Selection from the Opening Concert of the 77th Concert Season
“I wasn't particularly interested in jazz, but I tried to create an American quality in classical music that the guys from jazz music achieved in a lighter genre,” Aaron Copland said in an interview. The life of Czech-born Erich Wolfgang Korngold, who moved to the other continent for safety reasons before the war in 1934, is also connected with the American environment. The first performance of the Violin Concerto was a triumph, reminding Korngold of his successes in Vienna, as he was known in the US primarily as a composer of film music. The solo part will be performed by young American violinist Joshua Brown, winner of the audience prize and second prize at the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels. Dances of Galanta, a brilliant work by Zoltán Kodály with delicate instrumentation. A memory of his childhood years spent in Galanta, where he first became acquainted with “orchestral sound” while listening to a famous gypsy band. The composition was commissioned on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Budapest Philharmonic Society.
