We would like to kindly draw your attention to the soloist change at the concert. // Individual/Replacement concert instead of the cancelled concert of the Kodály Series.

Soaring

Also serves as a replacement subscription concert

10 October 2020 Saturday 6.00 pm Kodály Centre

Béla Bartók: Romanian Dance Op. 8a
Béla Bartók: Piano Concerto No. 3
Maurice Ravel: Ma mère l'Oye – suite
Igor Stravinsky: The Firebird Suite (1919)

Dezső Ránki – piano

Conducted by: Gilbert Varga

Concert estimated duration: 90 minutes

Ticket prices: » 2990 » 3990 » 4990 HUF

Season ticket prices: Category I: 26.900 HUF, Category II: 22.900 HUF, Category III: 16.900 HUF » Discount for students or retirees: » Category I: 20.300 Ft, Category II: 17.200 Ft, Category III: 13.500 Ft

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Koncert galériakép — **Gilbert Varga**
chief conductor

1/2

The 20th century from Russia to America – this how the eve’s concert programme could be summarised. In the first half of the concert, we get confronted with the young but dying Bartók. His Romanian Dances Op. 8a recalls his folk music recording tour, while his Piano Concerto No. 3 was composed in the final year of his life. This musical „last will” is much more lyrical than Bartók’s previous piano concertos. The second part of the recital presents a French and a Russian folk tale set to music, which originally appeared as a ballet, then they were arranged for the symphony orchestra. Ravel’s suite was inspired by the artistic salon gatherings hosted by the Godebskis in Paris. The composer mostly escaped from the company of adults and spent his time telling tales to the children. The plot of Stravinsky’s ballet is based on Slavic mythology, where the fairy-like Firebird defeats Evil. This composition rooted in Russian Romanticism yet genuinely Stravinskian music brought international fame to its composer.

The Pannon Philharmonic Orchestra is celebrating the 85-year old pianist, Péter Frankl, with the concert entitled Soaring.

Owing to the new wave of the coronavirus pandemic, Mr Péter Frank does unfortunately not manage to take to the stage in Hungary. He insisted, however, to pass on his sincere apologies to the audience.

Let his thoughts on the planned concert stay with us:

"I try to be as versatile as possible. I’m often said to have a broad repertoire, which is true, if we consider that I’ve played the most pivotal pieces of chamber music literature. I have played fifty piano concertos (nearly half of them were written by Mozart), but my solo repertoire is also large…I had to learn some pieces quite early on, for instance the Hammerklavier Sonata, since as an adult it’s quite difficult to learn. I tend not to play the latest contemporary music.

Bartók cannot be regarded as contemporary, yet I have some gaps there too. I have played all of his three piano concertos many times, No. 3 nearly a hundred times, but the other two have been on my concert programmes at least fifty times as well. These are quite difficult Bartók-pieces…but I feel ashamed for not having played his Piano Sonata or his Out of Doors, which is unforgivable. Similarly, - perhaps because of my own temperament – I haven’t publically performed certain pieces which I love listening to most or playing to myself at home, like Bach." (Parlando)

I would especially highlight Péter Frankl here. He is turning eighty-five this year; I once played with him many years ago. I’d play the violin, the viola at the time . There is a photo, I’m not sure if it was published later: I was twenty-two... or twenty-one, or only just nineteen? I played alongside him in Switzerland, chamber music. It was fifty years ago. Since then, we have talked on the phone a few times, but haven’t made music together. It’ll be great to meet him again!

(Maestro Gilbert Varga)

UNFORTUNATELY, THIS TIME THE ENCOUNTER ON THE STAGE CANNOT MATERIALISE.

„THERE IS NO NEED FOR MAGIC. WHAT’S NEEDED IS DEZSŐ RÁNKI’S CALIBRE, […] WHO ESTABLISHES OR RATHER SHOWCASES THE LOGIC, UNITY OF THE PIECE WITHOUT ANY KIND OF WIZARDRY. HE DOESN’T ONLY PLAY BUT JUSTIFIES EVERY SINGLE NOTE. EVERYTHING SEEMS COMPLETELY SIMPLE AND NATURAL, AS IF ANY OF US COULD PLAY IT LIKE THIS, IF WE HAD THE RIGHT SKILLS. AND PERHAPS IT’S TRUE. IT’S ONLY THAT NOT ALL OF US HAVE THE RIGHT SKILLS, NEARLY NONE OF US HAS.” (MIKLÓS FÁY)