The Classicus Quartet's concert cycle – featuring works by classical and contemporary composers – takes a look at the string quartet literature from the steps of the chromatic scale. From time to time, the concert series is punctuated  by interludes featuring works that are not tied to a specific modality or not written originally for the string quartet. At the upcoming concert, in addition to László Dobszay's String Quartet and Bartók's 3rd String Quartet, the 3rd string quartet of the Kodály's pupil, Mátyás Seiber (1951) will be performed. This masterpiece is a genuine rarity – its first and most likely last performance in Budapest was held in 1961. The piece is a particularly exciting manifestation of Seiber's complex style that integrates folk music, jazz, the Second Viennese school, and Bartók's influence. Seiber has been called a worthy heir to the great predecessors by contemporary critics.

Formed in 2014, the progressive fusion jazz trio returns to Opus with their album Deadline Haze, which won this year’s Independent Music Awards (USA) in recognition of independent composers and performers. The music of the album is a unique fusion in the contemporary jazz scene, featuring rock, metal and folk style as well as free improvisation or influence of classical music of the 20th century. The rhythmic and harmonic complexity of Petra’s compositions is coupled with a direct, instinctive mode of performance, flying a wide spectrum of dynamics and emotions in their concerts, flying the audience from deeply melancholic soundscapes to crushing metal grooves. The trio has been invited to perform at international music festivals and prestigious concert venues such as the Palace of Arts, the Sziget Festival, the Csíki Jazz Festival, the Aquarium or the Amersfoort Jazz Festival, and has won numerous professional awards, including the "Best Instrumentalist" Award of the Sibiu International Jazz Competition. facebook.com/PetraVarallyayTrio

Dear Visitors! Due to technical reasons, musicologist Gergely Fazekas will not be participating in the event. Instead, Gábor Csalog will perform the pieces with a short introduction. Dialogues with (the) Music, Gábor Csalog's unconventional piano recital series continues in 2019/2020. The pianist will be in dialogue not just with his favourite composers and pieces but with musicologist Gergely Fazekas as well, creating an animated discussion in the first half of the concerts. The third occasion presents 115 years of Russian music by Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Rahmaninoff, Prokofiev and Ustvoltskaya. 

Formerly knows as the Rondo Quartet, the Dohnányi Quartet's three concerts of this season are linked by their Russian aspects. In his three string quartets, dedicated to the Russian ambassador to Vienna, Count Razumovsky, Beethoven worked on several Russian folk themes. In addition to one of the three Beethoven string quartets (Op. 59, 1806) each concert presents also a work by Russian composers of different periods, Tchaikovsky (1871), Prokofiev (1931) and Schnittke (1983). And as an evocation of an important root of Russian culture, the Dohnányi Quartet plays Eastern Orthodox choral music between the works, this time of course being reworked for stringed instruments.

All’Ongherese – Magyarosan… Gulyás, paprika, jobb esetben csárdás, és ha műveltek vagyunk, akkor népzene, Bartók és Kodály. Milyen ma és milyen volt évtizedekkel ezelőtt a zeneszerzők viszonya a magyar népzenéhez? Feldolgozás, átalakítás, népzenei gesztusok. Allúziók, hangszeres improvizáció. Népzenei előadási stílus és újzenei technikák, jazz és etno-irányzatok. Sorolhatnánk a szempontokat, amelyek felől ma megközelíthető a magyar népzene. E lehetőségek közül néhányat felvillantva a közönséggel együtt szeretnénk feltenni a kérdést, vajon más lesz-e egy kompozíció, ha eltérő esztétikai indíttatás mentén jön létre? Merthogy a művek szerzői nagyon különbözőek, nem csak születési idejüket tekintve.

Dear Visitors, We regret to inform you that the concert is cancelled due to the technical reasons. Tickets purchased online will be automatically refunded by InterTicket Kft. Tickets purchased on the spot may be refunded at the BMC Info Desk. Please check our website for further announcements. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate for your understanding. Budapest Music Center

Dear Visitors, We regret to inform you that the concert is cancelled due to the technical reasons. Tickets purchased online will be automatically refunded by InterTicket Kft. Tickets purchased on the spot may be refunded at the BMC Info Desk. Please check our website for further announcements. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate for your understanding. Budapest Music Center The orchestra of László Dés, Miklós Lukács, András Dés and Márton Fenyvesi, which connects generations, was founded at the beginning of 2019. Their idea is to expand the boundaries of the jazz genre, which already presupposes great musical freedom. Relying only on their instrumental knowledge, their ears and sensitivity, they play without any rehearsal, without consultation, with the joy of complete freedom. This requires a great deal of external and internal focus as the musical product takes shape while playing. The themes, the structure, the form are both the product of the moment, and it is a tremendous experience for both the musicians and the audience, as the resulting music can never be reproduced in that form again. This shared experience is like a great magic, the magic of improvisation. Meeting four excellent musicians through their instruments, from concert to concert.

Dear Opus Guests,We regret to inform you that the concert is cancelled due to the Hungarian border closures enacted by the Government on September 1. Tickets purchased online will be automatically refunded by InterTicket Kft. Tickets purchased on the spot may be refunded at the BMC Info Desk. Please check our website for further announcements. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate for your understanding.BMC – Opus Jazz Club "One of the most exciting things European jazz currently has to offer" – Jazzthetik Magazine In this second repertoire, the Franco-Belgian trio consisting of saxophonist Manuel Hermia, cellist Valentin Ceccaldi and drummer Sylvain Darrifourcq explores the sound that made them famous in Europe. The wild energy and great intensity communicated by the three musicians still contribute to a unique time-bound experience. Closer to a defined outline, their original process seems more and more clear. The energetic potential of instrumentation is used to its fullest: from a minimalist and noisy friction of the bow to a sound typhoon, the trio explores these extreme fields with the same eagerness. The new tones created by the sound objects of Sylvain Darrifourcq resonate perfectly with the creative cello of Valentin Ceccaldi: melodic, harmonic and percussive, all at once. Manuel Hermia exerts a powerful lyricism to this mechanical thread reaching a cathartic outburst.

In July 2017, the Ákos Fekecs Project was founded with the aim to realize Ákos’ own musical ideas with his friends and fellow-musicians. The drummer-composer has been working on his own compositions since 2011. His first independent work, Reverse, was seen by more than fifty thousand at the Drum Talk TV Video Store. In Fekecs’ compositions, we can find from soft jazz harmonies, through world music elements, pulsations of fusion and odd meters up to modern electronic sound. Beyond the composed material, the group’s way of playing is also reflected in energetic improvisations. In 2018, the Ákos Fekecs Project won the Laureate World-Jazz International Competition at the Amersfoort Jazz Festival in the Netherlands, but they performed with big success at many other foreign and domestic festivals as well, such as Jazz in the Park Festival in Cluj-Napoca, Babel Jazz Festival in Balatonboglár, the PulzArt Contemporary Art Festival in Sfântu Gheorghe, the Valley of Arts in Kapolcs, or the Budafok Champagne and Wine Festival. akosfekecs.com   Ákos Fekecs · Akos Fekecs Project (2018) www.akosfekecs.com

Csajkovszkij is tele bőrönddel ment el, de utolsó zongoraversenyét hál’ istennek nem csomagolta teljesen be: az első tétel éppen, hogy ránk maradt. Duzzadó erő és életöröm, akár a Vonósszerenád hedonista C-dúrja. Plusz egy, a „Rokokó” árnyékában árválkodó gyöngyszem – bármelyik best of albumra felférne mindegyik.

Treetop was created two years ago, while the musicians lived, played and studied together in Brno. The trio setting (accordion, trombone and double bass) is the result of a unique synergy and musical and personal understanding between three musicians from the Czech Republic and Slovakia. They inspire each other and the cooperation between the three "leaders" is very natural and fluid. Their diverse repertoire reflects many aspects of Treetop’s musical journey, spanning from jazz influences or folklore inspiration to contemporary musical concepts, enabling them to explore the unknown potential of this unusual instrumentation. "Members of the trio Treetop rightfully belong to most sought after young musicians in Czech Republic and Slovakia. Their extraordinary interpretation skills go well with challenging arrangements and novel compositions which excel thanks to their professional playing. All together creates a splendid sample for representing the artistic generation abroad” - wrote about the band Dagmar Ostřanská, director of Czech Center in Sofia, Bulgaria. triotreetop.com urbex sessions by Treetop

Ha minden nap hallgatsz Bach-ot, húsz évvel tovább élsz. Tényleg! Na, jó, nem. De mennyivel jobban élsz, mintha nem hallgatnál! Megmutatjuk: ennyivel.

