Splendour falls on castle walls

By Matthew Rye, 24 May 2017

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“One could sense the castle’s crepuscular gloom”

Reviewed at Royal Festival Hall, London on 23 May 2017

Bartók, Hungarian Peasant Songs, Sz 100, BB 107

Bartók, Duke Bluebeard's Castle (concert performance)

Budapest Festival Orchestra

Iván Fischer, Conductor

Márta Sebestyén, Vocals

Ildikó Komlósi, Mezzo-soprano

Krisztián Cser, Bass

Clarity and communion in Budapest Festival Orchestra’s Mahler 3

Michelle Assay, 12th February

On the final leg of their North American tour, the Budapest Festival Orchestra’s Mahler proves a a transformative experience within the intimate setting of Toronto’s Koerner Hall.

*****

Budapest Festival Orchestra plays – and sings – at Carnegie Hall

Susan Stempleski, 6th February

Joined by violinist Maxim Vengerov, the Hungarian orchestra, under Music Director Iván Fischer, is in top form in a program of three highly contrasting pieces.

****1

Budapest Festival Orchestra at the Elbphilharmonie

Mengguang Huang, 11th November

Iván Fischer and Alina Ibragimova transform familiar works into a vivid experience. From Beethoven’s Violin Concerto to Strauss’ Josephs Legende, the orchestra dazzles with colour, energy and cinematic intensity.

****1

Unseduced: Don Giovanni opens the Budapest Festival Orchestra season

Orsolya Gyárfás, 9th September

Iván Fischer's reworking of his 2017 production of Don Giovanni is musically capable, but dramatically unconvincing.

***11

Bluebeard at the Proms with Iván Fischer and the BFO

Roy Westbrook, 6th August

The evening starts with life-affirming Beethoven – and then, the Budapest Festival Orchestra demonstrate just how good native Hungarians can be in Bartók’s chiller.

*****

Earth-shattering Mahler 2 from the Budapest FO at the Mahler Festival

Clare Varney, 11th May

As part of the Concertgebouw's ambitious Mahler Festival, Christiane Karg, Anna Lucia Richter and the Netherlands Radio Choir join the Budapest Festival Orchestra for the Resurrection Symphony.

*****

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Matthew Rye

Matthew read music at Oxford and worked in music journalism for 30 years as a writer, critic and editor. He wrote numerous programme and CD booklet notes, spent 13 years as a Daily Telegraph critic, worked at BBC Music Magazine and was reviews editor of The Strad. He also wrote for The Wagner Journal and Opera and blogged at ferneklang.blogspot.co.uk. He was general editor of 1001 Classical Recordings You Must Hear Before You Die (Cassell Illustrated, 2007) and was the author of a new series of eBooks, Masterpieces of Music (Erudition).

Splendour falls on castle walls: authoritative Bartók from the Budapest Festival Orchestra