Serving as the soloist alongside Concerto Budapest at this concert at Müpa Budapest will be Isao Nakamura, the same percussionist who took on Triangel at its world premiere in 1993. In 1905, Ravel received a commercial commission to compose a work that would showcase the features of the Érard company's newly developed model of harps: this is how Introduction et allegro, sometimes referred to as a mini harp concerto, was born. Listening to the richly coloured piece played by a string quartet, flute, clarinet and harp, one might not even think that writing it literally caused sleepless nights for the composer, who loved to complain about such tribulations. Luciano Berio‘s Sinfonia (composed in 1969 to mark the 125th anniversary of the foundation of the New York Philharmonic) is not without its own pessimistic overtones either: composed for orchestra and eight vocal parts, the piece uses musical quotations to outline an abstract and grotesque cultural history. The sources of the texts (incorporating speech, whispers and shouts) are highly diverse: Claude Lévi-Strauss, Samuel Beckett (excerpts from one of his novels) and Gustav Mahler (performance instructions for a musical score).

Presented by: Concerto Budapest