Electroacoustic music by Bálint Bolcsó meets the selected texts of Anna Lesznai (1885-1966) in this play presenting the life of the internationally acclaimed artist, writer and poet. Defying expectations for women of her time, Anna Lesznai was a key figure of the Hungarian avantgarde. In 1909 she joined the Constructivist-Expressionist group of Hungarian artists known as Nyolcak (“The Eight”). She was a close friend of Béla Bartók. In 1913 she married the sociologist and historian Oszkár Jászi, a leading figure in the Hungarian progressive movement and cabinet minister in the Hungarian Democratic Republic. Facing with the rising tide of anti-Semitism in Europe, the artist of ennobled Jewish descent immigrated to the United States in 1939. She died in New York in 1966. Lesznai recorded her thoughts in her monumental collection of fascinating diaries, and her tales and poems appeared in numerous volumes. Her autobiographical novel Kezdetben volt a kert (“In the Beginning was the Garden”), on which she worked for thirty years, was published in German translation in 1965 and in the original Hungarian the following year. The script of the play is based on Lesznai's diary excerpts and selected poems. These are presented in prose and singing form, embedded in an electroacoustic musical texture that employs a variety of musical styles, reflecting on the diversity of Lesznai’s oeuvre.

Csajkovszkij is tele bőrönddel ment el, de utolsó zongoraversenyét hál’ istennek nem csomagolta teljesen be: az első tétel éppen, hogy ránk maradt. Duzzadó erő és életöröm, akár a Vonósszerenád hedonista C-dúrja. Plusz egy, a „Rokokó” árnyékában árválkodó gyöngyszem – bármelyik best of albumra felférne mindegyik.

Grand compositions, crunchy rhythms, improvisations, lyrical images and a hint of sardonic wildness: János Bujdosó and his trio roam the soundscapes of underground jazz and world music with a style of their own that is best characterized as “Byzantine surf jazz”. The trio presents their recent release, National Amnesia Institute at Opus Jazz Club featuring Hungarian, Middle Eastern and Latin elements incorporated into repetitive musical structures.

This one-day concert series that puts the spotlight on the most personal, intimate and brilliant genre of the Beethoven oeuvre launches with perhaps his most famous piano sonata. The astonishing popularity of the ‘Moonlight’ Sonata, that took this name just a few years after the death of the composer, might even have embarrassed Beethoven himself because, as he once grumbled to his student Carl Czerny, “People always talk about the C-sharp minor sonata! I have written better things, truly!” At this first concert, where the Mondschein is joined by the D minor sonata also dating from the beginning of the 19th century, similarly evoking a naturalistic image and which also took on an epithet – Tempest – that did not come from Beethoven himself, we find Tamás Érdi at the piano. The Liszt Ferenc Prize and Prima Primissima Prize artist was assisted and encouraged in his early days by such great artists as Tamás Vásáry and Zoltán Kocsis. The latter characterized the style of Tamás Érdi thus: “Tamás touches piano keys with much more sensitivity than those who can see. I believe that in his play, there is such sensitivity which is naturally not possible to reach for us....he opens a new world and dimension that others don’t.”

“Due to the uncontrollable flood of ideas, he wildly piles musical thoughts one on top of the other, and links them in a bizarre way. [...] There are too many sudden interludes and dissonant sounds.” This is how, at the turn of the 18th century, some Viennese critics reacted in puzzlement on first coming across the three piano sonatas of opus 10, of which this concert features the third in D major. The E major sonata written at the very end of the 18th century is dedicated to Baroness Josefa von Braun, wife of a court theatre intendant in Vienna. However, to a local audience the dedicatee of the F-sharp major sonata that is positioned at the end of the programme (and was a particular favourite of the composer) is even closer, since the two-movement composition was written for Countess Teréz Brunswick, a member of the Hungarian nobility. Performer of all three sonatas is 25-year-old Fülöp Ránki, who following in his parents’ footsteps has had an ever increasing influence on the domestic and international concert scene for several years now. And not without reason since the Junior Prima award-winning pianist has proven his talent and artistic profundity at numerous memorable concerts, for instance the event at the Liszt Academy in April 2019 when he played the entire series of Liszt’s Transcendental Études in a single session.

It wasn’t uncommon for Beethoven to struggle with considerable resistance to the reception of his works: he became entangled in a back and forth with some of the critics but on the whole, he just let the works speak for themselves. However, the ‘Pathétique’ Sonata in C minor premiering in 1799 was greeted with prolonged applause by music-lovers of the imperial city right from the first performance: “The Viennese public can be happy in boasting so many brilliant artists. Beethoven is one of these. We can only hope that he will bestow on us the products of his genius and hard work on many more occasions.” The C major ‘Waldstein’ Sonata commemorates the name and memory of Count Ferdinand Ernst Gabriel von Waldstein, an enthusiastic patron of the arts and aristocrat with most eccentric nature, who first met the youthful Beethoven in Bonn and played a key part not only in having the brilliant artist move to Vienna but also that he could take lessons from Haydn. The two sonatas are interpreted by János Palojtay. The international career of this youthful musician was sparked by taking third place at the 2012 Paloma O’Shea piano competition in Santander; András Schiff has been his patron, recognizing early on his particular gifts. In fact, Schiff selected him as one of the soloists for the Building Bridges European concert series in 2017/2018.  

The title ‘Appassionata’ of the F minor Piano Sonata composed in the early 1800s is one of the few nicknames that Beethoven himself gave to his piece. One of the author's most technical pieces is dedicated to Count Franz von Brunswick. “It was incomprehensible, like Chinese. When the instruments in the regions of the South and North Poles have to battle with immense difficulties, when each one plays different motifs and the musical lines cross each other per transitum irregularem in a host of dissonances, when the players, mistrusting themselves, are not able to play properly in tune, I do declare the Babylon-like confusion is then complete. ” – this is how the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung described the work known as the Great Fugue, which was originally written as the last movement of the opus 130 late string quartet. Beethoven later, at the suggestion of his publisher, wrote a shorter finale for the quartet, and published the quarter-hour movement alone. Shortly afterwards, the composer arranger the monumental double fugue for piano four hands; this time we will hear this version in the performance of the two young pianists. Ádám Balogh can say that – through his parents – he ‘originates’ from Pannon Philharmonic and was playing in concert with the Budapest Festival Orchestra aged just 13. Since then his adult career has truly taken off, and in a most eye-catching way, too: in 2019, he attained second place at the Liszt Academy’s Bartók World Competition. Balogh's partner, Mihály Berecz was praised by several music critics for his sophisticated, but at the same time liberated and energetic interpretations.

‘Sonata quasi una fantasia’ – originally, both opus 27 sonatas published in the spring of 1802 had this title, of which later the ‘Moonlight’ Sonata overshadowed its partner piece in E-flat major. This latter composition is performed before the very last Beethoven piano sonata, that is, in the contrast company of the two-movement C minor sonata published in 1823. This late work receives a memorable part in Thomas Mann’s novel Doctor Faustus: the writer has the talkative musician Wendell Kretzschmar articulate a most profound insight into the work (in fact originating from Adorno), according to which the second movement (Arietta) is the final farewell of Beethoven to the sonata as a genre and as form kept alive by traditions. Mihály Berecz, born in 1997, made his public debut in Budapest when he was 16 years old, playing music under the baton of his role model Zoltán Kocsis. Since then the artist has continued on his own way because as he put it in an interview a few years ago: “I consider that personality is more important than anything. I was never really excited by technical knowledge; my attention was always engaged in making music itself...”

Master and his student, a pianist who is respected as piano teacher and have won great merit as performer of contemporary works as well, András Kemenes and János Palojtay, a young pianist with more than ten years of international career, will play at the penultimate concert of the day. Although the programme offers only one sonata, there is still plenty to do for both musicians: the two-movement D major sonata published by Artaria & Co. in 1797 is a four-hand piece, and the beginning of the work may remind listeners of the early part of Symphony No. 5. Nevertheless, two pieces will be played of the four-hand variation series: a composition comprising 6 variations from 1799, which Beethoven wrote based on his own song setting a Goethe poem to music, and dedicated to the two Brunswick sisters, Josefine and Teréz, as well as the youthful series which was composed back in 1792 for a theme given by Count Waldstein. The concert includes a four-hand composition issued by the music publishers in 1804: Three Marches with pieces in C major, E-flat major and D major.

