The concert season closes on a spirited dance note: in the gloriously orchestrated Dances from Galanta, Zoltán Kodály reminisced about his childhood in the former Hungarian town of Galanta in 1933, where he was enthralled by the music of a street band that played regularly.
"When I look at the structure, the syntax of my music, I realize that its basic gestures are very Hungarian, although I am actually a German product," sums up the Budapest-born Rihm student Márton Illés, whose concerto for saxophone quartet and orchestra will be premiered in this symphony concert.
Johannes Brahms brought Dvořák to the attention of the publisher Fritz Simrock, who in 1877 asked the composer, who was still largely unknown at the time, to compile a collection of "national piano works" based on Brahms' Hungarian Dances. As hoped, Dvořák's rousing Slavonic Dances were so successful that eight years later he published a second volume, finally orchestrated all the dances and stated with satisfaction: "They sound like the devil."
June 29 and 30, 2025
