When our honorary conductor Iván Fischer, who comes from Budapest, conducts the Konzerthausorchester with works by his compatriot Béla Bartók, it is always a special experience, because this music is simply particularly close to him.

Already at the beginning of the 20th century, Bartók avidly collected melodies from his homeland and later published a collection for piano. In 1933, he orchestrated the most beautiful nine of these „folk songs in the strictest sense of the word“ in the „Hungarian Peasant Songs“. They are followed in our country by the „Bohemian Undine“: „Rusalky“ are water spirits, and Antonín Dvořák wrote his most successful opera about an unhappy mermaid with „Rusalka“ in 1900. You are cordially invited to find out for yourself whether violin soloist Guy Braunstein has also included the famous „Song to the Moon“ in his arrangement „Rusalka Rhapsody“.

After a short lyrical night piece, the modern era draws in: Bartók's „Music for Stringed Instruments, Percussion and Celesta“, composed in just a few weeks in 1937, has been considered a modern masterpiece since its premiere. The composer's fascination with folk melodies and rhythms can also be heard in this piece, even if it is far less immediate than at the beginning.