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Monday 4 October 2021, 19.30
CLOSING CONCERT
House of Arts (3530, Miskolc, Rákóczi Ferenc utca 5.)
Programme:
László Lajtha: In Memoriam Op. 35
Zoltán Kodály: Psalmus Hungaricus Op. 13
INTERVAL
Béla Bartók: Concerto Sz. 116
Performed by:
Szabolcs Brickner - voice
Miskolc Symphony Orchestra
Debrecen Kodály Choir
conducted by: Mátyás Antal
In the first half of the twentieth century, Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály, and László Lajtha (younger by one decade) were known as ‘the three great Hungarians’. All three were outstanding in three fields: they were composers, ethnomusicologists, and respected teachers. In this concert we shall hear one piece by each of them that it closely linked to a Hungarian historical tragedy or turning point: the Trianon peace treaty and the Second World War.
In the oeuvre of László Lajtha there are six compositions that are a direct response to the political decisions preceding the Second World War, and the tragedy of war. One of the reasons for this is that from the age of 22, just as he was beginning his career, this great musician, guided by patriotism, fought for more than four years as an artillery officer and a scout. He was never truly able to overcome the psychological wounds he sustained then, so he was particularly upset to see events repeat themselves barely a few decades later. Designated by Lajtha as a ‘symphonic piece’, In memoriam composed in 1941 is a lament for the victims of the new war, in one, large-scale movement. The year 1941 was also the year in which Hungary’s prime minister Pál Teleki committed suicide; the genesis of this agonizing work might be linked to that. With its deliberately incomplete title, In memoriam commemorates mainly the great mass of the unnamed dead, and was heard in 1942 in London, then in May 1945 János Ferencsik conducted the first post-war premiere.
Kodály’s Psalmus Hungaricusa is one of the most perfect masterpieces of Hungarian music history, and was first performed under the title Psalm 55 at the premiere in 1923, conducted by Ernő Dohnányi. It was written for the 50th anniversary of the unification of the towns of Pest, Buda, and Óbuda into Budapest, the capital, and was scored for tenor solo, choir, and orchestra. Kodály himself found the four-hundred year old psalm paraphrase by Mihály Kecskeméti Végh, with the title ‘Könyörgés hamis atyafiak ellen. Vigasztalódás Istenben’ [Plea against false relatives. Consolation in God]. Written in rondo form with a classically proportioned structure, piece has unparallelled dramatic power and for the Hungarian public three years after the Trianon peace dictate it represented both a statement of the despondency due to the injustice, and opportunity to cling on to faith in God.
Bartók’s five-movement Concerto for Orchestra was written in 1943 to a commission from Serge Koussevitzky, the chief conductor of the Boston Symphony, who premiered the piece at the end of the following year. After many years of silence, this was the first work that Bartók, then very ill, had composed. Of the title for the five-movement work, Bartók himself wrote: ‘The title of this symphony-like orchestral work is explained by the concerto or soloistic treatment of certain instruments or groups of instruments.’The composer gave a title to each movement: Introduzione, Giuoco delle coppie (game of the couples), Elegia , Intermezzo interrotto (interrupted intermezzo – this movement contains the operette melody ‘Szép vagy, gyönyörű vagy, Magyarország’ [Fine and beautiful you are, Hungary], the quoting of this emotional melody is considered to be an expression of Bartók’s homesickness, and lastly: Finale. This last movement conveys an incredible joie de vivre, lust for life, and optimism, and also, as a kind of vast dancing folk celebration, portrays the Bartókian ideal of the brotherhood of peoples at the time of the cataclysm of the Second World War.
Performers
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 Mátyás ANTAL was born in 1945 in Budapest. He graduated from the Liszt Academy of Music in 1970 in choral conducting, and in 1971 as a flautist. In 1980-81 he studied conducting at the Royal Academy of Music in Brussels. From 1967 to 1990 he was a flautist in the Hungarian State Symphony Orchestra, in addition to which he regularly played chamber music, and organized the Antal Flute Quintet, which gave the premieres of many new works.
His work as a conductor began in the 1970s. From 1974 he worked as second conductor in the Miskolc Symphony Orchestra, then from 1984 to 1986 he led the Székesfehérvár Chamber Orchestra (now the Alba Regia Symphony Orchestra). From 1986 to 2000 he was conductor of the Austro-Hungarian ensemble Pro Brass. From 1984 to 2002 he worked as choral director of the Budapest Chorus, and from 1986 to 1991 as the teaching conductor of the State Symphony Orchestra. From 1985 for more than 25 years he was the director of the State (now National) Chorus. From 2017 he has been a guest choral conductor for the Slovak Philharmonic Choir.
