Budapest Festival Orchestra - Iván Fischer

This season, the Blue Hall again plays host to the Budapest Festival Orchestra. This time, the programme of Iván Fischer's top international orchestra remains close to its Hungarian home. With Bartók and Dvorák on the music stands, this concert has an unmistakably East-European flavour. For both these composers, folk music was not just a source of exotic effects, but formed the core of their works. Bartók, for instance, composed his 'Folk Songs' using authentic folk airs. In his First Violin Concerto too, the whiff of steppe and puszta is never far away. Bartók dedicated this violin concerto to Stefi Geyer, the young violinist who caught his eye at the time. However, she was never to play or even hear the work. Dvorák's Eighth Symphony looks back nostalgically to his youth. The simple butcher's son conjures up reminiscences of the folk revels of rural Bohemia. The Budapest Festival Orchestra and its conductor are the ideal interpreters of this extrovert and jovial masterpiece.