Beethoven returned to the genre of piano sonata in 1814 after a gap of several years with the E minor sonata comprising just two movements. ‘A Contest between Head and Heart’, and ‘Conversation with the Beloved’ – according to the dubious claims of Anton Schindler, the master’s last secretary and one of his first biographers, who was caught out several times in inventing music history stories, these would have been the movement titles of the sonata, referring to the then love affair of Prince Lichnowsky, to whom the work was dedicated. Liszt Prize holder Gábor Csalog performs at the last concert because as is common knowledge, the artist has shown not only exemplary commitment in playing contemporary music but he is at the same time an authority on interpreting Beethoven. “Probably the best I’ve written.” – Beethoven sent to his publisher in 1825 the 6 bagatelles dedicated to his brother. Although the author originally intended the collection to be played as a coherent cycle, the short character pieces are also suitable to be performed individually, so that this time we will hear three of them. The concert as well as the whole day will be closed by a late piano sonata. The unusual titles and performance instructions in the score of the work in A flat major, known for its dense, contrapuntal texture, prompted several analysts to discover a narrative behind the musical notes. Liszt Prize holder Gábor Csalog performs at the last concert because as is common knowledge, the artist has shown not only exemplary commitment in playing contemporary music but he is at the same time an authority on interpreting Beethoven.

Aram Shelton’s Hang Quartet plays creative jazz music inspired by Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, and Charles Mingus. In this newly formed group, Shelton (USA) plays alto saxophone and is joined by some of the most dynamic voices of the Budapest jazz scene: Pozsár Máté, piano; Ajtai Péter, bass; and Kovács Zsolt Sárvári, drums. Since 2000, Aram Shelton has focused on creative music grounded in and influenced by the rich history of avant-jazz and free improvisation. He has a distinct, harmonically rich sound and develops musical thoughts through constant motion, tonal shifts and complex sounds alongside clear melodic and rhythmic constructs. He's been a member of the creative music communities in the San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago, Copenhagen and now lives in Budapest. The concert will feature Shelton’s compositions from his albums Everything for Somebody and Gold Age and will display each members distinct styles while making collective music that is joyful, energetic, raw and poignant.

"The world is full of rhythm, sound and vibration. The oxygen atoms sound in the major, the blades of grass sing, and everything around us is music" – this is the main idea behind Zoltán Lantos's OpenSource formation debut album, entitled Sonaris, published in 2018, in which the violinist and bandleader also incorporated his passion for the Eastern cultures. Mixing of modern jazz and Indian music, the sound of a traditional musical instrument called bulbul tarang and live electronics, post bop rhythms and bowl frills are natural and self-evident – thanks to Zoltán Lantos' travels in India, during which he gained an in-depth knowledge of this culture. In OpenSource’s music, the violin is heard in an electronic and groove-centric environment. All this is permeated by the meditative minimalism typical of oriental music, which invites the listener into a spiritual dimension. And the rhythm section – complete with a DJ and live electronics – makes this floating almost danceable. 

A koncert hagyományos japán zenei részei sakuhacsin, japán bambuszfuvolán szólalnak meg. A kínai eredetű peremfúvós hangszer a zen buddhizmus kolostoraiban fejlődött mai alakjáig, sajátos módon nem művészi, illetve egyházzenei, hanem vallásos célokat szolgálva. A buddhista fúvós meditáció (szuizen) alapeszméje szerint a rendszeres, fegyelmezett, míves hangszeres gyakorlás épp úgy elvezethet a tökéletes elme állapotába, mint az ülő meditáció (zazen). A fúvós meditációban a sakuhacsi hangja így nem a hallgatóságnak szóló zene, hanem a hangzó zen gyakorlata, olyan ösvény, amelyen a játékos önmaga legbelsőbb természete felé közelíthet lélegzetről-lélegzetre. A meditatív hangszerjáték mellett azonban a sakuhacsi egyfajta evangelizációs funkciót is betöltött. Azok a szerzetesek, akik megszólaltatták, sajátos viseletben, arcukat eltakarva, individualitásukról lemondva járták az utcákat alamizsnát koldulva, s a hangszer harsány, magas regisztereiben egyenesen tolakodó hangja nemcsak a figyelem felkeltését szolgálta, hanem a hétköznapok gondjaiba merülő világi tudat önmagára eszmélését, saját természetével való szembesülését is. A koncerten a hangzó eseményekkel párhuzamosan egy másik hagyományos japán művészeti ággal is találkozhat a közönség. A zen kalligráfiára gesztusai a maguk néma módján épp annyira kifejezőek, mint a koncerten megszólaló kortárs és hagyományos zenék, így a fehér alapon megjelenő fekete alakzatok létrehozásának folyamata a kultúrákat elválasztó jelentésbeli különbségek ellenére is képesek mindannyiunknak üzenni.

The mentoring programme of the Péter Eötvös Contemporary Music Fundation enables composers and conductors to hone their skills. The participants work for a year with guidance from Péter Eötvös and Gergely Vajda. The mentoring programme also includes masterclasses by world-famous composers: last year’s tutors were Kaija Saariaho, Heinz Holliger and Hanspeter Kyburz, and for 2020, George Benjamin, one of today’s most important British composers.The programme of the end-of-course concert includes the Hungarian premiere of Benjamin’s Three Inventions (1995), and works the mentored composers wrote during the programme, which employ the instrumentation of Béla Bartók’s Divertimento. This concert of the CAFe Budapest Contemporary Arts Festival is presented by Müpa Budapest as a joint event with Budapest Music Center and Péter Eötvös Contemporary Music Foundation.

Szilvia Bognár, soloist in countless productions, is one of the most sought-after singers of Hungarian folk and world music. She appeared with famous artists like Márta Sebestyén, Andrea Rost or Ferenc Sebő, András Lovasi, András Berecz. So far, she has made six albums with her own compositions, ranging from Renaissance chants through children’s songs to progressive world music. On the repertoire of her new world music formation, the Szilvia Bognár Sextet, Hungarian, Gypsy, Bulgarian and Greek songs are played in an unconventional line-up and arrangement, as three worlds meet in the program – folk music, jazz and North Indian classical music. Preserving the essentially acoustic sound and the natural quality of traditional performance, they sail safely through a variety of different styles of music and traditional melodies.

The New Hungarian Music Forum’s composition competition is a unique opportunity for young and middle-generation composers to present such works to the public that employ large ensembles. The primary objective of the competition is to encourage and support the creation of new pieces, and to foster lasting cooperation between composers and orchestras. Judit Varga, Balázs Horváth, Péter Tornyai, Máté Balogh, Bánk Sáry, Marcell Dargay, Máté Bella, László Sándor, Péter Zombola and Dániel Dinyés were some of the award winners in recent years, and they have all become forces to reckon with in Hungarian contemporary music.Composers who submit seven to fifteen-minute-long compositions for chamber groups and small ensembles enjoy a great degree of freedom with regard to the instrumentation: ten to sixteen players can be employed, and the instruments need not be strictly classical, with bass guitars or cimbaloms being well within the rules. There is, however, one restriction: for an entry to qualify, it must feature a trumpet soloist. This concert of the CAFe Budapest Contemporary Arts Festival is presented by Müpa Budapest as a joint event with Budapest Music Center.

The avant-garde music program based on the poems of Lajos Kassák will be performed again in the Opus Jazz Club. Four musicians and one actor undertake to present the selected poems of Lajos Kassák at an unusual concert. The music of the artists faithfully follows the attitude of the works of the poet known for his free verses. Music compositions include melodic, song-like structured pieces, free improvisations following poems, and conceptual, avant-garde songs. The special feature of the project is that in addition to the actor László Keszég, the musicians also perform a poem, thus focusing on the personality and the experience of the poems. Veronika Harcsa doesn't cover poems for the first time, her 2011 album Lámpafény also included a Kassák adaptation, and she also selected most of the poems for this project. Albert Márkos is also known as a theatrical and film composer, many of the songs of the evening are named after him. Balázs Pándi and Róbert Benkő are the defining figures of Hungarian free jazz. The composition of the band is eclectic, the music they play matches Kassák's controversial personality and the diversity of the poems, the emotionality and hardness inherent in them.

Elliot Galvin is one of the stars of UK jazz. A superbly gifted composer and pianist, whose maverick imagination and magpie like ability to blend a disparate world of influences into his own unique musical vision has been compared to Django Bates although he sounds like no one except himself. Elliot is a prolific composer and has been commissioned by a number of Ensembles, Dance Companies, Theatre Groups and Festivals including the London Sinfonietta, Ligeti String Quartet, St. John Smith’s Square, The London Jazz festival, The RESOLUTION! Dance Festival at The Place and the Theatre Company Cut Tongues. He works regularly with multi-media and in 2014 put on a multi-media installation piece at the Turner Contemporary Gallery, which consisted of live performance, interactive sound sculptures and film. For four albums Elliot’s critically acclaimed trio with bassist Tom McCredie and sticksman Corrie Dick has been the main focus, with ​The Influencing Machine​ being named in both Downbeat’s and Jazzwise’s best of 2018 list. His next album, the brilliant ​Modern Times​ (a BBC 6 Music Album of theDay), continued this trajectory, but ​2020’s Live in Paris, At Fondation Louis Vuitton​, strips back his extensive arsenal of electronic and extended acoustic sounds, placing the brilliance of his pianism, musicianship and storytelling front and centre stage.

