Ivan Fischer, Imogen Cooper & Budapest Festival Orchestra

Ernö Dohnányi: Symphonic Minutes
Ludwig Van Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.1
Interval
Béla Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra

Ivan Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra come to Royal Festival Hall to perform the piece for which they are perhaps most renowned, Bartók's colourful Concerto for Orchestra.

One of the last works that Bartók composed, his Concerto for Orchestra is also one of his most accessible. Over five movements listeners are treated to Bartók's love of Eastern-European folk melodies, his famously eerie 'night music', complete with dazzling harps and chiming celestas, and exciting full-orchestra tutti.

Hungarian pianist-composer Ernö Dohnányi was a contemporary of Bartok's and famed for his performances of Beethoven. His own music bears the musical imprint of Brahms. The Symphonic Minutes, a forgotten gem, are full of un-ashamed Romantic lyricism and pastoral melodies.

In the first half, the celebrated Imogen Cooper performs Beethoven's Piano Concerto No.1, an early masterpiece by the composer completed in 1797. Adeptly assimilating the styles of his predecessors Mozart and Haydn, it brims with positive energy.

Budapest Festival Orchestra
Iván Fischer conductor
Imogen Cooper piano