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At last, what Budapest’s concert-going public has been waiting for so long, and what we musicians have been so faithfully yearning for, has finally happened: on the evening of 8th January 2005 the first notes sounded in the National Concert Hall of the Palace of the Arts.

The event is a celebration not only for those directly involved, but for all those who believed in it and instinctively felt that Budapest, one of the cultural centres of Europe, is long due a facility worthy of the newly-thriving musical life of Hungary. Where in comfortable (one could say euroconform) surroundings performances can be given of compositions which until now could not be heard in Budapest, or only with serious compromises. Where anyone can be inspired to make music, be they a soloist, a chamber group, or a mammoth orchestra. But why start with an evening of Mozart, rather than making the date memorable with one of the gargantuan works of the repertoire? Well, what could be a greater test of strength than the music of a master who found just the right mood, form and orchestration for each genre? Who, within his incomparably individual style, has perhaps the most heterogenous language? Whose musical ideas tolerate no insincere approach, laboured over-interpretation, or arrogant preconceptions? Perhaps the listener should decide for him or herself.

Perhaps it is not completely by chance that in Mozart’s symphonic music the works written in the minor are rare, and occupy a special place. Compared to the surrounding symphonies, the K. 183 composition is a major step forward in form, craftsmanship, orchestration and instrumentation. The young composer’s affinity for drama is often apparent, as is that mood which acts as a link between Mozart’s operas and symphonic pieces. In this sense this youthful masterpiece is not so far from the mature K. 550 G minor symphony. In one respect, however, the latter is clearly superior to the earlier composition: in its melodic lines and the development of motives. The richness of the harmonic progressions seems to glance forward to Romanticism – a richness which is characteristic of other works of Mozart too. Instead of breaking up the classical order, here these features help to create the form.

One thing is for certain: we who took part were naturally fully aware how momentous the occasion was. With this concert, a new era has started in Budapest’s musical life.

Budapest 27 July, 2005.

Zoltán Kocsis

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Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra

The story of the National Philharmonic Orchestra (formerly the Hungarian State Symphony Orchestra) began in 1923, with the formation of the Metropolitan Orchestra, which rapidly became one of the pillars of Hungarian musical life. It was founded by Dezs? Bor who was its chief conductor for fifteen years. After the war, Ferenc Fricsay and László Somogyi were appointed as principal conductors. During this era, Otto Klemperer also conducted forty concerts, while another regular guest was Antál Doráti. These years saw a host of foreign guests working with the orchestra. 1952 proved to be a turning point in the orchestra’s history when János Ferencsik was appointed principal conductor: it proved to be a match made in heaven. In the 1960’s, a new wave of guest conductors took up invitations to conduct the musicians and their names read like a Who’s Who of the profession: Ernest Ansermet, Antál Doráti, Zubin Mehta, Lorin Maazel, Sir John Barbirolli, Leopold Stokowski, Claudio Abbado and Christoph von Dohnányi. Great soloists were invited too, musicians of the calibre of Sviatoslav Richter, Yehudi Menuhin, Anja Silja, János Starker and Ruggiero Ricci.

With János Ferencsik’s death, an entire era in the orchestra’s history closed. In 1987, an ideal replacement for Ferencsik was found, in the person of the Japanese conductor Ken-Ichiro Kobayashi. Kobayashi enjoyed immense popularity in Hungary and he directed the orchestra for ten years. The next major change for the orchestra occurred in 1998 when it was renamed the Hungarian National Philharmonic and together with the Hungarian State Choir, was nominated as supreme national basic institutions.

There were also major changes in the orchestra’s artistic leadership. Since the autumn of 1997, the general music director has been Zoltán Kocsis, who appointed one of the most talented of the younger generation of Hungarian conductors, Zsolt Hamar, as resident conductor. Hamar remained with the orchestra until June 2004. From autumn 2004, this post will be filled by the fine clarinettist and superb conductor Kálmán Berkes.

From the beginning of 2000, the National Cultural Heritage Ministry elected to give added financial support to the institution of the orchestra, choir and music library.In the past few years, the orchestra has received a remarkable number of invitations to perform abroad. It has enjoyed immense successes at venues as far apart as the New York Avery Fisher Hall, the Tokyo Suntory Hall, the Birmingham Symphony Hall, the Athenean Megaron Musicos and the Colmar Festival. ConcertoNet, the distinguished internet serious music journal, nominated the orchestra’s concert in New York in February 2003 as the winner of the Lully Prize for the finest concert of the season.

In Spring 2003, the orchestra released its first CD featuring Zoltán Kocsis as a conductor. This recording of Debussy and Ravel (some in Kocsis’s own transcription) was the first major release since the Ferencsik era and was critically acclaimed. It won the “Record of the Year Award” of the Hungarian magazine Gramofon, and the international jury members of the Cannes Midem Classical Awards judged it “The best Hungarian classical record of the year.” In February 2004, three new CDs were released: the first, an SACD issued by Hungaroton, containing three Bartók compositions – Dance Suite, Concerto and Hungarian Peasant Songs. The other two CDs are a selection of live performances drawn from the orchestra’s 2001-2002 series: the first (BMC CD 101) presents Dohnányi, Debussy (in Kocsis’s orchestration) and Rachmaninov, the second (BMC CD 102) a work each by Schoenberg and Varèse.


Zoltán Kocsis

Born in Budapest in 1952, he began to play the piano at the age of five. In 1963, he entered the Béla Bartók Music School, studying piano and composition and in 1968, entered the Franz Liszt Music Academy as a pupil of Pál Kadosa and Ferenc Rados. His international fame began at the age of eighteen when he won Hungarian Radio’s International Beethoven Competition, and a scintillating solo career rapidly unfolded. He was invited to perform all over Europe, in North and South America as well as the Far East. In 1977, he was invited by Sviatoslav Richter to perform at his festival in France, and the two pianists also gave duet recitals together.

He has performed with leading world orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Royal Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the San Francisco Orchestra. He has been a regular guest at international festivals in Edinburgh, Paris, Tours, Lucerne, Salzburg, Prague and Menton, and worked with such conductors as Claudio Abbado, Christoph von Dohnányi, Edo de Waart, Charles Mackerras, Lovro von Matacic, Charles Dutoit, Herbert Blomstedt and Michael Tilson Thomas.

In 1983, he co-founded the Budapest Festival Orchestra with Iván Fischer, and since 1987 has regularly conducted. He is also a recognised composer. He is deeply committed to contemporary music and has enjoyed a fruitful relationship with, amongst others, György Kurtág, giving world premieres of numerous Kurtág compositions, some of which are dedicated to him.

Zoltán Kocsis has recorded for Denon, Hungaroton, Nippon Columbia, Phonogram and Quintana, but is now an exclusive Philips Classics artist. He received an Edison prize for his recordings with Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra of the three Bartók concertos. His Debussy recordings won the Gramophone prize as well as the “Instrumental Recording of the year” award.
In Autumn 1997, he became general music director of the National Philharmonic Orchestra (formerly the Hungarian State Orchestra). As a result, the orchestra’s repertoire has broadened considerably, and since his appointment, several works have been given their world premiere.

In recent years, he has toured many European countries, the United States and Japan with the orchestra as both conductor and soloist, and enjoyed immense critical acclaim. In January 2004, Zoltán Kocsis was bestowed a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Cannes Midem, where he also received the distinguished French honour, Le Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from France’s minister of culture, awarded for his supreme efforts popularising French music and for the entirety of his work as a musician.

Translated by Richard Robinson