This year’s cultural buzz in Veszprém will also bring home musicians who was born or raised in Veszprém and who have been far from the city during their careers. The Veszprémers in the World – Classic+ series invites you to four exciting concerts in autumn as part of the European Capital of Culture programme.
Veszprém has a 100-year history of primary music education, and for 35 years from 1987 a secondary vocational school had been providing training opportunities for young people choosing a career in music. Over the years, the city has trained many musicians or artists involved in classical music at some level.
Johanna Hordós, pianist, piano teacher at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz and the creator of the concert series, is one of those who not only studied in Veszprém, but was also born here. “This year Veszprém is the European Capital of Culture. This is why the idea was born, that young musicians of my generation, who have graduated in the city and are now starting their careers, and who have travelled to many places around the world, should not forget their roots and return to the starting point from where they started off, Veszprém”, says Hordós. “As much as we have travelled the world, the variety is just as diverse, both in terms of who plays what instrument or what kind of musical style he or she represents. We deal with music in a variety of ways and at a high level: we have classical soloists, jazz musicians, musicologists. We want to take advantage of this and present classical music on a broader spectrum to young people, to art lovers and especially to those who thought classical music was boring.”
The concerts will take place in the autumn of 2023, on the last weekend of every month, in two different concert halls in Veszprém: the Deák Ferenc Street Event Centre and the Hangvilla. The more difficult-to-understand music will be made more understandable with narration by distinguished Hungarian musicologists. Milán Bolla (Bartók Radio) and Zoltán Farkas (Bartók Radio, Bartók Memorial House, Institute for Musicology Budapest) will take care of this.
The young musicians from Veszprém will entertain the audience with high-quality, yet lighter, more popular genres (jazz, folk and world music), in addition to the pieces often found in the classical repertoire. The theme of the first concert on 30 September at the Deák Ferenc Street Event Centre will be a fusion of classical music and jazz.
In October, we can enjoy their music on two consecutive days, with a repertoire focusing on Hungarian music. On 27 October in the rehearsal room of the Mendelssohn Chamber Orchestra in Hangvilla, the audience is invited to a piano recital with musical commentary, where solo piano pieces Szabadban (Out of Doors) and Improvizációk magyar parasztdalokra (Eight Improvisations on Hungarian Peasant Songs) by Béla Bartók will be brought closer to the audience with a narration by Zoltán Farkas.
The next day, 28 October, the focus will be on Hungarian music again. In the first half of the evening, works by Hungarian composers will be performed on string instruments. In the second half of the concert, the main role will be played by Hungarian folk rhymes, performed by the authentic Pengő folk orchestra.
On the last weekend of November, which is the date of the last concert in this series, the Deák Ferenc Street Event Centre will once again be the venue for secular melodies alongside classical music.
