ANDRAS KELLER AND CONCERTO BUDAPEST
by Christopher Morley
Cheltenham Town Hall will be the venue on September 15 for a six-concert
whistle-stop tour of Great Britain from Concerto Budapest. This follows a
successful tour to the UK last year, returning to public performance after
carrying out valuable work online during lockdown.
Conductor Andras Keller tells me about the orchestra’s history.
“It was following an application process in 2007 that I came to be the
head of this orchestra with its history dating back more than 100 years, which
we renamed as Concerto Budapest in 2009 (it was previously known as the Post
Office Symphony Orchestra and the Magyar Telekom Symphony Orchestra). Since
then, it has earned considerable international respect for the city of Budapest
and brought many global stars here – I hope the time will come one day when the
Hungarian capital will also recognise our successes as is appropriate, as we
consider ourselves ambassadors for Hungary.”
The orchestra also has an impressive roster of affiliated artists and
composers. How did this come to be achieved? Andras talks me proudly through
the roll-call.
“Péter Eötvös joined Concerto Budapest as its first resident composer in
2022, as did Mikhail Pletnev as resident soloist – these outstanding artists
consider the orchestra to be world class and believe its broad and profound
repertoire to have its own sound, viewpoint and distinctive playing style in
any genre. But they were perhaps most attracted to the fact that there are few
orchestras in the world that are able to play with such joy, passion and
heart... György Kurtág is the orchestra’s honourary president, one of my
most important teachers, my relationship with him is fundamental and defining.”
Concerto Budapest certainly boasts a lively repertoire. Andras tells me
how he came to devise the programme for the forthcoming tour.
“Of all the factors to consider, the one I am most interested in and
believe to be the greatest challenge is how the works set alongside each other
are able to influence one another. For me, it is a question of whether the
unique situation of having them played at the same time and in the same place
can open up new dimensions.
“For this tour, Concerto Budapest will present the audience with a
classical, romantic programme. Primarily, it will be one of Mozart’s most
special works, his Symphony No. 40 in G minor (K. 550),
and Bartók’s Piano
Concerto No. 3, which is also the final work he completed and will
be performed in collaboration with Pierre-Laurent Aimard, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 Eroica) that provide the
spine of the programme.
“I always felt an extraordinary connection between Bartók and Beethoven:
Bartók is in my opinion a direct descendant of Beethoven in the 20th century.
On certain dates of the tour, we will present
Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5, Franz
Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 and,
at the start of the tour in Croydon, Rachmaninov’s Piano Concert No. 2, the latter with the
talented young Hungarian soloist Mihály Berecz.”
Concerto Budapest is obviously a hard-working
orchestra, I observe.
“I think so too””
is Andras’ response. “We actually had gone online during the Pandemic years.
This meant not only realizing nearly all of the planned concerts of the seasons
but also creating a new way of reaching put to an even wider audience. Together
with Imre Szabó-Stein, my chief advisor of international strategy, who is also
a music film director from time to time we had grand scale, film-like
live online streams on the opening page of Hungary's largest news portal of our
thematic projects like Beethoven Day or Mozart Day and many others
receiving a total of 1.5 million reach of audience... Besides we created a film
for MEZZO TV which won the New York Festivals TV&Film Awards Silver Award
with " Carpathian Rhapsody" which is still in Mezzo's prime time
programme.”
Not only is
Andras Keller a visionary conductor, he is also a violinist, and holds positions
at London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama, as he tells me.
“I was a professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama for many
years. I am currently holder of the Béla Bartók International Chair, which is
the school’s most prestigious accolade, and I also run violin masterclasses in
addition to working with the school’s orchestras as a conductor.”
Andras concludes by telling me how pleased he is to be programming the
Third Piano Concerto by Bartok, Hungary’s greatest composer.
“I am delighted that we will perform Bartók’s final great work, which
can be regarded as both closure and summary of his life’s work, with
Pierre-Laurent Aimard, one of the world’s finest performers of Hungarian music.
In a musical sense, we consider Pierre-Laurent to be an honorary Hungarian!”
*Concertp Budapest perform at Cheltenham Town Hall on September 15