Since its foundation in 2001, Accord Quartet has developed a repertoire diverse in genres and styles. In addition to the classical chamber music literature, the ensemble likes to test itself in a wide range of forms, from experimental opera to lighter pieces. However, the string quartet is best known to the general public for its commitment to modern music, because they have premiered a host of works that were written specifically for them. With a programme that comprises string quartets by three of the best-known composers of music after Béla Bartók – György Ligeti, György Kurtág and Péter Eötvös –, the concert not only reveals creative worlds that reflect on each other, but also shows how their styles are informed by the centuries-long tradition of European music. This concert of the CAFe Budapest Contemporary Arts Festival is presented by Budapest Festival and Tourism Centre as a joint event with Budapest Music Center.

A szaxofon az egyik legfiatalabb az akusztikus hangszerek családjában, ennek hátránya a repertoár szűkös mérete, előnye viszont, hogy szinte minden műhöz kötődik egy történet és egy jelentős előadó, aki nélkül az adott mű talán sosem született volna meg. Az első szaxofonduó kompozíciók szinte egyidősek magával a hangszerrel, ám csaknem 90 évig kellett várni az első jelentős műre, amely Paul Hindemith és Sigurd Rascher együttműködésének gyümölcse. A kettős Hindemith ötlete volt, Rascher pedig sokáig nem talált megfelelő partnert az előadásához. Az ősbemutatót 1960-ra datálják, amikor a 14 éves lányával, Carinával szólaltatta meg a Konzertstücköt. Stockhausen Knabenduettje, mely egyébként a Donnerstag aus Licht című operája 3. felvonásának egyik betétszáma, először Simon fia és annak barátja, Hugo Read előadásában hangzott el az opera 1981-es La Scala-i bemutatóján. Paul Arma egy izgalmas zeneszerző, akit itthon kevesen ismernek, magyar származása ellenére. Valódi neve Weisshaus Imre, és a '20-as évek elején a Zeneakadémián Bartók Béla növendéke volt, zenéjében igen erősen mutatkozik meg mesterének hatása. Divertimentója eredetileg két fuvolára készült, ám ő maga tett javaslatot a szaxofonokon, illetve fuvolán és szaxofonon való előadásra is. A hangversenyen elhangzó többi mű története az előadókhoz kötődik. Seleljo Erzsébet tizenhárom évesen - hét évnyi zongoratanulás után - kezdett el szaxofonozni édesapja, Seleljo Jaroszlav irányítása alatt a bonyhádi zeneiskolában. Ezekben az években a Helikon Fesztivál komolyzenei kategóriájának aranyérmét és fesztiváldíját (2000), valamint az I. Országos Zeneiskolai Szaxofonverseny 1. díját (2001) nyerte el. Tanulmányait a londoni Royal College of Music és a Konservatorium Wien Privatuniversität hallgatójaként végezte, doktori fokozatát pedig a Liszt Ferenc Zeneművészeti Egyetemen szerezte meg. Diákévei során elnyerte a Liszt Academy Network (2008) és a Klassz iroda (2009) ösztöndíjait. Szólistaként fellépett a Liszt Ferenc Kamarazenekarral, a Zeneakadémia Szimfonikus Zenekarával és a Győri Symphonic Band kíséretével. Gyakran játszik hazai zenekarokkal és kortárs együttesekkel (pl. Concerto Budapest, Magyar Állami Operaház Szimfonikus Zenekara, UMZE kamaraegyüttes). Rendszeres kamarapartnere zongorista testvére, Seleljo Irén és Razvaljajeva Anasztázia, akivel megalapították a Duo SeRa szaxofon-hárfa duót. Velük, és más hangszeres művészekkel Erzsébet fellépett számos hazai és külföldi helyszínen és nemzetközi kamarazenei fesztiválokon, pl. romániai Vibrate! Fesztivál (2019), az isztambuli Opus Amadeus Kamarazenei Fesztivál (DuoSeRa, 2018), az Academic Chamber Music Festival Szentpéterváron (Duo SeRa, 2016) stb. Seleljo Erzsébet a budapesti Bartók Béla Zeneművészeti Szakközépiskola és a Liszt Ferenc Zeneművészeti Egyetem szaxofon tanára.   Puskás Levente klarinét- és szaxofonművész, a Debreceni Egyetem Zeneművészeti Kar és a budapesti Egressy Béni Zeneművészeti Szakközépiskola szaxofontanára 1972. június 3-án született Budapesten. 7 évesen kezdett el zongorát tanulni, 11 éves korában a XXII. kerületi Nádasdy Kálmán Művészeti Iskolában kezdett el klarinétozni, ahol tanára Fricsovszky Ottó volt. 1991 és 1993 között a budapesti Szent István Király Zeneművészeti Szakközépiskolában tanult klarinétot Schadl Péternél, 1991-től 1996-ig a Szent István Király Szimfonikus Zenekar (ma Zuglói Filharmonikus Zenekar) szólóklarinétosa volt. 1993-ban felvételt nyert a Liszt Ferenc Zeneművészeti Főiskolára, Dittrich Tibor osztályába, ahol 1998-ban szerezte meg klarinétművész-tanári diplomáját. 1995-ben alapítója volt a Budapest Saxophone Quartetnek, melynek azóta is tagja. 2002 és 2005 között a Párizsi Conservatoire posztgraduális kamarazene képzésén tanult Hadady László irányításával, majd 2006-ban szaxofontanári diplomát szerzett a Párizsi Conservatoire National de Musique et de Dance de Montreuil főiskolán, ahol tanára Jean-Pierre Baraglioli volt. 2014-ben szerezte meg doktori címét a Besztercebányai Egyetem Zeneművészeti karán (Akademia Umeni v Banskej Bystrici, Muzickyh Umeny). Pályafutása során számos zenekarral fellépett, pl. Budapesti Fesztiválzenekar, Nemzeti Filharmonikus Zenekar, Magyar Állami Operaház Szimfonikus Zenekara, Liszt Ferenc Kamarazenekar, Magyar Rádió Szimfonikus Zenekara, Qatari Filharmonikus Zenekar, Bruno Walter Szimfonikus Zenekar, MÁV Szimfonikus Zenekar, Concerto Budapest, Osztrák-Magyar Haydn Zenekar, Dohnányi Ernő Szimfonikus Zenekar, Danubia Szimfonikus Zenekar stb. A világ számos országában koncertezett: USA, Kanada, Japán, Dél-Korea, Németország, Spanyolország, Hollandia, Olaszország, Franciaország, Ausztria stb. A Budapest Saxophone Quartettel 6 önálló lemezük jelent meg. 2014-ben kollégájával és állandó kamarapartnerével, Váradi Judittal készítettek lemezt Saxon címmel, melyen kortárs magyar zeneszerzők kompozíciói hallhatók. 2018-ban jelent meg legújabb lemezük Tetra címmel, melyen ugyancsak kortárs magyar zeneszerzők műveit szólaltatják meg. Olyan világhírű művészekkel dolgozott együtt mint Kocsis Zoltán, Rost Andrea, Fischer Iván, Fischer Ádám, Eötvös Péter, Leonidas Kavakos, Vukán György, Vásáry Tamás, Frankl Péter, Vajda Gergely, Vadim Gluzman, Aldo Ceccato, Yevgenij Kitajenko, Alexander Vedernikov, Bogányi Gergely, Medveczky Ádám, Heinz Holliger, Hadady László, Arno Bornkamp, Nobuya Sugawa, Christian Wirth, Lars Mlekusch, Mario Giovannelli. 2010-ben és 2012-ben Artisjus-díjban részesült.

The Gödöllő Symphony Orchestra, which celebrates their 40th anniversary next year, will give a concert with classical program at BMC. The first piece will be Egmont overture by Beethoven which symbolizes the wish of the liberty and the foreverness of human fighting. In addition, the second piece will be the B-dur violinconcert by W. A. Mozart with Ágnes Langer from Gödöllő as soloist, who won the 3rd prize at Bartók World Competition in 2017. Finally, the last piece is one of the most famous symphony, the Jupiter-symphony by Mozart. The conductor is Gábor Horváth who is the artistic director and principal conductor in Gödöllő, and associate professor in Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music. Dear Audience! We are waiting for at this marvellous Autumn evening!

