Budapest Mahler Festival at the Palace of Arts for the 6th time

The opening of the Mahler Festival is at the same time the inauguration of two exhibitions.  Both the exhibition the Mahler and Vienna, selecting from the collections of Austrian libraries and museums, and the one introducing the most interesting gramophone recordings of  Symphony No. 4 and 7 arriving from the collection of  Péter Fülöp - currently living in Canada - can be visited until the end of the month.

The Palace of Arts has invited the North German Radio Symphony Orchestra (NDR) to perform the opening concert of 9 September. First Con brio, a concert overture composed by Jörg Widmann on the basis of Beethoven motifs will be heard with the conduction of Michael Gielen, followed by Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto, with the solo played by Widmann, who is internationally renowned, not only as a composer, but also as a clarinet artist.   In the second part of the concert Gielen will be conducting Symphony No. 4 by Mahler; the enchanting music, holding a mirror up to the Vienna Classicism will be performed with the participation of Christiane Oelze, celebrated sopranist.

The resident Budapest Festival Orchestra will appear on stage three times during the event. On 10, 11 and 12 September Iván Fisher is conducting Mahler’s monumental Symphony No. 7 in the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall. In the first part of these concerts the world première of the composition Dionysia will take place, written by László Melis upon the request of the Budapest Mahler Festival.   

The Geopen Publishing House will publish the book Mahler and Hungary by Zoltan Roman, a music historian living in Canada, on this particular occasion. On 10 September Miklós Fáy will have a conversation with the author visiting Hungary.

The co-organizer of the festival, the Hungarian Radio - besides broadcasting the concerts - is helping the audience with several thematic programs dealing with Mahler and his works, so that they could gather information on the Mahler oeuvre.

08.09.2010.