Pannon Philharmonic

The next weeks, the Pannon Philharmonic introduces itself to Europe on a concert tour. The Pannon Philharmonic is stepping onto the stages of major concert halls of Germany and Switzerland. Follow the happenings on the web.

 

5 January 2013 – More successful concerts in Luzern and Zurich

 

Coming to the end to its European concert tour, The Pannon Philharmonic gave concerts in Luzern and Zurich, Switzerland.
The one-and-a-half-thousand-seat concert hall of a 14-year-old building complex, created by a contemporary architect, Jean Novel, is the idea trigger and model of also the Béla Bartók National Hall of the Palace of arts – home of the Pannon Philharmonic’s Budapest concert series, as well. The two halls are rather similar. Both are in a more-function building, located at a shore, the interior of the halls are the same, and the same acoustic speaker system makes the sounds of them unique experience, since their acoustic engineer is the same Russel Johnson. (The next station of the orchestra’s Budapest concert series: 24 January 2014, ICEBLUE.)

 

Again, the audience gave a standing ovation to the Pannon Philharmonic after its evening concert at theclose-to-1500-people main hall of the Zurich Tonhalle on January 4. In Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto in D major Ilya Gringolts violinist vas the orchestra’s partner. The final piece of the concert Dvorak’s Symphony No.9, “From the New World” was.
The uniquely beautiful Zurich Tonhalle is one of the halls of the world with the best acoustic. The Tonhalle, built in historical style has a 1455-seat concert hall. The building was inaugurated in 1896 with Johannes Brahms’s Triumphlied (Op. 55); and the composer conducted the resident orchestra, the Tonhalle Orchester, himself. It has been visited by Richard Wagner, Paul Hindemith and other composers, related to Switzerland, among them Igor Stravinsky, Frank Martin or Sergei Rachmaninov. On the podium, such famous conductors have held their batons as Ernst Ansermet, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Otto Klemperer or Sir Georg Solti.

The closing chord and zenith of the orchestra’s European concert tour is the concert at the main hall of the Berliner Philharmonie on 5 January 2014. At the 2400-seat concert hall, the Pannon Philharmonic is stepping onto stage led by its chief conductor, Tibor Bogányi, featuring the world-famous pianist, Andrei Gavrilov; on the programme: works by Kodály, Rimsky-Korsakov, Rahmaninov and Tchaikovsky.

 

 

1 January 2013 – The Pannon Philharmonic greeted the New Year in Geneva, too

On 31 December, the Pannon Philharmonic greeted the audience of the Victoria Hall in Geneva with its playing: Happy New Year! At the superbly successful concert, besides the pianist Andrei Gavrilov, two winner of the Armel Opera Festival 2013, Jelena Končar (Serbia) and  Sebastien Obrecht (France) stepped onto stage before the 1500-patron audience in Switzerland.  
The joint production of the two singer soloists and the orchestra earned aloud ovation, as well as the piano playing of Andrei Gavrilov, who signed his recordings during the intermission and presented two encores for the audience.
The Pannon Philharmonic wishes a Happy New Year to its domestic and international audience.

 

About the Victoria Hall of Geneva

The building of the concert hall, based on John Camoletti’s plans and opened in 1894, was funded by the passionate music fan, Daniel Fitzgerald Packenham Barton, a British consul to Switzerland. In honour of Queen Victoria, the hall bears the name of the ruler of his country; and Barton gave over the ownership to the city in 1904.
The façade of the representative building is characterized by the French 'beaux-arts' style, with the Barton family’s coat of arms over the entrance to, and with the names of sixteen composers engraved in marble. After the modestly decorated lobby, a visitor is unprepared for the elegance of the 1600-seat concert hall. The pageantry of the auditorium is paired with excellent acoustic features. Unfortunately, a fire destroyed the interior in 1980; however, the city of Geneva has rebuilt the hall, so today we can admire its original beauty. The Victoria Hall is primarily a classical music concert venue, but hosts jazz and world music concerts as well.

 

 

29 December 2013 – The Pannon Philharmonic left its handmark in Hamburg, too

 

   The Pannon Philharmonic’s concert tour, which frames the ensemble’s performances for its international audiences in some of the greatest concert halls of Western-Europe, has reached its half time.

The orchestra gave its sixth concert in a row on 29 December in Hamburg, featuring Guliano Sommerhalder (trompet) and Romaine Bolinger (violin). The concert was held at the chamber hall of the Laeiszhalle.

About the Laeiszhalle

In his last will, Carl Laeisz, owner of a shipping company had offered 1.2 million Mark for building a concert hall; his widow had supported his plan further – so the venue named after Laeisz, that time the most modern concert hall of Germany and still one of the most beautiful neo-baroque hall in Europe, was opened in 1908. 
  From the beginning, the impressive building played a major role in the musical life of the city; it has attracted the stars of the classical music scene to Hamburg. Such musical greats has conducted their works here as Sergei Prokofiev, Richard Strauss, Igor Stravinsky and Paul Hindemith. In 1930s, Yehudi Menuhin and Maria Callas performed here, as well.

The building miraculously survived the Second World War bombings, but the British armed forces used its 2,025-seat hall for military communications and broadcasting, storing more than 60,000 discs here, too. Today, the hall is home to a wide variety of events, from classical music concerts trough folk music to jazz.

