The story of this orchestra assembled not longer after World War Two primarily for the purpose of performing in the recording studio is a thrilling one. And no wonder, either, because it was established by EMI's legendary producer Walter Legge. Afterwards, of course, things did not go quite as planned: the orchestra became one of the most famous in the world in concert halls as well (with no little credit for this due to its first music director, Otto Klemperer). The one who will be at its helm at Müpa Budapest is one of the best in the world today: the innovation-minded Finnish conductor and composer Esa-Pekka Salonen, an illustrious representative of the renowned northern school of conducting.
Legge, who was also the husband of epochal soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, founded the Philharmonia Orchestra in London in the autumn of 1945. The list of luminaries who conducted the orchestra in those early years is enough to make one's head spin: Toscanini, Richard Strauss, Furtwängler, von Karajan. After the latter left to head the Berlin Philharmonic, Otto Klemperer became the orchestra's leader - and his name was virtually synonymous with it for nearly a decade and a half, from 1959 to 1973.... Since then, the Philharmonia Orchestra has remained one of the world's most important symphonic ensembles, one that has played under the batons of such refined and skilled musicians as Riccardo Muti, Giuseppe Sinopoli and Christoph von Dohnányi. Today's music director, Esa-Pekka Salonen, a product of the renowned school of Jorma Panula, has been conducting the ensemble for twelve years and is bidding it farewell this season. As a northern musician, it is no surprise that, along with Beethoven's classic Fifth Symphony to represent the core repertoire, he will also be conducting some Finnish music in the form of Sibelius's Symphony No. 2, a work whose engrossing emotional world makes it one of the most popular and powerful compositions in the composer's oeuvre.
Presented by: Müpa Budapest
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.