09/01/23

The second half of the philharmonic season opens with famous scores from Being John Malkovich and The Shining

The Belgrade Philharmonic continues its season On the Right Track with the opening concert in 2023 on Friday, January 13, at Kolarac Concert Hall, starting from 8 p.m. The orchestra, led by the BPO star, chief conductor Gabriel Feltz, will take us to Budapest, in one of the most demanding repertoire of the season. After very unusual and exciting New Year’s concerts celebrating the end of 2022, the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra continues the second half of the concert season, traveling to the largest cities around the world through 400 years of music history. This Friday, the audience will end up in Budapest, the city that created many greats and grand musical works. The concert begins with the classical elegance of Haydn’s Symphony no. 81, composed at the Esterházy Palace in Austria-Hungary, where the composer served for thirty years. In the Hungarian Versailles, Haydn had created a large number of works primarily intended for playing at court concerts.

The courtly atmosphere will be followed by completely different and tense Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta by Bela Bartok, used in big screen hits like Being John Malkovich and Kubrick’s The Shining. The unusual combination of instruments, as well as the very treatment of the string orchestra, resulted in a masterpiece with abundance of pure mastery in the orchestral script. Due to its mysterious atmosphere, this piece has found its rightful place in the said films, while conductor Gabriel Feltz claims that this is certainly one of the most difficult programs that the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra is performing this season.

The program is concluded with Franz Liszt’s Preludes, illustrating growth of a man from early youth to maturity. The work that was often perceived as a sketch of the author’s musical autobiography, the Preludes consist of five sections that can be interpreted as Question, Love, Storm, Bucolic calm and Battle and victory.

After the magnificent Budapest, the Belgrade Philharmonic will continue its musical journey under the baton of its beloved Feltz until the end of January, when they go on to Prague and Warsaw. Tickets for the concerts are on sale at the Philharmonic ticket office as well as online.