Invitation: Christmas Organ Concert, National Concert Hall Budapest, 21 Dec
- 19 Dec 2013 8:02 AM
Balázs Szabó, our guide on an interesting workshop tour through the past of organ music, is still shy of his 30th year and yet has already followed a strikingly diverse career path engaged with both the history of the instrument and organ renovation. In providing a taste of the work of Max Reger and Karl Straube, he illuminates their relationship to the music of the “originator”, Johann Sebastian Bach. Reger and Straube played a leading role at the turn of the 20th century in keeping Bach’s works alive and renewing organ playing in Germany.
They were both born exactly 140 years ago in 1873, and both were closely tied to Leipzig. A highly influential teacher and performer, Straube served as organist at the Thomaskirche, then as Thomaskantor (director of the choir), for some 40 years from 1902. In the 1930s, he performed Bach’s complete cantatas, a series that was broadcast on radio. Apart from Bach, he saw his principal goal as championing the life’s work of Max Reger, his colleague and friend who predeceased him by some 34 years.
An outstanding and expert musician is entrusted with the task of interpreting the works of these two masters at the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall. An interesting aspect of the career of Balázs Szabó is that he began to play music only at the relatively late age of 15. After graduating from the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, he went on to study further in Würzburg, Trossingen and Rome, participating in the international “OrganExpert” degree course under the patronage of the Vatican, making him the sole holder of a university-level qualification in this field in Hungary. (The restoration of the great organ of Budapest’s Academy of Music is being carried out under his professional supervision.)
Winner of numerous international competitions and the Junior Prima Prize, Szabó has taught at the Liszt Academy since 2011.
A stage conversation under the title Prelude will precede the concert from 6.30 pm, giving ticket holders the opportunity to better familiarise themselves with the musicians and the works they will perform.
Date and time: 21 December 2013, 7.30 pm - 10.00 pm
Venue: Bartók Béla National Concert Hall
Reger: Chorale Fantasia, op. 40, No. 1
J. S. Bach-Reger-Straube: Schule des Triospiels – excerpts
J. S. Bach-Straube: Prelude and Fugue in B minor
J. S. Bach-Reger: Fantasia and Fugue in D major
Reger: Variations in F-sharp minor, op. 73
For this concert you can buy your tickets in the Palace of Arts’ Ticket Offices, also with vacation vouchers, Edenred Ticket Culture vouchers, Sodexho Pass culture and gift vouchers, Palace of Arts gift vouchers and a SZÉP vacation card.
Prices: 2500, 3200, 3900, 4900, 6900 Ft
Source: Palace of Arts
Address: 1095 Budapest, Komor Marcell utca 1.
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