In 1986, a group of British historical musicians founded an orchestra, but refrained from hiring a principal music director: they would take charge of running the ensemble themselves. Of course, somebody has to lead the music, and three violinists take responsibility for this - taking turns with each other. And some people say that there is no room for democracy in an orchestra!
It is no coincidence that the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment was such a self-aware ensemble from its very beginning: it very swiftly began to gain exceptional prestige for itself. This is indicated by a partial list of their collaborators over the past decades: Frans Brüggen, Gustav Leonhardt, Christopher Hogwood, Charles Mackerras, René Jacobs, Roger Norrington, William Christie, Philippe Herreweghe, Robin Ticciati, Yannick Nézet-Séguin - just a few of their renowned partners, both... active and deceased. There is also a narrower group of musicians who work with the orchestra: these are the ones who merit the honorary title 'principal artist'. We Hungarians can take pride in the fact that this circle includes Iván Fischer and András Schiff alongside the likes of Simon Rattle, Vladimir Jurowski, Mark Elder and John Butt. We can be especially proud that one of the three violinists rotating to lead the orchestras - alongside Margaret Faultless, who will lead the Budapest concert, and Matthew Truscott - is one Kati Debretzeni.
Although the orchestra (true to its name) officially considers the music of the second half of the 18th century to be its core repertoire, it does not necessarily treat this as an iron-clad rule. At Müpa Budapest's Early Music Festival, for example, they will play several instrumental pieces of remarkable beauty by Bach, the master who embodies the Baroque period.
The concert will be preceded, at 6 pm, by an introductory presentation by Dr. Salamon Kamp entitled Prelude in the Auditorium, which will be open to anyone holding a ticket for the performance.
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.
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