Béla Bartók, speaking of Franz Liszt, described ‘... an astonishing audaciousness, in both form and content. This boldness is quite simply the fanatical tendency towards the new, the unusual.’ The audaciousness that Bartók appreciated in the music of his compatriot is equally characteristic of his own style. Two opposite, but related poles: one an extrovert Romantic, ‘inventor’ of the symphonic poem and the most renowned keyboard virtuoso of the 19th century, who was equally at home with intimacy; the other the introverted classicist par excellence, a 20th-century modernist, an inventive wizard with the orchestra with a taste for orchestral explosions. Two piano concertos and two symphonic poems by Liszt and two majestic symphonic works by Bartók are spread over a two-day mini-festival of music by two of Hungary’s most important composers. Alain Altinoglu will be in his element in these masterpieces from the grand repertoire.
