This Halloween concert is the result of a new initiative of the Budafok Dohnanyi Orchestra that they believe will prove to be a creative and joyful one for many people. Instead of attempting to evoke the commercialized American folk festival, it harkens back to the ancient Celtic tradition, lining up music that ranges from terrifying to cathartic to playful.

"Basically, we have a very strange, mystical and diverse attitude towards terrifying things and death,” says Gábor Hollerung, music director of the BDO and the conductor for the evening.

"This is an ambivalent attitude, because we enjoy consuming culture related to our fears, in any art form. We find excitement in witch stories and are actually attracted to the satanic, to the diabolical. In many pieces of music, we can find the feeling and idea of shivering, and in fact, these passages are usually the most popular ones in the given work. So, we invite our audience to just this kind of creepy - but actually more enjoyable than terrifying - evening of music.”

The programme has been put together in such a way as to provide exciting and riveting entertainment for both connoisseurs and those who go to classical music concerts less often. It features the music of Mussorgsky, Berlioz, Saint-Saëns, Gounod, Verdi and excerpts from an opera-musical by Levente Gyöngyösi, as well as other selections from film music and musicals by John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith and Andrew Lloyd Webber. Enhancing the overall effect will be lighting effects and dancing presented in tandem with the performance.

This recording was made at concert held at Müpa Budapest on 28 October 2022.

Place: Palace of Arts Budapest

Address: 1095 Budapest, Komor Marcell utca 1.