Pannon Philharmonic

Conductor

András Keller

Soloist

Concerto Budapest

Dénes Várjon

piano

About the Programme


Program:

• Liszt: Two Episodes from Lenau’s Faust - Procession by Night; Mephisto Waltz
• 
Liszt: Malediction
• 
Mahler: Symphony No.5

Orchestra: Budapest Concerto

Franz Liszt walked round the Faust-theme several times in his life. He reshaped the Goethean principal idea in his Faust Symphony. The “Two Episodes from Lenau’s Faust” are scene-like pictures: The Night Procession illustrates a pilgrims’ march, the “Dance in the Village pub” is rather a horrific than a bacchanalian feast. The two episodes are rarely played together at concerts.

Before composing his three well-known piano concertos, Liszt carefully got closer to the genre: his experimenting in his youth resulted a concerto accompanied by a string orchestra. In the work, which was appraised by Moscheles as “chaotically beautiful” the composer gave advises to the performing of the characters. The first theme got the mark Malédiction – the music world learnt the piece with this title.

At the top of his professional activities, during the prosperous period of his private life, Gustav Mahler composed his Symphony No.5. But not oppugning his self-tearing character, he said about its premiere: "Nobody understood it." The time contradicts the Master; Herbert von Karajan described the work as one with a transforming power: "The audience forgets the passage of time; furthermore they forget to breathe as well. Astonishing."