Simfonični Orkester RTV Slovenija - Kromatika 7

Soloist: Tamás Varga, cello

Programme:
BEETHOVEN: Coriolan Overture
SHOSTAKOVICH: Cello Concerto No. 1

BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 2

For the seventh concert of this year’s Kromatika cycle, we are joined by two excellent Hungarian musicians. The young conductor Martin Rajna took over the position of chief conductor of the Györ Philharmonic Orchestra in 2021. He is also a regular guest at the Hungarian State Opera, where he performed Verdi’s Rigoletto and Lehar’s The Merry Widow last year, as well as appearing with the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra. Rajna studied at the Liszt Academy in Budapest and then at the Liszt University of Music in Weimar. In 2021, he was selected for the educational programme of the Pétro Eötvös Contemporary Music Foundation, where, in addition to Pétro Eötvös, he was mentored by György Kurtág, Fabián Panisello and Magnus Lindberg.

After performing the overture to the tragedy Coriolan by Heinrich Joseph von Collin, which is one of Beethoven’s most frequently performed concert works, Martin Rajna will be joined on stage by his compatriot Tamás Varga. This excellent musician works as the leader of the cellists of both the Vienna Philharmonic and the Vienna State Opera Orchestra. He is also active as a chamber musician and soloist, including the performance of Baroque music on authentic instruments. Among other projects, Varga has recorded all of the Bach’s suites for cello solo. On this occasion, he will perform as a soloist in the First Cello Concerto by Dmitri Shostakovich, a great Russian composer whose creativity was not suppressed even by the hostile Soviet regime.

After the intermission, we return to the opus of the great Ludwig van Beethoven with a performance of his Second Symphony, one of the last works from the composer’s early, youthful period. The youthful spirit is enhanced by the fact that Beethoven included an energetic scherzo in place of the elegant minuet that was the standard third movement of a symphony.

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