Pannon Philharmonic

Conductor

András Vass

Education:
Twelve years of piano studies at the Targu Mures Arts Lyceum; two years of private study with the composer Boldizsár Csíky; Balthasar five years of conducting study led by  Ervin Lukács, András Ligeti, and Tamás Gál, after having admitted with maximum score to Franz Liszt Academy of Music… More

Soloist

About the Programme

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed his opera Don Giovanni to the city of Prague, where he had been so warmly welcome. He described his work as a "dramma giocoso", thus leaving open the question of the genre classification: should we consider his work as an opera seria or an opera buffa (comic or serious opera). The piece is like an orgy of mood extremes; the Overture gives some insights into these.
In Robert Schumann's life, 1840 was a milestone: it is referred as the "Year of Songs" and it is also his wedding year. After heated family struggles, he could marry Clara Wieck, one of the most prominent pianists of their time. The following year, the one-movement "Concerto Fantasy" was written. Clara premiered the piece, which later became the poetic Piano Concerto in A minor (op.54).
In Franz Schubert's ouvre was not a seperate phenomenon that the composer used one or the other of his Lied's musical material as a core of his instrumental works. The 2nd (variations) movement of the string quartet titled The Death and the Maiden is based on the song with the same title. A dialogue with death was a frequent topic of Schubert, who felt the imminence of passing away, at a young age. From the distressing fears of afterlife, symbolized by the D minor, The Death lures with a postlude in D major. The orchestral transcription has been made by András Vass.