Day of Hungarian Culture Pannon Philharmonic

The performance will be broadcasted on our website and YouTube channel.


On the occasion of the Day of Hungarian Culture, the Pannon Philharmonic is giving an official concert in Müpa Budapest's Béla Bartók National Concert Hall.
On 22 January 1823, Ferenc Kölcsey finished penning the words to the Himnusz - the Hungarian national anthem - in the village of Szatmárcseke.... In memory of this event, we celebrate the Day of Hungarian Culture each year on this date. And just as on that gloomy winter day cut off from the world in the country manor house east of the River Tisza, Kölcsey's pen pondered the stormy centuries of the Hungarian people, we too reflect time and again on the bright and sad days alike of our our own culture, and we perhaps associate all this with the passing of winter and the idea of the renewal of hope. Such is the programme, compiled from works by Hungarian composers and with a turbulent history, of this concert.. Although several works would have been part of the Pannon Philharmonic's programme over the past season, the replanning forced by the pandemic has always meant that their performances have had to be postponed. Attesting to this turbulence is the work Threnos ('song of mourning') written by Sándor Veress, a former student and contemporary of Bartók's, amidst the ruins of 1945 Hungary in memory of the great composer, who had died far from home. This gloomy introduction is balanced by three cheery pieces. First off is the Divertimento (which literally refers to 'entertaining' music) by the aforementioned Béla Bartók, followed by the 'capricious' in both title and sound Capriccio, which has been scheduled on the programme twice but had to be postponed both times and was written by the orchestra's concertmaster, Zoltán Bánfalvi. To conclude, we will get to hear a true hit: Zoltán Kodály's Dances of Galánta. This actually brings us to the relevant aspects of these January days, the carnival and the dance, which cannot take place in real life this year. We therefore recommend this concert to anyone who loves Hungarian music and is longing for a bit of cheering up and, at least in spirit, dancing and musical humour during the grey winter days.

This performance is a taking place as a collaboration between Müpa Budapest and the Pannon Philharmonic.