On the second Tuesday of every month, members of the Modern Art Orchestra perform the compositions of a legendary jazz album at Opus Jazz Club. Interplay stands as some of Bill Evans' most enigmatic and unusual music in makeup as well as execution. It was recorded in July 1962 with a very young Freddie Hubbard from the Jazz Messengers, guitarist Jim Hall, bassist Percy Heath, and drummer Philly Joe Jones performing five veteran standards. Evans has a more blues-based approach to playing: harder, edgier, and in full flow, fueled in no small part by Hall, who is at his very best here, swinging hard whether it be a ballad or an uptempo number. Hubbard's playing, on the other hand, was never so restrained as it was here. Using a mute most of the time, his lyricism is revealed to jazz listeners for the first time – with Art Blakey it was a blistering attack of hard bop aggression. On this program of standards, however, Hubbard slips into them quite naturally without the burden of history – check his reading and improvisation on "When You Wish Upon a Star." Ironically, it's on the sole original, the title track, where the band in all its restrained, swinging power can be best heard, though the rest is striking finger-popping hard bop jazz, with stellar crystalline beauty in the ballads. (AllMusic Review by Thom Jurek)

On October 14, a quartet of international improvisers from four countries – Poland, the Czech Republic, Ukraine and Hungary – will be performed on the stage of the Opus Jazz Club. The lead musician of the project is the saxophonist Mikołaj Trzaska, an icon of Polish jazz. Composer, saxophone and bass clarinet player. He is the co-founder and saxophonist of the legendary Miłość. As a film composer he is also significant and he has collaborated with musicians such as Clemetine Gasser, Noël Akchoté, Peter Friis Nielsen, Paul Wirkus, Johannes Firsch, Peter Ole Jorgensen, Leszek Możdżer, Peter Brötzmann, Joe McPhee, Tomasz Stańko and Ken Vandermark.Hungary is represented by Balázs Pándi – who is well known on the world stages for noise, break core, doom metal and improvisational music. Amond others, he has collaborated with Merzbow, Venetian Snares, Zu, The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble, Mats Gustaffson, Keiji Hano. Representative of the Czech improvisation scene is Peter Vrba, a trumpet player, multi-instrumentalist, who has gained recognition in the field of free improvisation. He most often uses trumpets, clarinets, vibrating speakers, and various "objets trouvés". He is considered the most important musician in the Czech experimental music scene. He has worked with a number of notable artists such as Xavier Charles, Kai Fagaschinski, Chris Heenan, Christof Kurzmann. Ukraine is represented by double bassist Mark Tokar, a key figure in Ukrainian improvisational music. He is the first Ukrainian musician to have the opportunity to make his debut at the prestigious Chicago Jazz Festival in 2012. His first album, Yatoku (with Yuri Yaremczuk and Klaus Kugel), was released on Polish Not Two Records in 2006. Then Mark Tokar’s career suddenly curved upwards. He has been a permanent member of Ken Vandermark’s legendary Resonance Project since 2007.The opportunity for the artists to meet can be found in Polish Jazz / Neighbors (Polish Jazz / Sąsiedzi). project provided by the Firlej Cultural Center in Wrocław and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, which promotes Polish culture abroad.

Set up originally as a trio in 2018, with saxophonist Balázs Raboczki, drummer Ambrus Richter and bass player Márk Miskolczi, the outfit has been adventuring from the beginning in the more form-breaking, creative territories of jazz, emphasizing soloistic playing. With the addition of trumpeter Bence Táborszky to the line-up several months later, the band deliberately continued keeping its distance from a musical environment provided by harmony instruments. From the beginning of this year, however, extended to a quintet by pianist Rezső Jónás, the group embeds their free and matured way of expression gained so far, to new, more tight and yet more spacious dimensions offered by the prospects of harmonies. “Our goal is to try to give the audience as much as we can about today's jazz and its directions and to express our respect for the past and present music at our concerts from as many sides and as fresh as possible” - says Balázs Raboczki about the band, which earned great praise at this year’s Müpa Budapest Jazz Showcase.

József Balog has given over a thousand solo and chamber concerts in more than twenty-five countries on three continents. He likes to play lesser-known masterpieces, as well as contemporary and jazz-inspired classical music. He has collaborated with such eminent conductors as Dennis Russell Davies, Zoltán Kocsis and Kristjan Järvi. In 2005, his first solo record won the Grand Prix of the Franz Liszt Society, and in June 2015, his Transcendental Études became CD of the Month on allmusic.com. In 2018 he was awarded the Liszt Prize and in 2019 the Lajtha Prize. In the first half of the concert, he will play the works of György Ligeti, Arnold Schönberg, Joaquín Rodrigo, Ahmed Adnan Saygun, and Pierre Boulez; the second half is dedicated to László Vidovszky’s Death of Schroeder, a cultic piece that presents the performer with extreme technical challenges. Three composers, Máté Balogh and Marcell Dargay will lend a hand to take care of the prepared piano. This concert of the CAFe Budapest Contemporary Arts Festival is presented by Müpa Budapest.

Arif Erdem Ocak is a Turkish percussion guitarist / songwriter, who connects centuries-old Turkish melodies with modern percussion-style guitar playing. With his storytelling and melodic guitar tunes that lean into folk, he intimately unfolds personal narratives and universal topics such as (after)life, spirituality, virtue and our common humanity. His songs, melodies, and lyrics cover a gamut of emotions; sometimes a mellow contemplation, sometimes overwhelmingly raw or sometimes melodramatic. Arif creates heartfelt hypnotic songs that get under your skin and takes the audience a journey of reflection, silence and mind fullness.Nasip Kismet is the first Turkish Psychedelic band of its kind, New-Anatolian. With its dense diverse background of music styles, history and experience from each of its members, the richness & depth of Nasip Kismets musical expression sings for itself.Sounds that stretch across the ages, telling a fusion of untold stories of the heart & soul. With Ancient Turkish roots strung to guitar, beats and bass demanding calls to attention towards the new worlds with saxophone, keyboards threading together the language we always once knew. We hear the grooves of time connected sending out the undeniable intoxicating vibrations of psychedelic transcendence.Attacca World Music members all come from different musical backgrounds. As a result, our music grows not only from the style, phraseology and the formal language of classical music and contemporary jazz, but also, very emphatically, draws inspiration from authentic folk music. We believe these influences make our sound more vivid, and function as cohesive force in our band. Our inspiration and guide is partly the folk music of the Carpathian Basin, particularly the pure source of Hungarian peasant music, which was extensively researched by Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály, and partly the 20th century works of these two composers. Choreographed dance also appears in our music, accompanying some of our tracks. It represents different regional dances which have been part of our folk culture and traditions for centuries. 

Barnabás Dukay, composer, teacher, university professor, former member of the New Music Studio, award winning Hungarian artist celebrates his seventieth birthday in 2020. Dukay draws contemporary musical forms from the musical past. "He realized that novelty in the 2000s should not be a clever technical innovation, but a rethinking of the intellectual place of music itself," as music historian Miklós Dolinszky puts it. The music of Barnabás Dukay belongs to the 21st century, revealing both European and Hungarian ideas. “Universal Europeanness fits the pentatonic Pannonian hue of the sound world of his music”, says Dolinszky. The meditative tone of Dukay's music stems from sacredness. “Dukay’s works are custodians of ancient knowledge – the knowledge with which the Creator inspired his creatures, and of which we are also in possession", writes art historian Katalin Dávid. The most authentic performers of his works are pianists Edit Klukon and Dezső Ránki, and now also their son, the Junior Prima Award winning Fülöp Ránki, who already premiered several works of Dukay. At the two-day Dukay 70 festival, nearly all of the composers’s works for piano will be performed by the three artists.

Barnabás Dukay, composer, teacher, university professor, former member of the New Music Studio, award winning Hungarian artist celebrates his seventieth birthday in 2020. Dukay draws contemporary musical forms from the musical past. "He realized that novelty in the 2000s should not be a clever technical innovation, but a rethinking of the intellectual place of music itself," as music historian Miklós Dolinszky puts it. The music of Barnabás Dukay belongs to the 21st century, revealing both European and Hungarian ideas. “Universal Europeanness fits the pentatonic Pannonian hue of the sound world of his music”, says Dolinszky. The meditative tone of Dukay's music stems from sacredness. “Dukay’s works are custodians of ancient knowledge – the knowledge with which the Creator inspired his creatures, and of which we are also in possession", writes art historian Katalin Dávid. The most authentic performers of his works are pianists Edit Klukon and Dezső Ránki, and now also their son, the Junior Prima Award winning Fülöp Ránki, who already premiered several works of Dukay. At the two-day Dukay 70 festival, nearly all of the composers’s works for piano will be performed by the three artists.

Moment’s Notice is a rare encounter between three leading experimentalists from different corners of new music – jazz trombonist and stalwart of the Hungarian neo-avant-garde László Gőz, acclaimed electronic sound artist György Kurtág Jr., and cimbalom extraordinaire Miklós Lukács. Inspired by the Hungarian electronic classical music scene of the decades of state socialism (1960s-70s), the trio explores the spirit of the avant-garde and its relevance to today’s new music scene. The electronic sounds generated by György Kurtág Jr. give the framework for the music – or if we will, the basis – as if, sensitively reflecting his fellow musicians, he were constructing the form which two instruments dissimilar in sound and character, the cimbalom and the trombone, then proceed to fill with material. The difference in character is also due to the personalities of the performers. Miklós Lukács’s playing is imbued with frantic energy, which he is able to keep in check with dazzling mastery. László Gőz’s trombone playing, however, exudes a captivating calm, and even in the wildest of moments maintains its dignity. The personality of György Kurtág Jr. is partially concealed by the electronic sounds, and in all likelihood this is why Moment’s Notice Trio works perfectly: the three musicians complement one another not just musically, but also as people. The Trio's live album, Creation was recorded at the Liszt Academy of Music and released on BMC Records in 2019.

