Pannon Philharmonic

Conductor

Soloist

Ida Lakatos

harp

Ágnes Kovács

soprano

Csilla Tillai

soprano

Zoltán Gavodi

alt (kontratenor)

Zoltán Megyesi

tenor More

Szabolcs Hámori

bass

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

About the Programme

Christmas has been a dominant theme of music literature for centuries: a long line of composers have written occasional music for one of the most important holiday of the Christian world. That would be proved by the programme of the festive concert held at the Basilica of Pécs, in which one can find 18th and 20th century compositions, as well. Johann Sebastian Bach’s Magnificat is the earliest of them, the composer wrote it after his move to Leipzig in 1723 originally for the feast of Our Lady, and renewed it in the same year for Christmas. The Cantata 191, with the beginning ’Gloria Excelsis Deo’ was premiered about two decades later, in 1745, in the year when the second Silesian War had ended and Peace greeted Saxony again. Britten writing Christmas Carols (originally: A Ceremony of Carols) coincied with the time of the World War II. The song cycle based on unidentified, medieval texts and completed in 1942 is one of the most important works of those blood-soaked years, and also one of the most-played piece of 20th-century music.