For his Budapest Festival Orchestra, conductor Iván Fischer drew on the 'crème de la crème' of musical Hungary. A club of the talented, thus, that for many years has been a fixture in our Blue Hall and which, time and again with Fischer, has provided musical highlights for the season.
This time, the orchestra has opted for a work by Edouard Lalo, a French violinist and composer whose often heard 'Symphonie espagnole' (1874) is actually a Spanish violin concerto. The piece is full of stylistic references to the land of tapas and flamenco, and the demanding solo part is played by the French violin virtuoso Renaud Capuçon. It is a real pleasure to introduce one of the best violinists of the day in a work that might have been written especially for him.
Rimsky-Korsakov sought inspiration for his orchestral suite 'Sheherazade' (1888) further to the East; more particularly in the tales from 'The Thousand and One Nights', with which the girl Sheherazade regaled sultan Shariar night after night and thereby saved her life.
Brahms' famous 'Tragic Overture' (1880) is the affecting pendant to his 'Academic Festival Overture' from the same year. It is Romantic Brahms through and through, and Fischer and his orchestra are the ideal interpreters.