Few chamber ensembles are able to match the rapid international success achieved by the Kremerata Baltica established in 1997 at the initiative of Gidon Kremer. The orchestra composed of young musicians from three Baltic countries gives sixty concerts a year and has a repertoire ranging from Vivaldi to Piazzolla, from classical works to contemporary music. Its artistic director is Gidon Kremer. The ensemble appears at leading festivals and in famous concert halls with renowned conductors and soloists and has worked with such artists as Jessye Norman, Oleg Maisenberg, David Geringas, Boris Pergamenschikov, Tatiana Grindenko, Sir Simon Rattle, Christoph Eschenbach, Kent Nagano, Saulius Sondeckis, Andrej Borejko, Roman Kofman and Vladimir Ashkenazy. One of these artists, the famous Russian-born pianist Oleg Maisenberg will appear with them in Budapest.

http://www.kremerata-baltica.com/

http://www.petrof.com/oleg-maisenberg.html

http://www.amadinda.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTrdbsyV1gI

The Hungarian Symphony Orchestra’s last season was characterised by new impulses, an experimental repertoire, thematic concerts and a fresh approach. András Keller, the new music director, is reverting to his “original profession” to perform the violin solo in this concert. And while he plays the solo of Bartók’s popular second violin concerto, the conductor’s baton will be wielded by another outstanding violinist, Gábor Takács-Nagy, founder of the famous Takács Quartet who has demonstrated over and over again in recent years that he is able to continue the noblest traditions as a conductor too.
The programme is the same as that of the concert held in Amsterdam on March 23, 1939 where Zoltán Székely gave the first performance of Bartók’s violin concerto under the baton of Willem Mengelberg.

http://www.telekomzenekar.hu/main.php

“An angelic voice, the appearance of a young boy, an informal style. Philippe Jaroussky is a real pop star figure, he could even be the lead singer of a popular boys’ group. But the 30-year-old French artist is one of the world’s most acclaimed countertenors. He appears in Europe’s most prestigious opera houses, his solo albums sell well, Mezzo the classical music TV channel plays his recordings hourly. Jaroussky is the prototype of the countertenor of the modern age: slightly feminine, easily made a star and exceptionally talented.” Judit Beszterczey
"Many people come because they heard that the latest generation of castrati is here. All countertenors have to struggle with that. In most forums I say that there is no longer any need for bizarre and brutal techniques for a man to be able to sing in a high voice. I give detailed talks on the falsetto technique used to achieve this timbre." Jaroussky

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNWKnXgrroA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNWKnXgrroA&feature=related

The concert to be given by Miklós Perényi and the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra is an outstanding event of the Haydn year. In 2008 concert-goers celebrated a double anniversary, the 60th birthday of the famous cellist and the 45th anniversary of the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra. Isaac Stern said of the ensemble that “this orchestra is like a comfortable pair of shoes”, so it is not surprising that towards the end of his career one of the greatest violinists of the 20th century preferred to tour with the ensemble led by János Rolla. According to Péter Eötvös, Miklós Perényi “is like nature, like the trees and the flowers: he just exists and radiates”. On this occasion their much awaited joint concert will celebrate Joseph Haydn. The programme features two of the composer’s great symphonies and two of his cello concertos, and we could hardly wish more than that for ourselves.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EniDc-wd7vI

http://www.lfkz.hu/oldal.asp

György Vashegyi and his ensembles performed the splendid Haydn oratorio in February 2006. A critic wrote the following about the excellent concert: “The sections of the Purcell Choir create a texture that is substantial but allows the music to breathe, with their agile and healthy voices. And something that most non-period vocal ensembles are unable to do: they present greatness and evoke big forms in structure and extent without monumentalising. György Vashegyi conducted a Seasons that was well articulated, full of colours and contrasts, allowing full play for the dramatic elements and liveliness, emphasising what is the work’s principal speciality and at the same time its greatest attraction: the popular flavours imbuing the mood and character of the composition.”
And how does the conductor see this attractive composition? “A big question of the period music movement in past decades was, once the almost “magic” threshold of 1800 has been crossed, whether there is and can be a justification and purpose for performing the later repertoire on original period instruments or copies. For us in Hungary the first milestone in this area was the performance of Joseph Haydn’s oratorio The Seasons at Fertőszentmiklós in 2003. In this work the composer, who was sixty-eight in 1800 and who had spent his youth immersed in late Baroque music, drew with an amazingly sure hand, in fact foreshadowed the emerging Romanticism, right up to the art of Wagner.”

http://www.orfeo.hu/

Violinist and conductor Jean-Christophe Spinosi was born in Corsica, in 1991, at the age of 26, he founded the Matheus Quartet. In 1993 the ensemble won a prize at the Amsterdam Van Wassanae Competition. This quartet later became the core of the Ensemble Matheus with which he could try his musical talent in all genres, from concertos to operas, from symphonies to masses. He has worked together with renowned soloists, among others partnering Sandrine Piau, Veronica Cangemi, Matthias Goerne, Philippe Jaroussky, Marie-Nicole Lemieux, Nathalie Stutzmann, Jennifer Larmore, Sara Mingardo, Marjana Mijanovoic. His recordings have won many prizes. In summer 2008 in Vienna he conducted the Magic Flute in the Theater an der Wien. In Budapest he will accompany Susan Graham, one of the brightest opera stars and “America’s favourite mezzo”. The artist was voted singer of the year in 2004 by Musical America, and Midland, Texas (where she spent her childhood) has declared September 5 “Susan Graham Day”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fztnuoElkYc

http://www.susangraham.com/