The next world-class ensemble brought to the Granada Theatre by the Community Arts Music Association will be England’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, led by its artistic director and principal conductor, Charles Dutoit, with the brilliant pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet coming along as guest soloist.
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra will play at 8 p.m. Thursday at the Granada.
The intriguing program for this concert will consist of three works: Zoltán Kodály’s Dances of Galánta, Franz Liszt’s Concerto No. 2 in A-Major for Piano and Orchestra, S. 125 and Johannes Brahms’ Symphony No. 1 in C-Minor, Opus 68.
One of the things that intrigues me about this program is how this quintessentially English orchestra — founded at the King’s urging in 1946 by the witty baronet, Sir Thomas Beecham — conducted by a Francophone Swiss, with a French soloist, comes to play a concert with such a heavy Magyar vibe to it.
I don’t mean just the Kodály and the Liszt (who was born “Liszt Ferencz” in the Hungarian village of Doborján), but Brahms as well, who may have been born in Hamburg of impeccable German lineage (if there is such a thing) but spent a good deal of his professional life surrounded by Hungarians.
Brahms’ initial reputation was made as a pianist. He first made a name for himself as a composer in 1853 when he went on tour with Hungarian violinist Eduard Reményi. On this tour, Reményi introduced the young keyboardist to two other Hungarians: the towering composer-violinist Joseph Joachim and the superstar composer-pianist Franz Liszt.
Brahms and Joachim immediately became friends, later collaborators, and their friendship lasted the rest of their lives. Brahms and Liszt seemed to be getting on very well, but then Brahms fell asleep during a performance, by the composer, of Liszt’s Sonata in B-Minor, and Reményi denounced him to all who would listen. Liszt laughed off the incident, but the two never became close. (I have to say I’m completely on Brahms’ side here, since, while Liszt wrote literally hundreds of exciting compositions, I find the Sonata in B-Minor uniquely soporific.)
Liszt and Brahms were both still alive by the time Kodály (1882-1967) was born, but neither became much of an influence on his development. The decisive factor in Kodály’s music, as for that of his lifelong friend and champion, Béla Bartók, was Hungarian folk music. Kodály was also a scholar and music historian.
The Dances of Galánta, written in 1933 on a commission from the Budapest Philharmonic to commemorate its 80th anniversary, come as much from his archival research as from his folk song collecting. In the preface to the score, he wrote: “About 1800, some books of Hungarian dances were published in Vienna, and one contained music ‘after several gypsies from Galánta’ ... The composer has taken his principal subjects from these ancient sources.”
Tickets to the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra concert are available through the Granada box office at 1214 State St. or 805.899.2222. Click here to order online.
— Gerald Carpenter covers the arts as a Noozhawk contributor. He can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk or @NoozhawkNews.
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