattering triumph requires a celebration of epochal dimensions, and the mobilization of nine composers. (The collective composition was actually finished last year in time for the 65th anniversary of the match, but we have no hesitation about revisiting the matter again this year.) The composers utilize the immortal commentating by György Szepesi and the BBC recording (there were no TV facilities in Hungary at the time). The division of the ensemble symbolizes the two teams. The overall form of the work is as follows:
Péter Tornyai: Ouverture – with tunes of the Hungarian national anthem;
Balázs Horváth: The FIRST Goal in 70 Seconds – to Hidegkuti’s first goal;
Máté Balogh: Hommage à Szepesi – using the script of the legendary sport reporter to the goal by Puskás, which is often termed “the goal of the century”;
Bánk Sáry: Tiger Leap;
Marcell Dargay: INTER(national)MISSION;
Kornél Fekete-Kovács: Roar of Applause – the fifth goal and the events of the preceding two minutes;
Mátyás Wettl: Hidegkuti – piano solo in tribute to the hattrick-scoring footballer;
Rezső Ott: Ramsey to Ramsey – Ramsey’s penalty goal in the 57th minute;
Ákos Zarándy: The Glorious Finale.