Barnabás Dukay, composer, teacher, university professor, former member of the New Music Studio, award winning Hungarian artist celebrates his seventieth birthday in 2020. Dukay draws contemporary musical forms from the musical past. "He realized that novelty in the 2000s should not be a clever technical innovation, but a rethinking of the intellectual place of music itself," as music historian Miklós Dolinszky puts it. The music of Barnabás Dukay belongs to the 21st century, revealing both European and Hungarian ideas. “Universal Europeanness fits the pentatonic Pannonian hue of the sound world of his music”, says Dolinszky. The meditative tone of Dukay's music stems from sacredness. “Dukay’s works are custodians of ancient knowledge – the knowledge with which the Creator inspired his creatures, and of which we are also in possession", writes art historian Katalin Dávid. The most authentic performers of his works are pianists Edit Klukon and Dezső Ránki, and now also their son, the Junior Prima Award winning Fülöp Ránki, who already premiered several works of Dukay. At the two-day Dukay 70 festival, nearly all of the composers’s works for piano will be performed by the three artists.

Barnabás Dukay, composer, teacher, university professor, former member of the New Music Studio, award winning Hungarian artist celebrates his seventieth birthday in 2020. Dukay draws contemporary musical forms from the musical past. "He realized that novelty in the 2000s should not be a clever technical innovation, but a rethinking of the intellectual place of music itself," as music historian Miklós Dolinszky puts it. The music of Barnabás Dukay belongs to the 21st century, revealing both European and Hungarian ideas. “Universal Europeanness fits the pentatonic Pannonian hue of the sound world of his music”, says Dolinszky. The meditative tone of Dukay's music stems from sacredness. “Dukay’s works are custodians of ancient knowledge – the knowledge with which the Creator inspired his creatures, and of which we are also in possession", writes art historian Katalin Dávid. The most authentic performers of his works are pianists Edit Klukon and Dezső Ránki, and now also their son, the Junior Prima Award winning Fülöp Ránki, who already premiered several works of Dukay. At the two-day Dukay 70 festival, nearly all of the composers’s works for piano will be performed by the three artists.

Psyché and Jadviga are powerful female characters of Hungarian literature, who sprang from the pen of Sándor Weöres and Pál Závada, respectively. The shared roots of their lives, which spanned epochs that brought along momentous societal changes, run through the highest and lowest strata of society. As urban and rural reality mixes in the personalities of the two women, so the two singers, Éva Bodrogi and Szilvia Bognár draw on both classical contemporary and folk music. Bea Palya and Samu Gryllus’s Psyché songs, re-arranged for this evening, will engage in a dialogue with Balázs Dongó Szokolay’s Jadviga tunes, which will be performed for the first time on this occasion. Two different historical backgrounds, two hardened fates, two love stories rendezvous on the stage. The song cycles probe the soul, look into the hidden nooks of the human psyche: the secrets of enamoured, suffering, happy, frivolous, crazy women.  This concert of the CAFe Budapest Contemporary Arts Festival is presented by Budapest Festival and Tourism Centre as a joint event with Budapest Music Center.

ON THE QUIET(Szép csendben)Hungarian drama film, 2019, 80 min. - In Hungariandirected by Zoltán Nagyscript writer: Zoltán Nagy, János Antal Horváth cinematography: Nándor Gulyáseditor: Anna Kornismusic by Péter Zombolaproduction designer: Anna Nyitraiproducer: Gábor Osváth, László Dreissigerco-producer: Ferenc Pusztai, György KárpátiFeaturing: Erik Major, Gábor Máté, Lulu Bognár, Dorottya Antóci, Benjámin Lengyel, Judit Schell, Zsófia Szamosi, Mária Varga, Annamária Láng The screening will be introduced by film- and music critic László Kolozsi (in Hungarian).Guest: Péter Zombola - composer A coming-of-age story set in the contemporary Hungarian countryside, where teenager soloist Dávid decides to stand up for Nóri, 13, a cellist in their youth orchestra who is having a suspiciously close relationship with their 60-year-old conductor. While looking for the truth, Dávid's life soon starts to spiral out of control as he faces tough decisions and the adult society's negligence...

“Truly surprising…The top of their generation” – Jazzenzo “Absolutely current jazz, revealing both order and scale because Van Gelder thinks orchestrally” – Jazztimes “A breathtakingly talented guitarist, who is able to impress and touch with his instrument and a gifted composer who dares to take risk on top of this” – Jazzism Saxophonist Ben van Gelder (30) and guitarist Reinier Baas (34) have performed as a duo for almost a decade before recording their first studio album. Having tested the patience of their fan base for 9,5 bleak years, ‘Mokum In Hi-Fi’ will be released on September 13th 2019. Mokum is a slang term for the city of Amsterdam, used in endearment. It means city, place or safe haven, and stems from Bargoens: a language used by criminals, tramps and travelling salesmen. ‘Mokum In Hi-Fi’ is a tribute to the city that is home to both artists. A tribute, in particular, to the rough-around-the-edges, beer swilling, herring eating, jenever drinking, barrel-organ-wielding crowd centred around the Jordaan neighbourhood, that has come to define the city in the past centuries. (…) Baas and van Gelder have shared the stage over 200 times in the past years, in various settings: as a trio with drum legend Han Bennink, as soloists with the Metropole Orkest and as sidemen in each other’s quintets. They have toured Asia, Oceania and large parts of Europe. During this time, they have developed a vocabulary of their own: “heaviness alternated with nimbleness, strange chords with melodic clarity, unpredictability with a reassuring sense of overall form” (New York City Jazz Record).

Izrael úgynevezett második generációs zeneszerzőinek, Pártos Ödönnek (1907–1977) és Alexander Uriah Boskovichnak (1907–1964) két tanítványa, az idén 84 éves Yehuda Yannay és a nála tíz évvel fiatalabb Dan Yuhas képviseli a koncerten felhangzó művek szerzőinek legidősebb generációját. Utánuk, kronologikus sorrendben következnek Chaya Czernowin (*1957), Amos Elkana (*1967), Ayal Adler (*1968), és Yair Klartag (*1985). Mindegyik szerző és így zenéjük is ezer szállal kötődik az európai avantgarde kortárszene tradíciójához és praxisához, miközben mindegyikük saját hangon szól. Asara, Janus, Rejtett fény, Hiányból nincs hiány: már ez a néhány cím is mutatja, mennyi különböző zenei világ, esztétika mutatkozik meg ezen a hangversenyen. A Dan Yuhas – aki zeneszerzői tevékenysége mellett megalapítója és igazgatója az Israel Contemporary Players kamaraegyüttesnek is, valamint a Tel Aviv Egyetem zeneszerzés és ellenpont-professzora – kurátori segítségével összeállított műsor a maga változatosságában, kaleidoszkóp szerűen szeretné a magyar közönséget is megismertetni Izrael új-zenéjével, és annak néhány fontos alkotójával.

Since the founding of the Modern Art Orchestra, it has considered as an important goal to explore the possibilities of interoperability between genres and to nuance and break down borders. Along this ars poetica, the band has given countless concerts and released several albums over the past 15 years. Their repertoire includes excellent authors who considered the previously mentioned goals to be equally important in their own work. In the music of George Gershwin, Igor Stravinsky, Péter Eötvös, Louise Andreissen, or even László Melis, the kind of thinking that lacks boxes, the labels of genre classification, can be seen in absolute deed.Two years ago, MAO released its album, the orchestral depictions of Béla Bartók's piano cycle - Fifteen Hungarian Peasants, which made his debut with several professional awards and great reviews. This 70-minute musical material is the first third of a trilogy commemorating three outstanding Hungarian composers. After Bartók's piano pieces, in 2020 Zoltán Kodály came into the focus of the orchestra's artistic concept, then in 2021 they close their three-part series with Ernő Dohnányi.The musical material of Kodály Reflections touches on what’s perhaps the most popular and representative segment of the composer's oeuvre: Kodály’s choir works. The concert program is a joint production of the Hungarian National Choir and the Modern Art Orchestra. Kodály’s original compositions are punctuated by interludes created by MAO’s members: Kornél Fekete-Kovács, Gábor Cseke, Kristóf Bacsó, János Ávéd and Gábor Subicz.

