Scarcely a year after the work's world première in Prague, János ('Hans') Richter - a friend of Dvořák's and one of the most dedicated proponents of his works - placed the Symphony No. 8 on the Vienna Philharmonic's concert programme. He informed the composer how the performance had gone in a letter: 'I'm certain that even you would have been amazed at how the orchestra played. We all knew that your symphony is an entirely extraordinary creative work and were as one in our enthusiasm for i...t. It was a fervid and outright triumph.' Dvořák had composed the piece using the melody of a Czech folk song as its basis, closing it with a splendid sequence of variations. The Romanian violin virtuoso and composer George Enescu also made use of folk music in composing his Rhapsody No. 1.
Allusions to folk music can also be found in the piece by composer-conductor Gergely Vajda, who started his musical career as a clarinettist. This is how the composer describes his work now being given its world première: 'I am familiar as an insider with both the clarinet and the symphony orchestra, regard them as my own, and speak both languages as a native. I didn't want to write a clarinet concerto in the classical sense. One inspiration, I might note, was Prokofiev's Symphony-Concerto for Cello, in which, although the cello takes a solo role, the work is not constructed as an interchange between the solo instrument and the orchestra, and in which there is no intention at all for the ensemble to simply provide accompaniment. In my work, two soloists play equal roles. In writing the parts, I was thinking about the two first clarinettists from the MR Symphonics, and they are the ones who will be playing at the première. I feel that the Clarinet Symphony is the most personal work of my career thus far.
Presented by: Hungarian Radio Musical Ensembles
Parking information
We wish to inform you that in the event that Müpa Budapest's underground garage and outdoor car park are operating at full capacity, it is advisable to plan for increased waiting times when you arrive. In order to avoid this, we recommend that you depart for our events in time, so that you you can find the ideal parking spot quickly and smoothly and arrive for our performance in comfort. The Müpa Budapest underground garage gates will be operated by an automatic number plate recognition system. Parking is free of charge for visitors with tickets to any of our paid performances on that given day. The detailed parking policy of Müpa Budapest is available here.
Refreshments – Without the Queue
Thanks to our new catering service at the Átrium Snack Bar, you can forget about waiting in line during intermissions for some refreshments and get your order prepped especially for you by the time the intermission actually starts. Find out more about pre-ordering here.
Safe ticket purchase
Dear Visitors, please note that only tickets purchased from the Müpa website and official ticket offices are guaranteed to be valid. To avoid possible inconvenience, we suggest buying tickets to our performances and concerts via the mupa.hu website, the Interticket national network (jegy.hu) or at our official ticket offices.