Pannon Philharmonic

Conductor

Soloist

Eszter Zemlényi

Júlia Balázs

soprano

Zoltán Gavodi

alt (kontratenor)

Dávid Szigetvári

tenor

Szabolcs Hámori

bass

Pannon Philharmonic Festival Choir (choirmasters: András Vass and László Dobos)

About the Programme

"My father was one of the most versatile figures of the 17th-century Hungarian history and cultural history; at the peak of his political career he won the title of Palatino and the rank of Imperial Prince. (...)His religious song collection Harmonia Caelestis was published in 1711 in Vienna in, and the Hungarian music history writing has considered him also an outstanding composer, so far"- reads in Péter Esterházy’s "family novel", with the same title as that musical work, where the author adds to this description that the origin of the melodies and the authorship is subject to uncertainty. Whoever wrote it, however, the work, which is containing 55 cantatas, using traditional German and Hungarian church melodies, belongs unquestionably to the outstanding works of Hungarian Baroque music. After a cross section of Harmonia cælestis, we can hear a work of a contemporary of Pál Esterházy, the German Teleman: the seven-movement suite in D major, orchestrated for two trumpets, a timpani, strings and a continuo. Although other composers wrote coronation anthems, too, if a music lover nowadays hears this phrase, immediately Georg Friedrich Händel comes to their mind. In 1727, for the inauguration ceremony of the English King II. George, Handel wrote four of such works. Two of those will be played at this evening.