Dániel Somogyi-Tóth is the director-artistic director of the Kodály Philharmonic, and the chief music director of the city of Debrecen. The Kodály Philharmonic Orchestra is included in several productions of the Debrecen Music Festival, for which Dániel Somogyi-Tóth will perform three times as conductor from August 10-20.
– A new music festival awaits the audience in Debrecen. What was the history?
– I have been working in the musical life of Debrecen for ten years, so I experienced for myself that the vision of the Flower Carnival in Debrecen, held since 1966, played a key role in the eyes of the current cultural leadership of Debrecen. Debrecen also applied for the title of European Capital of Culture in 2023, which was eventually won by Veszprém, but a cultural strategy was born in connection with the application, which greatly stimulated the discourse about the city’s cultural life.
We started with a lot of good ideas, and it was already suggested that we should organize a festival focusing mainly on musical theater [opera, operetta, Broadway, cabaret, et al.]. That’s why I am glad that this dream can finally come true, and it is a great pleasure that it is with the cooperation of my friend [Festival Director] Dániel Vadász, with whom I have been working for more than a decade.
As Debrecen is a really diverse city, it was worth thinking not just about an opera festival, but about a wider musical theater festival. Feedback from our audience will be very important, as our vision includes the creation of a serious concert hall, and in two years the city will have two theaters, which will significantly increase the musical theater focus of the Csokonai Theater main stage – so we need to know the audiences’ needs and wishes.
– So the Debrecen Music Festival is a kind of vanguard?
– Absolutely. Moreover, the theater is currently closed due to the reconstruction, which is why we are in a transitional period for this reason as well.
– And Classics Night will also be held during the festival.
– In the week of the Flower Carnival, a new initiative of ours, the Night of the Classics, was launched a few years ago, when productions take place on the stage in front of the Great Church in Debrecen, in the Great Church itself and all over the city center for a long evening. Based on our big orchestra and chamber music activities, the Kodály Philharmonic and the Kodály Choir also have a serious role to play.
We didn’t want to lose the concept, so there will be a Night of the Classics [Aug. 15] during the Debrecen Music Festival, which will include a concert in conjunction with the Cziffra Festival. It is extremely important for us that János Balázs will be here with us, to play Rachmaninoff’s 2nd piano concerto, and that in this way we can join the Cziffra100 program series, not to mention that the concert will also feature some elements of our “Miklós Rózsa 25 + 1” concert, which was missed due to the coronavirus. We will complete the evening with Andrea Vigh’s harp solo and Debussy’s works.
– Is it fulfilling to try to reach a wider audience within a concert’s programming?
– I would do it this way: by showing Debussy’s lesser known art [alongside the more well-known pieces] to an audience accustomed to the more popular classics. This, by the way, is in line with our creed.
– Will we see you and the Kodály Philharmonic several times at the Festival? What are the shows?
– On August 10, we open the festival with Kálmán’s Csárdás Queen, staged by the director of the Csokonai Theater, Péter Gemza. On August 17, the orchestra accompanies the opera Bánk bán, and of course we will be at the finale on August 20. In my opinion, the Hungarikum Gala on August 20 is a terrific win-win concept, because it represents a combination of high artistic quality and audience-building. That evening will reveal the most popular works of Hungarian music in just a short hour and a half!
- Interview by Gábor Mesterházy
- Editing of English translation by A.S.Ivanoff
