The first winter edition of the Festival Academy, founded by Barnabás Kelemen and Katalin Kokas, brought a new musical quality to a fabulous historic location from 2-4 February.
At the invitation of the Festival Academy, some 25 well-known Hungarian and foreign artists inhabited the picturesque rooms of the Palace Hotel in Lillafüred – along with the audience – for a weekend of three to four chamber music concerts a day from 2 to 4 February, with related literary and music history lectures and discussions in a true salon atmosphere.
The Festival Academy Budapest, founded nine years ago by violinists Katalin Kokas and Barnabás Kelemen, and internationally recognised as one of the world’s most prestigious classical music events, has for the first time organised a winter event series in Lillafüred, Winterfest, following the success of the festival in Budapest, which sold out the week before.
„The Winterfest concerts in this historic building in the beautiful natural setting of the Bükk Mountains were held in a real salon atmosphere. It is a time and a way to listen to each other, to get even closer to the music, the works and composers, to slow down qualitatively. On the second and third days, the audience usually greeted each other at the concerts as acquaintances,” said Liszt Prize-winning violinist Katalin Kokas.
„When we came to Miskolc to give a masterclass and stayed here, we immediately felt that this is such an atmosphere, where the composers and the music that we and our artist friends usually perform in concert halls larger than this one in many parts of the world are at home, and which were actually written in such large spaces,” said Kossuth Prize-winning violinist Barnabás Kelemen.
The three-day winter festival offered daytime and afternoon tea and salon concerts and evening concerts, as well as complementary programmes, talks and performances. At the invitation of Barnabás Kelemen and Katalin Kokas, there were performances by Ukrainian-British violinist and conductor Maxim Rysanov, Russian violinist Nikita Boriso-Glebsky, Argentine pianist and chamber musician José Gallardo, German clarinettist Thorsten Johanns, Dutch flautist, professor and instrument maker Jacques Zoon and French cellist Iseut Chuat.The festival also featured a number of top Hungarian artists, including artistic directors Dóra Kokas (cello), László Fenyő (cello) and Zsolt Fejérvári (double bass), Tamás Benkócs (bassoon), Szabolcs Zempléni (horn), among others, took to the stage, Lajos Sárközy and his orchestra played after the Saturday evening concert, and on the last day tha audience could also hear the Cantemus Choir under the direction of Dénes Szabó.
Music historian János Mácsai gave introductory lectures on the works before the concerts. The two older children of the artist couple also took to the stage at the family-style event: Gáspár Kelemen, studying in London, performed a violin work by Wieniawsky, while the young theatre student Hanna Kelemen performed poems by Pilinszky, Kosztolányi and Ady, as well as a discussion about her film starring role.
The festival began with Bartók’s 44 duets, followed by works by Mozart such as the Divertimento in E flat major and the Fuvola Quartet in D major.
Fritz Kreisler’s birthday was also commemorated, with three of his masterpieces performed by Barnabás Kelemen and José Gallardo. Two exceptional and very different pieces from the oeuvre of Richard Strauss, Till Eulenspiegel einmal anders and the poignant Metamorphoses, composed during World War II. We heard Brahms’ Cello Sonata in E minor with László Fenyő and José Gallardo, works by Bach and Leclair with Katalin Kokas and Barnabás Kelemen, and on Saturday evening Beethoven’s Septet in E flat major which the composer wrote: „My septet brings a little impetus to life, for it is what good people long for.”
The audience heard excerpts from Bach’s Goldberg Variations in a rarely performed transcription for string trio. One of the greatest works of Brahms’ oeuvre, the Trio in E-flat major for natural horn, violin and piano, was also performed.
On Sunday, literature was at the forefront of the tea party, with a morning performance of Magda Szabó’s fitting The Old House, among other works. Bartók’s only chamber piece in which he used a wind instrument, Contrasts for clarinet, violin and piano, was commissioned by the world-famous jazz clarinettist Benny Goodman. The festival closed on Sunday evening with this Bartók work and Tchaikovsky’s iconic string sextet, Memories of Florence.