Bizarre objects | An evening with Adam Kondor’s music       Concert of the Metrum Ensemble Ádám Kondor is one of the most original creators of Hungarian music life. His works are often unclassifiable and requirie extra preparation from both performers and audience. Among the main characteristics of his music  are the stable structure, the unexpected  turns of the musical lines and a huge need for space. One of the most treasured ventures of the Metrum Ensemble is to perform and promote  this unusual oeuvre. Bizarre Objects, a series of 15 works containing many hours of music, is a storage of real surprises in both its materials and instrumentation. Its magnitude would be perceptible if, according to the composer’s original concept, the whole work was performed in whole. This concert presents about one-fifth of this huge sound-flow, letting us to glimpse at  the volume of this project and  the musical world of the piece. Host of the evening, composer Dániel Dinyés, who is familiar with both  Adam Kondor and his works, helps  us to get acquainted with  this complex musical world.

Contrasts and dissonance, improvisation and diversity, joy and spleen, a contemporary sense of life and a grotesque, raw atmosphere, behind which some kind of charm and kindness flows. So much contrast reveals an organically evolving music in which elaborate forms and spontaneous moments alternate with the power of surprise. The Nagy Emma Quintet, founded in 2018 won the professional prize of the Müpa Jazz Showcase based on the votes of the international jury in 2019. Their first album, Set to Face, which features their own compositions, was also released this year. "On the material, the tension of the cacophony is always resolved by a bass or piano solo, or Emma’s soft, dream-waking voice" - wrote the Keret blog about the record. Their second album, LFO (Low Frequency Oscillator), recorded this summer, presents a clean music world that feels the tradition of twentieth-century jazz singing and the music world of today. Ballads, powerful throbbing, alternating rhythms, and loud solos suggests: all contradictions are natural. They will presents at the Opus Jazz Club their new album with a line-up in which Krisztián Oláh plays the piano and Dániel Mester on  saxophone. Photo: Kristóf Scholtz This concert is supported by the NKA Hangfoglaló Program.

NoSax NoClar remind us that travelling can still take us into the mystery of the unknown; that is something we should cherish. Julien Stella and Bastien Weeger extend our horizons outwards, through Julien Stella's boundless musical curiosity (Ireland, the Balkans, for example); but also inwards by letting the sound of breath bring us back into our own dreams. In this unusual combination of instruments, the two musicians have no alternative but to be continuously reinventing themselves, and to maintain the energy level needed to keep their breath going, while also exploring the rhythmic, harmonic and timbral possibilities. facebook AJC-Jazzé Croisé · No Sax No Clar - Sandman There is nothing like limitation and restriction to foster inventiveness. Taking short forms, always at a slow or medium tempo, the three musicians of the Kepler Trio, (Maxime Sanchez, piano, Adrien Sanchez, tenor sax, Julien Pontvianne, tenor sax and clarinet) set out to explore timbres, echoes, chimeras, and both natural and artificial resonance. And as they do so, their minimalist approach becomes poetic and reveals its depth. Ultimately the listener is led to focus where song and melody simply overwhelm the senses, and is taken right back to a lost paradise of innocence. facebook website AJC-Jazzé Croisé · Kepler - Juh The concert is being performed as part of the Jazz Migration series established by AJC to support the professional development of new jazz groups.

Nefertiti is about a passion for working on the form of compositions. This quartet of superb players was formed by pianist Delphine Deau in 2013, and her pieces have a compelling dramaturgy. The pulse and the melodic line only emerge after joyous free interchange, frolicking and shadowplay. Saxophonist Camille Maussion is a melodic player who is involved in ‘soundpainting,’ and also collaborates in the fields of dance, theatre and storytelling. He extends Deau’s concept and complements her lyrical playing in an ideal way. Drummer Pierre Demange also works in other art forms, notably the film and circus worlds. His mode of working with the wonderfully flexible Brazilian double bassist Pedro Ivo Ferreira often feels like they have together discovered the secret of perpetual motion. The concert is being performed as part of the Jazz Migration series established by AJC to support the professional development of new jazz groups.

A 17. századi Itáliában a vokális zene fejlődése jelentős hatással volt a billentyűs muzsika kibontakozására is. Rómában Girolamo Frescobaldi, a pápa orgonistája honosította meg billentyűs műveiben a Monteverditől megismert újszerű komponálási stílust, amelynek célja: felkorbácsolni az érzelmeket, megérinteni a lelket és egyenesen a szívhez szólni. Frescobaldi, amellett, hogy korának egyik legjelentősebb billentyűs virtuóza volt, énekhangra is komponált. Az 1630-ban megjelent "Arie Musicali" címmel megjelent kötete a kor népszerű műfajait, mint a passacaglia vagy ciacona változtatja vokális remekművekké. A koncerten Frescobaldi billentyűs műveiből hallhatnak válogatást, a művek egy 16. századi olasz csembaló pontos másolatán szólalnak meg.

East and West meet on guitarist Csaba Czirják's latest album, Sun and Moon, which he recorded with his new quintet. While in the pentatonic melodies we can discover the Hungarian folk music and Bartók heritage, the harmonies are typically western and typical of jazz. According to Csaba Czirják's own confession, this time he did not want to make a virtuoso jazz record, but a material whose melodies grab the listener attention. With the title of the record, which in some places has a meditative atmosphere, elsewhere it tends to fusion jazz-rock, it also indicates the direction of the music, insofar as it targets the universal, beyond the earthly, material qualities. On the third album of the formation, which follows the 2017 Markoláb and the Emma, ​​which was released in 2019, all this is helped by unusual instruments in jazz: the zither, which Csaba turns into a jazz instrument this time. In the absence of Áron Tálas, pianist Bence Molnár will take part in the record debut concert, as a new member, Dániel Mester will play in the band on saxophone, Ádám Bögöthy on bass and Tamás Czirják on drums. After completing the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music, guitarist Csaba Czirják studied at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Following his return to Hungary he soon became well-known by his versatility in different genres and lineups.

This young Swiss quartet was founded five years ago by trombonist Florian Weiss. Woodoism have been increasingly drawing the attention of international music critics and their growing fanbase in the past few years. The band, with Linus Amstad on altosax, Valentin v. Fischer on bass and Philipp Leibundgut on drums  released their highly recognised debut Woodoism in 2017 and were awarded the prestigous ZKB-Jazzprize as well as the audience award in 2018. Meanwhile, the band has been touring in Germany, Austria, Hungary, Italy, Russia and Lithuania. Their latest album was released on the german-based label Neuklang Future in autumn 2019: „A magic brew,“ as Jazzthing states in their review.

Hihetetlen, hogy legszebb művei Csipkerózsika álmukat alusszák (elnézést), mert ki hallott már a szimfóniák urától a capella kórusművet? Döbbenet és időtlen ortodox pátosz.

Régi álmunk a szimfonikus party, ahol mindent szabad, de semmi sem kötelező. DJ Brahms, Mozart, Reich meg a többiek. Menüett-től a pogóig minden, ami belefér, és kicsit több.

Hihetetlen, hogy legszebb művei Csipkerózsika álmukat alusszák (elnézést), mert ki hallott már a szimfóniák urától a capella kórusművet? Döbbenet és időtlen ortodox pátosz.

On the second Tuesday of every month, members of the Modern Art Orchestra perform the compositions of a legendary jazz album at Opus Jazz Club.

One of Hungary’s outstanding jazz guitarists, Bálint Gyémánt renewed his trio with young musicians. The guiding principles of the team’s collaborative work are freedom, experimentation, and exploration of new possibilities – each being a core part of jazz since the beginning. “The trio is my personal creative workshop where I can work with exceptional, inspiring artists who are also my friends. Although we perform my compositions, my partners always play a major role in creating the final sound. Each and every formation I play in I feel as my own, but the trio reflects my own musical language most accurately. Stretching the boundaries and finding new musical directions has always been important to me, which is why I wanted to create this fresh concept together with a new rhythm section”, says Bálint Gyémánt, working with Vince Bartók and Dániel Ferenc Szabó in his renewed trio. The young musicians are outstanding members of their generation who not only speak fluently the traditional language of jazz, but most modern trends have a major influence on their instrumental techniques as well. One of the special features of the trio’s sound is the the simultaneous presence of electronic and acoustic sounds of the drums. So while the band still remains a classical jazz trio, thanks to the technical equipment and effects their sonic colours became much more modern, allowing the musicians more creativity. According to Bálint Gyémánt, Pyramidion, the debut song of the trio, tells also about the state of mind behind the change: “For me, this song symbolizes faith in myself. It symbolizes that I should carry out my plans boldly. Vince Bartók and Dániel Ferenc Szabó are my true companions in this musical adventure. Whether it is a brand new composition or even rethinking of some of my earlier ones, I feel that our work moved to a completely different dimension.” The renewed repertoire includes also an arrangement of a traditional Hungarian folk song, connected to Bálint’s visit to the US last year. He left for Washington for just a single concert, where he performed in duo with Eden Ladin, the Israeli-born American pianist. He wanted to take something of his own musical roots with him to this journey, so he chose the well known folk song, Tavaszi szél vizet áraszt (Flood comes with spring winds). facebook.com/gyemantbalint

Dukay Barnabás 2020 nyarán töltötte be 70. életévét. Zeneszerzői stílusán szinte semmi nyomot nem hagytak a művészi önfelmutatás gesztusai – ennek ellenére vagy éppen ezért egy Dukay-darabot szinte egyetlen hang alapján fel lehet ismerni. Művei sok szálon kapcsolódnak a múlthoz, a számára kedves mesterek és művek kánonja ugyanakkor egy alternatív zenetörténetet körvonalaznak. Ebben a kánonban olyan, egymásról távolinak gondolt alkotók játszanak kiemelkedően fontos szerepet, mint Bach, Satie vagy Liszt. De vajon hogyan tud kapcsolódni ehhez a kánonhoz egy olyan fiatal alkotó, mint Tornyai Péter? És hogyan talált rá Honegger különleges hangvételű vonószenekari darabjára?

