In the history of Hungarian music, some composers wrote specially for the Hungarian audience, and others were already well-known in the international music scene in their lifetime. Similarly, not all Russian composers were soon discovered abroad. This concert will help us on the road to discovery.

The works performed at the concert are imbued with some kind of timelessness and a personal touch. The composers were not guided by the desire to create something new, but the message itself was what mattered. Borodin’s overture prepares the Russian epic in such a way that it is lovable, varied and revealing music in its own right. Although Shostakovich “promised” in an interview that the work would be written in three movements, the soloist got so much to “say” that he was eventually given an independent monologue-like movement. In his “heroic” Symphony No. 5, Glazunov uses the large-scale, emotional and universal toolkit of Russian Romanticism in all its splendour.

Alekszandr Porfirjevics Borogyin: Prince Igor – Overture
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich: Cello Concerto in E-flat major, Op. 107
Alexander Glazunov: Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major

István Várdai – cello
Conducted by: Howard Williams

Ticket prices: 7490, 5490, 3490 HUF