The 39th Budapest Spring Festival presents fantastic productions, Russian composers and works by Liszt!

Joseph Calleja, Jordi Savall, the Theater Basel Ballet Ensemble, Ferenc Snétberger, Yuri Bashmet and the Moscow Soloists, the Moscow Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra, Eric Whitacre, Ji, Kristjan Randalu and sax legend David Liebman, Judith Hill, GoGo Penguin, Gábor Goda and the Artus Studio. In 2019, the spring of culture will run from 5 to 22 April: in addition to classical concerts, the 39th Budapest Spring Festival – one of the region’s most important cultural event series– will offer numerous opera, ballet, dance and theatre productions, jazz and popular music events and exhibitions. Tickets are already available for the 39th Budapest Spring Festival, with an ever-growing selection of programmes to choose from!

The structure of the Budapest Spring Festival is based on a few thematic focal points and key elements: Ferenc Liszt and his oeuvre always feature prominently in the festival programme. This is why, on 11 April, Kirill Gerstein, Zsolt Hamar and the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra will be performing the Faust Symphony, Klára Kolonits and Bálint Zsoldos will delight the audience with Liszt lieder in the BMC concert hall, and the Philharmonia Chor Stuttgart is also planning a special Liszt concert as part of the festival. On 16 April, the pianist Fülöp Ránki and the Liszt Academy Symphony Orchestra will play Liszt’s Orfeo and Piano Concerto No. 1 (in E-flat major).

Each year, the festival focuses on the art of one particular country: in 2019, the focus will be on the Russian culture’s great composers and works of art, classical and contemporary, as well as living legends. The opening concert on 5 April will feature Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina, his second and last completed opera: the Hungarian Radio Art Groups, with conductor János Kovács, will bring this piece to the audience in a performance true to the intentions of the composer, in János Bojti’s reconstructed version. In another genre, another work of art, but still Mussorgsky: Estonian-born pianist Kristjan Randalu, one of his generation’s most versatile artists, has adapted Pictures at an Exhibition, the Russian composer’s popular piano suite, for a sax and piano duo, which he will play with the world famous sax virtuoso David Liebman. The Moscow Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra is bringing works by Dvořák, Brahms and Tchaikovsky, and will perform together with the Prague Philharmonic Choir, assisted by singers Polina Pasztircsák and Anatolij Fokanov. On 6 April at the Pesti Vigadó, Yuri Bashmet and the Moscow Soloists will play compositions by Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky, among others. Tchaikovsky, and specifically the Nutcracker Suite, will also feature at the piano concert by Károly Mocsári and Krisztián Kocsis, while Budapest Art Week is also preparing with a Russian theme and the most exciting contemporary Russian artists.

The Pesti Vigadó

1051 Budapest, Vigadó tér 2.

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There will be plenty of examples for exciting cross-border collaboration, and the festival promises true gems in every genre. Also in the spring of 2019, the Museum of Fine Arts will dedicate an exhibition to the genius of the Italian renaissance, Michelangelo, in the museum’s newly reconstructed stately halls.

Museum of Fine Arts

1146 Budapest, Dózsa György út 41. - Heroes Square

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Star tenor Joseph Calleja from Malta is eagerly awaited in Hungary; and the excellent guitarist Ferenc Snétberger, drawing inspiration from flamenco, jazz, Romani and classical music, will be on stage at the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall.
The young and extravagant South Korean piano genius Ji will bring Bach’s iconic Goldberg Variations to Hungary. At the age of ten, he was the youngest pianist to win the New York Philharmonic’s Young Artists Competition, and his star has been on the rise ever since.
Bach will be also at the centre of Balázs Szokolay and the Liszt Ferenc Chamber Orchestra’s concert, where all the composer’s solo concertos for keyboard instruments– 7 concertos, 21 movements – will be performed. Grammy-winner composer and conductor Eric Whitacre is one of the most popular musicians of our times. His compositions are performed by hundreds of professional and amateur choirs, and his online virtual choir projects have drawn participants from 110 different countries. Whitacre’s concert at the Academy of Music on 12 April promises to be truly special. The series of four concerts entitled The Beginning of the Road – The End of the Road promises an unconventional adventure in chamber music, with early and late works of such composers as Haydn, Debussy or Chopin.

Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music

1061 Budapest, Liszt Ferenc tér 8.

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For the first time in Budapest, you can listen to the amazing voice of Judith Hill, the spellbinding Japanese-American soul singer discovered by Prince. The wonderfully talented Austrian singer-songwriter Anja Plaschg, aka Soap&Skin, will bring her new album combining classical music with electropop to the A38 ; Wigama Lekko, the brand new formation of Róbert Hrutka and Dániel Viktor Nagy will also delight the audience with the premiere of their new album; while the unmistakable sounds of Manchester-based trio GoGo Penguin will show us the unique fusion that a bit of rock, jazz and electronica can achieve at the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall.

Müpa Budapest

1095 Budapest, Komor Marcell u. 1

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Dance enthusiasts can also start the countdown to spring, as the festival promises some truly special performances. The Theater Basel Ballet Ensemble brings their Tewje production to Budapest, while emblematic figures of the Hungarian dance scene, Gábor Goda and the Artus Studio prepare for a new premiere entitled The Gates of the Wind. Rita Góbi, the internationally acclaimed member of the younger generation of Hungarian dancer-choreographers also delights audiences with a new premiere.

The most significant cultural institutions and most exciting auditoriums and venues in the Hungarian capital join forces during the 39th Budapest Spring Festival. Pont Festival returns to revel in folk traditions for the third year running and, just like in previous years, the whole city breathes and moves with the festival – among others, at Aquarium Spring Terrace, which reopens in the heart of Budapest, with lots of popular music concerts and children’s programmes to choose from.

In 2019, cultural spring once again begins on the first day of the Budapest Spring Festival, which runs from 5 to 22 April. Tickets for the continuously expanding programme are available from Müpa Budapest, at BFTK ticket sales points, and ONLINE HERE.

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THE BUDAPEST SPRING FESTIVAL: MISSION AND HISTORY

Launched in 1981, the Budapest Spring Festival has become one of Central Europe’s most important multidisciplinary art events over the past four decades: a prestigious series of events bringing together outstanding international artists and the best of the Hungarian cultural scene in a wealth of programmes in Budapest. Offering a diversity of genres has been a core value of the festival from the very beginning. In addition to large-scale concerts and classical chamber concerts, several opera, popular music and jazz concerts, dance performances, theatrical and art events await the public as well.
As a cultural brand of European importance, the Budapest Spring Festival joins the ranks of international art festivals and cities such as Avignon, Aix-en-Provence, Montpelier, Edinburgh, or the Prague Spring and the Vienna Festival in this region, at the same time striving to preserve and build its own individual character. “Deepening the various forms of cooperation and seeking out opportunities for coproduction was a strategic decision of crucial importance. The festival is a large-scale joint effort, a nice example of collaboration between the city and its cultural venues. National and international cooperation, a collective reflection and planning years ahead are bringing about unique productions that are only possible within the Budapest Spring Festival. That is what makes our offerings for Budapest residents and visitors so special”, says Csaba Káel, director-general of Müpa and chairman of the festival’s organising board, stressing also the touristic attraction of the series. Following on from previous years, the 2019 edition is organised jointly by Müpa and the Budapest Festival and Tourism Centre.
“Today you could easily say that the Budapest Spring Festival has emerged as one of Europe’s most significant springtime event series. For us, it was an important consideration to open the doors as wide as possible: we are now present in independent, alternative companies, in addition to the most established Budapest theatres. The festival comes to the capital’s largest concert halls and performing art centres, as well as smaller concert venues, cultural and community centres, museums and galleries,” points out Teodóra Bán, managing director of the Budapest Festival and Tourism Centre and a member of the organising board.

Photo: Pixabay
Text: BFTK