Our orchestra has already delivered a number of memorable concerts in Spain with members of the ensemble having had the exceptional honour to play the instruments of the Royal Spanish Stradivarius Collection on one of these events. Hungary held the rotating presidency of the EU Council in 2011, and at the celebratory concert in Madrid on this occasion, the Spanish royal family congratulated the orchestra. 

In this year our the outstanding artists of our orchestra will be meeting again the Spanish audience on 19 April in Barcelona, the Palace of Catalan Music and on 20 April in the National Music Auditorium in Madrid. 

Our Artistic Director cellist István Várdai will take part in the upcoming concerts in Spain as a soloist, performing Haydn’s Cello Concerto in C major.In addition to the virtuoso concerto, the most popular works in the orchestra’s repertoire will also be performed, Edvard Grieg’s Holberg Suite and Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings, to name a few. The serenade’s relentless popularity has much to do with the fact that its composer managed to reconcile the “intimacy” of Germany’s musical romanticism and the pleasure of French orchestral music with the tonality of Russian folk music. 

The name of Xavier Montsalvatge will certainly ring a bell for his Spanish compatriots. Being one of the most influential representatives of Catalan music, he is also considered a point of reference in the contemporary music scene. His laid-back, emotional work Three Reflections on a Winter Pastoral will mark the start of the second part of the concert after the break. With the performance of his works, we play homage to contemporary Spanish music, hoping to deliver a unique rendition to the Barcelona and Madrid audiences, relying on solutions of fine-tuning, touching on their Hungarian musical background. 

Date:

19 April 2022 8:00 pm, Barcelona, Palau de la Musica

20 April 2022 7:30 pm, Madrid Auditorio Nacional

Programme:

E. Grieg: Holberg Suite op. 40
J. Haydn: Cello Concerto in C major No.1, Hob. VIIb:1

Interval

X. Montsalvatge: Three reflections on a winter pastoral
P. I. Tchaikovsky: Serenade for strings, op. 48