July 16 – August 3, 2007


The International Kodaly Festival includes solo, chamber music, and choral concerts presented by distinguished musicians from Hungary and abroad. The repertoire usually focuses on music composed by Kodaly, Bartok and Liszt, but emphasis is also placed on contemporary Hungarian music.


According to well-established tradition, this year’s Kodaly Festival also runs parallel with the Kodaly Seminar held in Kecskemet, birthplace of Zoltan Kodaly. The Seminar allows interested experts to acquaint themselves with Kodaly’s musicology in theory and in practice. At the end of the seminar, participants of the courses have an opportunity to sing in the Seminar Choir at the closing concert of the Kodaly Festival, on August 3, 2007. The Seminar Choir and the Kodaly-Bartok World Youth Orchestra will perform “Psalmus Hungaricus” by Zoltan Kodaly, conducted by Tamas Vasary.

2007 also marks the 125th anniversary of Kodaly's birth, celebrated with memorial concerts and events worldwide.  In the following, we will list some of the local events for the next few weeks, followed by links to websites that provide information about all the events for the Kodaly Memorial Year.




July 16

20:00 New Lutheran College (Kecskemet)

• Opening Concert of the Kodaly Arts Festival
• Kodaly Quartet

The Kodaly Quartet formed in Budapest in 1966, and it has continued to exemplify the greatest standards of the rich Hungarian musical tradition over four decades of local and international appearances.

The Kodaly Quartet's over 50 recordings have been widely acclaimed throughout the world, some of their achievements being:

• Haydn' Op.64. was named Classic CD Magazine's "Best Chamber Music Release of 1993";
• Vol. VI. of the Beethoven was BBC Music Magazine's "Pick of the Month", giving it five stars for both performance and sound, and calling it an "extraordinary achievement";
• Octets of Bruch and Mendelssohn received a "10 out of 10" rating for both artistic and recording quality from ClassicsToday.com

Full Discography


July 19

20:30 St Stephen Square (Budapest)

• Zoltan Kodaly Memorial Festival
• Debrecen Symphony Orchestra
• Conductor: Balazs Kocsar

Smetana: The Bartered Bride – Overture, Three Dances
Zoltan Kovacs: Double Concerto for Trumpet and Trombone
Leo Weiner: Serenade
Kodaly: Dances of Galanta


July 20

20:00 New Lutheran College (Kecskemet)

• Gyorgy Orban plays his own compositions

July 22

19:30 Inner-city Parish Church (Budapest)

• Concert of the Society of the Friends of Old Hungarian Culture
• Andras Viragh (organ) and the Budapest Brass Quintet

Pieces by Kodaly and Handel


July 23

20:00 New Lutheran College (Kecskemet)

• Kodaly Arts Festival
• The Mendelssohn Chamber Orchestra

July 25

20:00 New Lutheran College (Kecskemet)

• Kodaly Arts Festival
• William Butt (cello) and Marta Erdei (piano)

Sonata Evening


July 26

20:30 St. Stephen Square (Budapest)

• Kodaly Memorial Festival
• Liszt-Wagner Symphony Orchestra
• Conductor: Gergely Kesselyak

July 27

20:00 New Lutheran College (Kecskemet)

• Kodaly Arts Festival
• Laszlo Borbely (piano) and Istvan Vardai (cello)

July 28


11:00 Old Music Academy (Budapest)

• Matinee Concert in the Liszt Museum
  
• Reno Tales (voice) and Attila Boros (piano)

Kacsoh: Janos vitez (excerpts)
Bartok: Far Behind I Left My Country; Snow is Melting (Hungarian Songs)
Kodaly: Isten hozzad szulottem fold, Huszarnota (Hungarian songs)
Molnar-Kern: (Garden of Songs)
Scarlatti: Sento nel core; Gia il sole dal Gange
Mozart: Don Giovanni; Die Zauberflote
Swedish Folk Song - Ack, Varmeland, du skona
C.L. Sjoberg: Tonerna
Paolo Tosti: Ideale; La serenata




July 29

19:30 Inner-city Parish Church (Budapest)

• Organ Concert by Erzsebet Achim

Pieces by Bach, Liszt, Kodaly and Mendelssohn


20:00 Lutheran Church (Kecskemet)

• Kodaly Arts Festival
• Stockholm Singers Chamber Choir
• Conductor: Bo Aurehl

Stockholm Singers is an accomplished mixed voice, concert chamber choir. The ensemble was set up by Conductor Bo Aurehl in 2005 and comprises around 25 skilled and motivated singers, who strive to bring alive the traditional choir repertoire from Renaissance to the present day.

The group was involved as a workshop choir in the Conducting Master Classes in the Kodaly Institute in Kecskemet 2005 and in the Dublin Master Classes 2006. In the summer of 2007, the choir returned to Hungary to take part, once again, in the Master Classes as well as giving their own concert in this international concert series.

Stockholm Singers regularly perform in concerts and make recordings. During 2005, the group received an award from the Kodaly Institute in Kecskemet, which was bestowed by renowned Hungarian conductor, Peter Erdei.


July 30

20:00 New Lutheran College (Kecskemet)

• Kodaly and Szymanowski – Music by Polish and Hungarian Composers
• Urszula Jankowska (voice), Katarzyna Jankowska (piano), Mihol Borzykowski (cello)

August 1

20:00 Kodaly School (Kecskemet)

• Final Concert of the 24th International Choirmaster’s Course
• Stockholm Singers

Kodaly’s works for choir and organ


August 2


19:00 Hungarian State Opera House (Budapest)

• Kodaly Memorial Concert
• Kodaly-Bartok World Youth Orchestra
• Conductor: Tamas Vasary
  

Kodaly: Dances of Marosszek, The Peacock


August 3

20:00 Great Church (Kecskemet)

• Kodaly Arts Festival Final Concert
• Kodaly Bartok World Youth Orchestra and Choir
• Conductor: Tamas Vasary

For a full list of Kodaly Programs in Hungary and abroad, visit the Home Page of the Kodaly Memorial Year


Links

Kodaly Quartet, Budapest -- English

Stockholm Singers -- English and Swedish

Mendelssohn Chamber Orchestra on Veszprem City's Home Page -- parts of the site available in English, German, and French as well

Concerts in Hungary -- Hungarian

Fidelio Online -- Hungarian. (Nearly?) All about music in Hungary: classical and contemporary; jazz, folk-, and world music; opera, operetta, and musical.