Budapest Festival Orchestra

At this concert, the artists of the Budapest Festival Orchestra will perform in front of the audience without a conductor.

Their program is compiled from works by composers of different eras, yet the pieces share something in common: each contains passion, caprice, or even anger, alongside a high degree of sensitivity, emotion, melancholy, and gentleness. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s B minor Symphony was born in the spirit of Sturm und Drang, and its sound is primarily whimsical. Mendelssohn was only thirteen when he composed the D minor Violin Concerto, yet his music is virtuosic, deeply emotional, and, despite its dark tone, carries a playful quality. The Mozart work performed here is one of the composer’s darkest and angriest pieces, still bearing traces of the Baroque ideal, which adds a particular severity. Shostakovich’s 8th String Quartet was an unexpected creation when he traveled to Dresden in 1960 to write music for a war film. The proximity of wartime experiences led him to compose it first as a tribute to the victims, rather than for the film. This string quartet, written in just a few days, is now frequently performed by orchestras as well. Strangely, the late work of Beethoven, known for its drama and seriousness, dissolves the tension and gloom of the evening. The Cavatina from his Op. 130 String Quartet is one of the most beautiful pieces of music about letting go, in which the completely deaf composer communicates with unusual gentleness: “Do not be angry! Not at each other, not at yourselves, and not at life.”