Hungarian Treasures Gala – Closing Concert
BARTÓK: Dance Suite, BB 86
SÁNDOR VERESS: Violin Concerto
BARTÓK: Viola Concerto, BB 128 (Reconstructed by Miklós Rakos, adapted for cello by Miklós Perényi)
KODÁLY: Psalmus Hungaricus
Featuring Barnabás Kelemen on violin, Miklós Perényi on cello, Szabolcs Brickner as tenor National Choir (conducted by Csaba Somos)
Conducted by András Keller
A hundred years ago, on November 19, 1923, the unification of Pest, Buda, and Óbuda’s 50th anniversary was celebrated with a grand festive concert. It was during this event that three pieces were performed for the first time, which the city’s leadership had commissioned from the leading composers of the era, Bartók, Kodály, and Dohnányi. According to the press of the time, while Dohnányi’s Festive Overture received polite applause, Bartók’s Dance Suite was met with more confusion. Only the bitter-toned Psalmus Hungaricus found enthusiastic resonance among the audience, whose spirits were still wounded by the losses of the war, the Hungarian Soviet Republic, and the Treaty of Trianon.
Between these two emblematic compositions, two rare and seldom-heard concert pieces will be performed. Sándor Veress’s Violin Concerto was composed during the composer’s time in Hungary, and its first performer and the one who first played the two-movement version was Sándor Végh. It is of particular significance in music history that, apart from Bartók, no other Hungarian composer wrote a violin concerto between the two World Wars.
Regarding Bartók’s posthumous work, the Viola Concerto, which survived only in sketches, various completions, versions for viola and cello, numerous studies and monographs have been written. In our concert, based on Miklós Rakos’s new reconstruction published in 2016, a version for solo cello will be performed for the first time.