Early Music Festival 2020

One more reason to be looking forward to spring: Of course, 2020 cannot pass by without the country’s most significant festival of historical music. The concert series kicks off with The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment playing some of the most exquisite pieces of Bach, and continues with a baroque concert by Brazilian-born singer Guilherme Roberto in the company of harpsichord player Márton Borsányi, taking listeners on a ‘European round-trip’ featuring rarities and early music hits alike. The exciting journey continues with the Ensemble Cantilene (formed just a few years ago) led by world-renowned recorder-player Anneke Boeke, with the programme structured around compositions by Monteverdi, Schütz, and Bach. The recital by Ditta Rohmann and Olga Pashchenko treats the audience to the incomparable harmony of the cello and the fortepiano, featuring masterpieces Bach, Beethoven, and Schubert.

Händel’s Alexander Balus oratorio makes its Hungarian premiere, performed by the Kodály Choir Debrecen, the Savaria Baroque Orchestra and several outstanding singers, featuring Kornélia Bakos in the title role. The festival, of course, would not be the same without György Vashegyi’s two early music workshops in attendance. This time around, the Purcell Choir and Orfeo Orchestra take to the stage with a piece perhaps lesser-known in Hungary, Rameau’s Dardanus, accompanied by artists such as tenor Cyrille Dubois singing Dardanus or soprano Judith van Wanroij. Established by Ádám Fischer in 1987 and led by French-German cellist Nicholas Altstaedt, the international ensemble called Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra (also known as Haydn Philharmonie since the 2015/16 season) will also play works by Werner and Pleyel in addition to Haydn.