Pannon Philharmonic

Conductor

Zoltán Kocsis

Zoltán Kocsis was born in 1952 in Budapest, began playing the piano at age five. From 1963, he studied piano and  composition at Béla Bartók Vocational Secondary School of Music; and then he got admitted to Franz Liszt Music Academy in 1968 as a student of Pál Kadosa and… More

Soloist

Dénes Várjon

piano

About the Programme

There is duality in the characters of the pieces to be played at this concert. The conflict between heavenly and earthly love, which gives the main plot for the Tannhäuser, defines the musical face of the overture as well. Wagner put the pilgrims’ singing against the alluring bacchanalia of the Venus Cave. The principal experience mixed with homesickness of Dvorak’s 9th Symphony is the “new world” and its melodies he learnt to know during his stay in the U.S.  Bartók’ 3 Piano Concerto No.3, the composer’s last completed work, was ‘conceived’ at the narrow verge between life and death.  There was no cure from his illness any more, but this work is serene, filled with ‘nature music’, bird sounds – interpreted by the excellent pianist Dénes Várjon and conducted by Zoltán Kocsis.