Two young artists and the Danubia Orchestra Óbuda, an ensemble that has always retained a youthful energy in the two decades it has helped shape Hungary’s music scene, present a colourful programme testifying to their superb shared musical taste. Máté Hámori took over the baton in autumn 2013 from the orchestra’s founder Domonkos Héja, and has already scored serious successes with his original ideas and choices of works, while also conducting on several occasions in the Budapest Opera House and the Erkel Theatre. Opening the concert will be a work by Benjamin Britten from 1943 in which the strings are divided into no less than 18 parts. The exceptionally talented Fülöp Ránki, who displays the refined technique and cultured playing characteristic of his pianist parents, will perform two piano concertos. Featured alongside Bach’s Piano Concerto in F minor, a piece renowned for its lyrical slow movement, will be a true rarity in the form of Franz Liszt’s Piano Concerto in E minor, a single-movement composition for piano and strings written by the composer at the age of 20. The second part of the concert features a similarly rarely heard work from Finland’s premier composer. Legend has it that the large-scale finale of the Symphony No. 2, which Sibelius completed in 1901, was inspired by Finland’s struggle for independence under Russian oppression.

Presented by: Müpa Budapest