16

13 DECEMBER 19 DECEMBER 2010

THE BUDAPEST TIMES

CULTURE

Works to be heard time and time again

Festival marks the births of Frederic Chopin and Gustav Mahler & death of Ern Dohnnyi
he Romanticism in the 19th
and 20th century chamber
music festival marking the
anniversaries of the births of Frederic
Chopin and Gustav Mahler and death
of Ern Dohnnyi takes place on 17
and 18 December (two earlier concerts
were held on 26 and 27 November) in
the Great Hall of the Hungarian
Academy of Sciences (MTA). The
Budapest Times spoke to the festivals
organiser, pianist Dnes Vrjon.

Dohnnyi are very different figures

with very different music, but I have
managed to find points of contact
between them nevertheless. We have
created a new, exciting world with
pieces by the three protagonists and
those for example by Alban Berg,
Alma
Mahler
and
Witold
Lutoslawski.

For how long have you been organising

chamber music festivals?

Yes, of course. Only pieces that I

feel a connection with and that are
important to me are on the
programme. They are
works that should be
performed again
music is a
and again.

The man
Dnes Vrjon studied from 1984 to
1991 at the Liszt Ferenc Music
Academy in Budapest. He attended
the international master classes of
Andrs Schiff from a young age and
shortly after graduating was awarded
the Gza-Anda Prize in Zurich, one of
the greatest accolades for a concert
pianist. Since 1994 he has been an
assistant professor at the Liszt Ferenc
Music Academy and was awarded the
Liszt Prize in 1997. Vrjon regularly
performs at classical music festivals
worldwide and is regarded as one of
the most important Hungarian musicians of his generation.

Do you have a personal connection to

the works that have been selected?

Since 2005 there have

been concerts every
two to three
For me
months during
the concert
form of communication. No
season. We
What
can
CD or YouTube clip can replace
intend to
audiences
continue
the pleasure of a concert. If you expect?
holding
attend a performance, then you Chopins
such
prepare yourself psychologically. That chamber
concerts
in the
music will
creates a kind of understanding be
future.
special
between the performer and the audi- because it
Can you tell
is
only
ence for which there is no substius about what
performed
tute.
to expect from the
fairly rarely.
festival organiser
chamber music
Then there are
Dnes Vrjon
festival?
the compositions
by Dohnnyi, which are
We are presenting three
from his youth but display an
composers, all of whom have incredible maturity. The works by
anniversaries this year: Chopin, him that will be played during the
Mahler and Dohnnyi. However, we festival were so much to the liking of
have tried to broaden the horizon of Brahms that they were performed in
the festival so works by other Vienna at his request. And from
composers of their time will also be Mahler we can cross to Alma
performed. Mahler, Chopin and Mahler, Alban Berg and Alexander

von Zemlinsky, a circle of exceptional composers at the turn of the

century. I cant single out any of the
works because they are all special
and even unique. The overall
picture is important. Chamber
music festivals are about cooperation, the concept of the festival and
the compositions rather than about
individual star musicians.
When did you begin planning the festival?
I began planning it at around the
time when the Haydn Year came to an
end. The organisation of such a
festival is always a gradual process.
You need to think through all the
possible variations, coordinate the
performances and contact the musicians. That takes time but I have
enjoyed it greatly.
What are your hopes for the festival?

I hope that I can make young people

enthusiastic about chamber music. Of
course I also would like chamber music
to become better established in
Hungary and for people to be more
open to this form of music. Unlike at a
traditional concert several different
pieces are performed that can be very
different from one another, for
example a song cycle followed by a trio
and then a piece for piano. We have a
theme around which all the elements
of the performance are based. It is
rather different from what concertgoers are used to.
For me music is a form of communication. No CD or YouTube clip can
replace the pleasure of a concert. If
you attend a performance, then you
prepare yourself psychologically.
That creates a kind of understanding
between the performer and the audience for which there is no substitute.
Although we now have access to

music everywhere, there is definitely

still a place for concerts and live
music. At a concert the audience
shows respect for the composer and
the musicians and plays an active part
in the music. It is a kind of ritual.
Ines Gruber

The ticket
The concerts of the chamber music festival
Romanticism in the 19th and 20th
century take place on Friday and
Saturday (17 and 18 December) in the
Great Hall of the Hungarian Academy
of Sciences (District V, Roosevelt tr 9) at
7.30pm.
Tickets cost HUF 4,500 (HUF 2,250 with
concessions) and are available from
www.ticketportal.hu and www.jegy.hu.
For more information about the festival see
www.erkel-mahler.hu.

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