To kick off the concert, Ádám Cser will conduct the Egmont Overture, written by Ludwig van Beethoven, who was born 250 years ago. The piece's revolutionary tone is well suited to Kocsis's memory, as the young pianist was a genuine musical rebel when the audience first encountered him during the '70s. Zoltán Kocsis was a dedicated performer of Liszt's works, and his versatility and highly diverse role in the Hungarian music world were also reminiscent of the great 19th-century composer, pianist, conductor and teacher. Which is why, on this evening, Liszt's works will take centre stage. First we will enjoy Liszt's superb piano concerto, Totentanz, with a solo performance from the outstanding pianist József Balog, who has himself played under the baton of Zoltán Kocsis.
Like a fine couplet, we will also hear two versions of Liszt's Ave Maria. First the original, then as transcribed by Kocsis, a reminder that as a composer Kocsis transcribed works by his great predecessors Bartók, Kodály, Debussy and Rachmaninoff. The concert will close with Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, which in the words of music historian Dénes Bartha is 'a bold pouring into music of a heightened and passionate solemnity and celebration and of a brilliance shining virtually free of shadows that surpassed anything that came before. It is thematically more passionate and sweepingly powerful and, in terms of its scoring, more brilliant, colourful and reverberant than any orchestral work written up to that point.

Presented by: Hungarian National Philharmonic