World-class conductors deserve world-class soloists: violinist Kristóf Baráti and cellist István Várdai are familiar figures not only to the Hungarian audience, they are enthusiastically received all over the world. And the three works on the programme? Each contains a reference…
The Los Angeles-born conductor once served as Zubin Mehta’s assistant and over the course of his long and successful career has presided over numerous wonderful orchestras in America and Europe, ranging from Houston and Aspen to Monte Carlo, Lausanne, Jerusalem, Lisbon, Montpellier, Marseille and Warsaw. Of Romanian heritage, he is highly regarded as an interpreter of the work of George Enescu. This is why we will get to hear the First Romanian Rhapsody, one of the composer’s most popular works, at the beginning of the concert. Also symbolic, however, is Miklós Rózsa’s (1958–1963) Sinfonia concertanté (written for Jascha Heifetz and Gregor Piatigorsky), as the double concerto by the Budapest-born musician who became a three-time Oscar-winning American film composer embodies a meeting between Hungary and America on this evening. Foster, incidentally, is also fond of conducting Hungarian music, having made recordings of works by Kodály, Bartók and Ligeti. The way to listen to the closing number, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5, however, is as an extra bonus from this grand master of mixing orchestral colours and dramaturgical effects: the immortal Russian romantic’s melodies, heightening tensions and climaxes give Foster every opportunity to inspire the most beautiful music possible.
George Enescu: Romanian Rhapsody No. 1, op. 11
Miklós Rózsa: Sinfonia Concertante – Double Concerto for Violin and Cello
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Piotr Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 in E minor, op. 64
Kristóf Baráti violin
István Várdai cello
Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor: Lawrence Foster