 

The orchestra plays its next concert on New Year’s Eve at the Victoria Hall in Geneva.

 

 

27 December 2013 - The Pannon Philharmonic has introduced itself in Zurich, too

 

On the second day of Christmas, the Pannon Philharmonic introduced itself to a packed audience in Zurich, Switzerland. The forth station of the orchestra’s European concert tour was also a peak of a charity event series:  at the concert, the officers and sponsors of the Geneva based civil organisation, founded 20 years ago, were present, too. The audience praised the playing of the world-renowned pianist, Andrei Gavrilov, who played as the partner of the orchestra and who is also an ambassador of this charity organisation.

  The concert was held at the uniquely beautiful main hall of the Zurich, which is one of the world’s halls with the best acoustics. The Tonhalle, built in historical style has a 1455-seat concert hall. The building was inaugurated in 1896 with Johannes Brahms’s Triumphlied (Op. 55); and the composer conducted the resident orchestra, the Tonhalle Orchester, himself. It has been visited by Richard Wagner, Paul Hindemith and other composers, related to Switzerland, among them Igor Stravinsky, Frank Martin or Sergei Rachmaninov. On the podium, such famous conductors have held their batons as Ernst Ansermet, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Otto Klemperer or Sir Georg Solti.

The Pannon Philharmonic is going to play the next concert of its tour on 28 Decembet at 8 p.m., at the Mendelssohn Hall of the Leipzig Gewandhaus.

 

24 December 201, Tuesday – Also Leipzig has been conquered by the Pannon Philharmonic

 

At the third station of its European concert tour, the Pannon Philharmonic gave a concert at the hall of the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, for a close-to-100-patron audience on 23 December, in the evening.
As the soloist of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D major, Kirill Troussov played together with the Pannon Philharmonic; he praised the orchestra for its extremely sensible accompaniment. He also said that the Kodály Centre isn’t unknown for him; he had heard a lot about the unique concert hall of Pécs and would like to visit the city in Baranya, soon.
At the finale of the concert in Rimsky-Korsakow’s Seherezade, the German audience could enjoy the playing of the concert master of the orchestra, Márta Deák, winning of the Annie Fischer Scholarship.

The Leipzig Gewandhaus - despite the modern building – has a significant history. The first Gewandhaus (“gown house”) was built in 1498 in the old town, and its original function was the armoury. The building got its name of the Gewandhaus from the hall of wool and cloth merchants, occupying the second floor. (The German word Gewand means clothing, gown.) There were concerts organized here from 1743 from; due to the success of them, a concert hall was built on the third i floor of the house in 1781. In this room, one could hear for the first time Beethoven's 5th piano concerto, Schubert's ' Great ' Symphony in C major, Schumann's Spring Symphony and Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto. Here was Clara Wieck’s concert debut; performed Liszt, Berlioz, Weber, and many other musical greatnesses.
The New Gewandhaus was built in 1884; its acoustic model, which is called “shoe box” because its form, has served as architectonic  model for many other concert hall building. In this room, artists like Bruckner, Hindemith, Stravinsky , Grieg , Richard Strauss played; and the premieres of Reger 's works also took place here. Due to injuries suffered in the World War II, in 1977, the third Gewandhaus , which is still in operation, was completed. In its more than 1,900 -seat big, acoustically superb hall - as well as in the previous buildings - the visitors are welcome with a Seneca quotation:  "Res severa verum gaudium ", i.e. "A serious thing is a real pleasure".

Today afternoon, the Pannon Philharmonic is tuning for the festivities; the orchestra’s members celebrate Christmas Eve together in Berlin. The next concert is going to be at the Tonhalle in Zurich, on 26 December. 

 

23 December 2013, Monday – Standing ovation

 

Yesterday moning, the Pannon Philharmonic had a sold-out concert at the 1500-seat main hall of the Berlin Konzerthaus. The German audience - requireing an encore – applauded the orchestra on their feet. The ensemble began its concert with Smetana’s Moldva, followed by Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto in B flat minor and Strauss’s Blue Danube Waltz. At the concert, the world-famous pianist Andrei Gavrilov, whom the Pécs audience could know from the tou programme concert on December 8, was the soloist.
 
The Konzerthaus Berlin (pictured above) is one of the city's largest concert halls. The building dates back centuries. In 1785, on this square opened the French theatre, and with later reconstruction, expanding, rebuilding of this was set up the National Theatre at the site. Here was premiered Weber's opera, The Magic Marksman, and the premiere Beethoven's 9th Berlin Symphony took place between the walls of that theatre, too. Also the violin virtuoso Paganini and such renowned pianists as Felix Mendelssohn or Franz Liszt gave concerts here.
  In the afternoon, the orchestra played another very successful concert at the French Dom (on the picture below); led by András Vass, permanent conductor of the Pannon Philharmonic.

  On 21 December, the Pannon Philharmonic started its 10-concert Western-European tour. Its next concert is going to be held at the 200-seat great hall of the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, on 23 December at 8 p.m.

 

 

21 December 2013, Saturday – The orchestra set off

 

In the Saturday morning started the buses that the Pannon Philharmonic’s musicians travel to their European concert tour with. They are arriving To Berlin soon; the first concert of the tour is going to be at the 1600-seat hall of the Berlin Konzerthaus on 22 December, at 11 a.m.

On the road between Dresden and Berlin