Over the course of past years Várdai has become a real favourite and pride of Hungarian concertgoers, and it is our good fortune that Zimmermann, too, has gifted us with her presence and virtuosity on more than one occasion. In the first half of the concert these two musicians appear on stage separately:

Várdai playing the 19-year-old Richard Strauss’s orchestral accompaniment Romance in F major (1883), while Zimmermann takes on the Viola Concerto left unfinished by Bartók but completed by Tibor Serly.

However, after the intermission the two soloists play together along with Concerto Budapest in Fantastic Variations on the Theme of a Knightly Character from Richard Strauss’s tone poem Don Quixote (1897). In this work, the cello evokes the hero of the famed novel by Cervantes, while the solo viola (and the tenor tuba and bass clarinet) effectively conjure up the image of the bumbling yet ever-faithful squire Sancho Panza.

Strauss Romance for cello and piano in F Major, op.13
Bartók Viola Concerto

intermission
R. Strauss Don Quixote, op.35

Featuring Tabea Zimmermann viola, István Várdai cello
Conductor Domonkos Héja

Date and time: Thursday  7 Dec.  2017 at 19:30
Venue: Palace of Arts
Address: 1095 Budapest, Komor Marcell utca 1

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