In 2018 he became artistic director and chief conductor of the Miskolc Symphony Orchestra, work that he continues to this day.
He is a committed performer of new Hungarian music. He regularly conducts evenings dedicated to one of the excellent Hungarian composers (Durkó, Bozay, Dubrovay, Madarász, Szokolay, Szőllősy) in the Pesti Vigadó, Budapest.
He is a guest conductor of many orchestras and choirs in Hungary. He has conducted in many countries in Europe as well as in China and Japan. He has made many CD recordings conducting both choirs and orchestras.
Awards: Liszt Prize (1998), Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary (2005), Bartók-Pásztory Prize (2015), Officers Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit (2015), Prima Prize (2017).
He has won Artisjus Prizes on five occasions (1992, 1993, 1997, 2005, 2009) for his premieres of contemporary Hungarian works.
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 After graduating in both voice and clarinet at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, Szabolcs BRICKNER attended masterclasses at the Hochschule für Musik in Augsburg with Hans-Joachim Beyer, and Edith Wiens, and took private lessons with Nicolai Gedda, Renata Scotto, Salvatore Fisichella, and Franzisco Araiza. After winning first prizes in national singing competitions, he won the second prize at the 2004 Ferrucio Tagliavini International Singing Competition. In 2008, Szabolcs Brickner was the winner of the first prize (Queen Fabiola Prize) at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Belgium, one of the world's most prestigious classical music competitions for young performers.
Szabolcs Brickner has sung at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Frankfurt Oper, Nationaltheater Weimar, Nationaltheater Mannheim, the Hungarian State Opera House, Opéra du Rhin in Strasbourg, Gärtnerplatztheater München, and the Volksoper in Vienna.
Szabolcs Brickner works with orchestras such as the Orchestre de Paris, La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra, La Petite Bande, the Orchestra of the Opéra Royal de Wallonie, Danish Radio Sinfonietta, the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, the National Orchestra of Belgium, the Orquestra Ciudad de Granada, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Hungary, the Budapest Philharmonic
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 The Kodály Choir Debrecen is one of Hungary's internationally renowned professional concert choirs. Founded by György Gulyás in 1955, the ensemble has been part of the Kodály Philharmonic Debrecen since 2011. Its extremely broad repertoire, which includes the best of the a cappella and oratorio repertoire, gives a special place to contemporary music, with hundreds of premieres to its name. As a highly acclaimed interpreter of baroque and classical music, the orchestra regularly performs with its sister ensemble, the Kodály Philharmonic, and as a guest of other renowned orchestras, both at home and abroad. The ensemble’s professional success has been shown by prestigious musical awards, including the Bartók-Pásztory Prize and the Hungarian Heritage Prize. The choir, which collaborates with a whole range of outstanding choirmasters and conductors, will be led by Principal Conductor Zoltán Kocsis-Holper from 2020.
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 The Hungarian Symphony Orchestra Miskolc was founded on 1 November 1963 and ever since has been one of the most magnificent cultural institutions in the region – at the same time one of the most prominent performers on the national musical scene.
In May 2014 the Mayor of Miskolc appointed a new managing director of the orchestra, Krisztina Szászné Pónuzs. From 2018 the artistic director of the orchestra has been Mátyás Antal, holder of the Ferenc Liszt, Bartók-Pásztory and Prima prizes,, who has also been the artistic director of the Hungarian National Choir for decades.
The orchestra performs more than eighty concerts in each programme season as part of a subscription series and individual concerts.
The orchestra has two independent season tickets. The Szimfonikus (Symphonic) season ticket includes eight concerts, and the Yamaha season ticket includes three concerts. In addition, they also play for the Filharmónia Magyarország Nonprofit Kft. Season ticket.
The series of youth concerts also plays an important role in the activity of the orchestra. The vast majority of the traditional subscription performances were held at the House of Arts concert hall in Miskolc.
The orchestra often gives guest performances throughout the Hungary, in Budapest, and also on the stage of the more prestigious European concert halls; for example in the Paris Convention Centre, Nottingham, Athens, the Champs-Elysées Theater in Paris, Sisteron in the south of France, and Ravenna in Italy.
In the light of this it can be said that the Hungarian Symphony Orchestra, Miskolc is a growing cultural treasure of the city of Miskolc, and it receives steadily more recognition both in Hungary and abroad.
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