Festival of Hungarian Gems 1. - BOGÁNYI / DUBROVAY / LISZT // Baráti / Bogányi B. / Bogányi G. / Keller

A Celebration of Hungarian Treasures - HUNGARIAN CONCERTOS

For centuries, composers have been inspired by truly virtuoso players, musicians who can conjure forth from their instruments sounds that go straight to the heart. Some of these works have included passages written specifically for certain performers that the composers themselves probably imagined no one else in the world might be able to play. This concert offers the audience a chance to hear three of these. The first work on the programme is by the pianist Gergely Bogányi. Active as a composer for many years as well, he wrote this piece for his brother Bence Bogányi, a bassoonist of incredible technical skill. While it is structured as a bassoon concerto, in terms of the forces on stage it is more like a symphony. Distinguished by the Hungarianness of its principle themes throughout, it also incorporates elements of film music along with a harmonic world increasing in boldness from movement to movement. It was Kristóf Baráti’s skill with the violin that compelled László Dubrovay to write his second concerto for the instrument. The opening movement of this 2011 piece is written in a sonata form rich in harmonics, while the gloomy atmosphere of the slow movement is based on the mournful melody of the bells, percussion instruments and violin. The finale is the epitome of virtuosity itself. Concluding the concert will be Liszt’s Totentanz. Written for the German pianist Hans von Bülow, it develops the medieval melody of the Dies irae with transcendental Lisztian forces and devices.