A highly varied Hungarian triptych
order tickets for 21 or 22 April
‘If a first-rate interpretation of the Hungarian folk melodies, the swinging rhythms and the original phrasing is your aim, Hungarian music basically has to be in your blood,’ says Bence Major. That’s why he’s thrilled that the Hungarian honorary guest conductor Iván Fischer is leading the orchestra in this programme and that the three soloists János Balázs, Dénes Várjon and Zoltán Fejérvári, too, are Hungarian.
Magician
On a programme featuring three piano concertos in three different onstage orchestral settings, Maestro Fischer paints a multifaceted portrait of the unique Hungarian composer Béla Bartók in a single evening. The Concertgebouw Orchestra would normally programme just a single concerto, if any, on a given programme, which makes Fischer’s decision to perform all three of the Bartók piano concertos remarkable indeed.
But those who might think such a programme could be a bit monotonous would certainly be mistaken. Bartók was a magician when it came to instrumental timbres – not to mention that he wrote his three piano concertos in very different stages of his life. Each concerto represents a different phase, and each is of a very different character.
Between the percussion, winds and strings
Bartók wrote the First Piano Concerto in the Roaring Twenties and uses the piano here as a percussion instrument. In accordance with the composer’s own conception, the percussion section will be positioned at the front of the stage surrounding the piano, rather than taking its usual place at the back of the orchestra.
‘Bartók was far ahead of his time and experimented a great deal with new percussion and other instruments and instrumental techniques – like the emblematic pizzicatos in the string parts.’
Dating from the 1930s, the Second Piano Concerto gives an important role to the wind parts, which is why Fischer has decided to place the winds around the piano on this concert. The concerto is noteworthy for the virtuosity and cool precision of the winds, a distinguishing feature of the music of Igor Stravinsky in the same period.
Bartók composed the Third Piano Concerto for his second wife at the end of World War II. Having fled the Nazis and suffering from a terminal illness, Bartók lived a life of isolation in New York. The work is charged with the atmosphere of disillusionment, longing and consolation. The expressive strings are now back in their usual place around the piano, which itself functions as a string instrument among the other strings.
‘Bartók was far ahead of his time and experimented a great deal with new percussion and other instruments and instrumental techniques – like the emblematic pizzicatos in the string parts,’ explains Bence. ‘Fischer is sure to focus on all these “innovative” elements. And I don’t believe
Bartók’s three piano concertos, so varied and rich in contrasts, have ever been performed before on the same evening. It’s a first for Iván Fischer and for the Concertgebouw Orchestra.’