IN MEMORIAM PETER EÖTVÖS

 

Peter Eötvös, composer, conductor, music educator, and one of the most outstanding figures of the Hungarian and international contemporary music scenes, has passed away at 80. His accomplishments were recognised with the Order of Saint Stephen and the Kossuth Prize.

The Pannon Philharmonic Orchestra bids farewell to Peter Eötvös, one of the greatest Hungarian composers and performers, with profound reverence and deep sadness. Peter Eötvös was a supreme composer and an equally awe-inspiring conductor and mentor of young talents. The members of PFZ are immensely proud to have enjoyed numerous collaborations in the past few years with him, who was a musician through and through and who died this past weekend. With his professional and personal integrity, Eötvös empowered, inspired and confirmed the meaning and fruit of the massive efforts expended in Pécs in the past 20 years. Péter Eötvös – and previously, Zoltán Kocsis – stood by and before the Pannon Philharmonic as the most authentic Hungarian musicians, by which they demonstrated that a city in the countryside is not necessarily provincial, and high quality and world-class standards can be achieved anywhere.

The ensemble’s relationship with Eötvös began in 2016 within the framework of the Armel Opera Festival, when PFZ performed his Senza Sangue and Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle in the National Theatre in Budapest. The interpretation of Eötvös' work, which was directed by Róbert Alföldi and conducted by Eötvös himself, was announced as the best production of the festival and turned into a curiosity of the Hungarian opera. In September of the same year, our ensemble had the opportunity to stage the festival's prize-winning production again at the Hackney Empire in London.

In 2018, at the MuTH Theatre in Vienna, PFZ's Director Zsolt Horváth and conductor Gergely Vajda received a special prize from the professional international jury of the Armel Opera Festival for the orchestra's uniquely high-quality musical interpretation of Peter Eötvös' Lady Sarashina.

"It was a pleasant surprise and meant great joy when I learned about this special prize. It is a true honour for the Pannon Philharmonic that the international jury characterised the orchestra as an authentic interpreter of Peter Eötvös' music. " – commented the Director of the Pannon Philharmonic, Zsolt Horváth, after receiving the accolade.

 

Photo by Szilvia Csibi

 

Beyond the performance of the composer's work and the collaboration with the master, PFZ has also been closely linked with the Peter Eötvös Contemporary Music Foundation: the orchestra has taken part in the mentoring programme of the young conductors and composers of the foundation, e.g. in staging the American composer Aaron Holloway-Nahum's work Vernichtung with the British-Australian conductor Toby Thatcher or the South-Korean composer Donghoon Shin’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra under the baton of the Singaporean Boon Hua Lien.

"Eötvös is the world’s greatest expert on contemporary symphonic culture. Through him, the Pécs-based audience can access expertise and a mindset that they can clearly make good use of also in the classical repertoire. As far as I know, he is very fond of the Pannon Philharmonic and enjoys spending time and working with them.” (László Vidovszky)

As a highlight of the collaboration ventures between Eötvös and the Pannon Philharmonic, in 2021, the world premiere of the master’s new composition Sirens' Song, written on the commission of PFZ, was streamed online from the Kodály Centre, upon the composer's request. We could also watch a recorded interview related to the concert between the musicologist Gergely Fazekas and Peter Eötvös. In December 2022, the audience could finally enjoy the work live both in the Kodály Centre and Müpa.

At these final joint concerts, besides Eötvös Sirens' Song, PFZ also played his Cello Concerto grosso, then following the intermission, some of Bartók’s compositions – like his Cantata Profana. In connection with this concert, Eötvös commented on his own compositional language in the following words:

My musical mother tongue can be found in my own works in the most natural way. I don’t write music in Bartók’s style but communicate my musical ideas in my language, in the same way as a Hungarian writer tells various stories in his or her mother tongue, Hungarian. The influence and impact of other cultures only enrich the command of our native tongue. The same applies to Bartók: the influence of Central-Eastern European and even more southern folk cultures can be detected in his works. Similarly, the experiences gained during the 40 years spent in various great Western-European music hubs also appear in my compositions.”

("Két zaj közötti feszült várakozás”  (The tensed silence between two noises)– an interview with Peter Eötvös, Papageno in Hungarian)

 

 

This photograph was taken by Zsolt Dékány at the concert From the Clearest Springs held at the Kodály Centre on 8 December 2022.

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