Sári József, Kossuth-, és Erkel-díjas zeneszerző 2021-ben 85 éves. Általa válogatott művek előadásával, köztük három ősbemutatóval, valamint őt jól ismerő és szerető meglepetésvendégekkel beszélgetve köszöntjük őt ebből az alkalomból. Kedvcsinálónak álljon itt két rövid részlet saját, Korunk Noé-bárkája című írásából: „Gyakran előfordul, hogy “szürke” embereknek igen színes az életrajzuk, eminens egyéniségeknek pedig inkább szürke. Egykori zeneszerzéstanárom, Szervánszky Endre az ezzel kapcsolatos kérdésre a következőképpen válaszolt: “Nem történt semmi különös; komponáltam, tanítottam.” Hogy ez az egyszerű mondat tartalmilag mit takar, azt a zeneileg tájékozottak és a tanítványok jól tudják. Számomra egész életemre meghatározó mindkettő. /…/ Szunnyadó agyféltekénk tápláléka a művészet. Tápláljuk vele, talán még felvevőképes! Ébresszük fel újra a művészetek iránti igényt, amely régebben szinte minden emberben jelen volt! Ha nem így lett volna, miért születtek a népdalok? Miért faragta-díszítette botját a juhász? Miért festette ládáját, kapuját, szekrényét a legegyszerűbb ember is? Ezekből a dalokból, mindennapi használati tárgyakból energia árad. Bátran merem állítani, hogy minden igazi műalkotás mágikus erőkoncentrátum. Általa feltöltődve felemelkedhetünk azokba a régiókba, ahol létünk titkai, létünk értelme megvilágítást nyernek. Egyszóval: a művészet az a létra, amelyen az istenekhez juthatunk. Nagyon sok gyötrő, a mindennapokat megkeserítő kérdésre ezekben a régiókban találjuk meg a választ. Ezeket a válaszokat logikai úton nem lehet kikényszeríteni, hanem csak megálmodni vagy a fantázia segítségével megidézni lehet. Minden olyan törekvés, amely a művészet ápolását, azaz ezen keresztül az ember egyensúlyát célozza, szent és létfontosságú, feltétlen támogatást és szabad utat érdemel. Meggyőződésem, hogy a művészet korunk “Noé-bárkája”. Bízom benne, hogy még felkapaszkodhatunk rá.”

Két örök kedvenc: a kukásautó és a Mikulás összegyúrva. Újragomboljuk a jó öreg szakállast, mert kaphatunk-e nagyobb ajándékot, mint egy szeméttelenítő, jólevegősítő, természetrekreáló Télapót? Ugyehogy ugye.

A színpadi műfajokban lubickolt a zenéje, bár Csajkovszkij nyűgnek érezte az ilyen munkát. Számos kísérőzene közt az utolsó a Hamlet, két évvel a halála előtt beleírt minden szélsőséget és tudást, amit csak szenvedéssel terhes élete során elsajátított.

On the second Tuesday of every month, members of the Modern Art Orchestra perform the compositions of a legendary jazz album at Opus Jazz Club.

Arnold Schönberg múlt századi, mára klasszikus „Holdbűvölte Pierrot”-jának szövegét akár Parti Nagy Lajos is költhette volna, és most, az UMZE együttes felkérésére költi is. Legalábbis is a „folytatásét”. Dinyés Dániel népszerű operabeavató sorozatának különkiadásaként ezúttal a ‘Pierrot lunaire’-ről mesél majd, és zeneszerzőként hozzáteszi ehhez saját ‘Pierrot variációk’ című művét is.

„157 centi magas, hízásra hajlamos, rövidlátó. Rajongója nem volt sok, ma mégis ő a világ egyik legkedveltebb zeneszerzője. Több mint ezer darabot írt: dalt, vonósnégyest, szimfóniát, operát, misét és különböző zongoraműveket. Úgy, hogy minderre alig volt ideje, 31 év jutott neki csupán (még Mozart is többet élt nála). Zenéjében is megjelenő kettős természete, ellentmondásos személyisége, határtalan jókedve és mérhetetlen bánata az, ami kíváncsivá tesz sokakat. Az A-dúr rondó, az Elszáradt virágok-variációk, a kamarazeneirodalom monumentális alkotása, A halál és a lányka illetve az Arpeggione-szonáta vonószenekari változatán keresztül kerülünk közelebb ehhez a titokzatos alakhoz, Franz Schuberthez.” (Bősze Ádám – zenetörténész)

„157 centi magas, hízásra hajlamos, rövidlátó. Rajongója nem volt sok, ma mégis ő a világ egyik legkedveltebb zeneszerzője. Több mint ezer darabot írt: dalt, vonósnégyest, szimfóniát, operát, misét és különböző zongoraműveket. Úgy, hogy minderre alig volt ideje, 31 év jutott neki csupán (még Mozart is többet élt nála). Zenéjében is megjelenő kettős természete, ellentmondásos személyisége, határtalan jókedve és mérhetetlen bánata az, ami kíváncsivá tesz sokakat. Az A-dúr rondó, az Elszáradt virágok-variációk, a kamarazeneirodalom monumentális alkotása, A halál és a lányka illetve az Arpeggione-szonáta vonószenekari változatán keresztül kerülünk közelebb ehhez a titokzatos alakhoz, Franz Schuberthez.” (Bősze Ádám – zenetörténész)

„157 centi magas, hízásra hajlamos, rövidlátó. Rajongója nem volt sok, ma mégis ő a világ egyik legkedveltebb zeneszerzője. Több mint ezer darabot írt: dalt, vonósnégyest, szimfóniát, operát, misét és különböző zongoraműveket. Úgy, hogy minderre alig volt ideje, 31 év jutott neki csupán (még Mozart is többet élt nála). Zenéjében is megjelenő kettős természete, ellentmondásos személyisége, határtalan jókedve és mérhetetlen bánata az, ami kíváncsivá tesz sokakat. Az A-dúr rondó, az Elszáradt virágok-variációk, a kamarazeneirodalom monumentális alkotása, A halál és a lányka illetve az Arpeggione-szonáta vonószenekari változatán keresztül kerülünk közelebb ehhez a titokzatos alakhoz, Franz Schuberthez.” (Bősze Ádám – zenetörténész)

Énekelt és beszélt szó, két fél-szcenírozott zenés színpadi műben négy női sors. Láng István 1988-89-ben, Bächer Iván Oszkár című színművére komponálta TV-operáját, amely most kerül először koncerttermi közönség elé. Tihanyi László, aki egyben az est karmestere és az UMZE felkérésére folytatja zenés-színházi műveinek sorát, így ír készülő új művéről: Elvira, aki fiatal apácaként olthatatlan szerelemre lobbanva engedett Don Juan csábításának, majd megszülte az ekkor fogant gyermeket, élete utolsó, magányos napjait tölti a kolostorban, ahová elmenekült a megszégyenülés elől. Szerelméhez egykor írt verseit olvasgatja, lassan elhomályosuló elmével írja elvesztett gyermeke és önnön tragikus sorsán merengő naplóját. E két életszakasz keveredik a műben, ahol a fiatal, szerelmes apácát énekesnő, a kiüresedett életből távozni készülő, idős apácát prózai színésznő személyesíti meg. A lírai szerelmet és az önsanyargató tépelődést Fellegi Melinda mély empátiával formálta librettóvá.

Szerenádok, vonósok és rézfúvósok. Eötvös Péter Szerelemről és más démonokról című operájának tenoráriáját dolgozta át kürtverseny-tétellé; Fekete Gyula Harsonaversenyét (2004) hangszerének kivételes képességű virtuóza, Fejér András számára írta.