February 19. 2007 Monday 19:30
Palace of Arts - Béla Bartók National Concert Hall
Pest side of the Lágymányosi bridge
Featuring: Lang Lang – piano
Conductor: Daniel Barenboim
Bartók: Dance Suite
Bartók: Piano Concerto No. 2
Schumann: Symphony No. 4 in D minor, op. 120
Argentinean born Daniel Barenboim is one of the busiest conductors of our era but has enjoyed a close relationship with the art of Béla Bartók since a young man. As a pianist, he has recorded the three piano concertos with conductor Pierre Boulez and in 2005, the Budapest Spring Festival audience could marvel at his playing Bartók. Chinese pianist Lang Lang was born in 1982 and is one of today’s most celebrated pianists. He began playing the piano at the age of three and ten years later, played all of Chopin’s Études. The first written study about him was published before he turned seventeen and he made his debut at the Carnegie Hall when he was nineteen.
The orchestra in this interesting concert is the Vienna Philharmonic which enjoys a history of 160 years. There is probably no symphonic ensemble that has closer ties to the traditions of European classical music. Richard Wagner described the orchestra as being one of the most outstanding in the world; Johannes Brahms counted himself as a “friend and admirer”; and Richard Strauss summarized these sentiments by saying: “All praise of the Vienna Philharmonic reveals itself as understatement”.