Concerto Budapest Symphony Orchestra

12 – 20 September 2023

Conductor: Andras Keller

Soloists: Pierre-Laurent Aimard (piano),

Mihaly Berecz (piano, 12 Sept Croydon only)

Concerto Budapest Symphony Orchestra is not represented by IMG Artists

Concerto Budapest Symphony Orchestra

Concerto Budapest Symphony Orchestra are one of the leading full-size orchestras in Hungary. They have stamped their mark on Hungarian and international music life with their unique tonality and broad ranging programming. Their extensive repertoire spans the spectrum from popular classics to contemporary works. Their progressive character is manifested in the musicians’ elemental performance skills, and a unique sound of the orchestra. Concerts become unforgettable experiences through a total and evident passion for music.

One of the oldest ensembles in Hungary, they boast a past stretching back more than a century when the predecessor of Concerto Budapest was founded in 1907. András Keller, world-famous violinist professor, founder of Keller Quartet, has been music director and principal conductor since their centenary in 2007. He had the following to say about listening to music: “…we don’t even have to understand the music but rather listen and feel it, and allow it to flow through us. If somebody is prepared to make this intellectual-spiritual investment, it will enrich them to the point that they will see their entire life in a completely different way”.

Read more

Andras Keller, conductor

András Keller has enjoyed a varied career as a soloist, concertmaster, and chamber musician at the highest international level. His early studies at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest led to many collaborations with György Kurtág, whose works he has been premiering and performing worldwide since 1978. He has also enjoyed working intensively with Dénes Kovács, Ferenc Rados and, until his death, Sándor Végh.

András Keller founded the Keller String Quartet in 1987 and has since given master classes and concerts throughout the world. As both chamber musician and soloist, he has appeared in every European country, performing at many prestigious festivals such as Salzburg, Edinburgh, Lucerne, Aldeburgh, Schleswig-Holstein and the BBC Proms. Outside of Europe, András Keller has been invited to New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, Washington’s Library of Congress, and many cities in Japan, China, and Korea. During his career he has worked with world-renowned artists including Mstislav Rostropovich, Natalia Gutman, Boris Pergamenschikow, Tabea Zimmerman, Truls Mørk, Gidon Kremer, Kim Kashkashian, Evgeni Koroliov, Boris Berezovsky, Alexander Lubimov, Juliane Banse, Khatia Buniatishvili, Vadim Repin, Isabelle Faust and Steven Isserlis, Heinz Holliger.

Read more

Pierre-Laurent Aimard (piano)

Widely acclaimed as a key figure in the music of our time, Pierre-Laurent Aimard has had close collaborations with many leading composers including György Ligeti, Karlheinz Stockhausen, George Benjamin, Pierre Boulez and Oliver Messiaen.

Aimard begins the 2022/23 season by receiving Denmark’s most prominent music award, the Leonie Sonning Music Prize 2022 which will be celebrated in a series of concerts with Royal Danish Orchestra/Cambreling and recitals in Copenhagen and Aarhus. Elsewhere he continues to work closely with leading orchestras and conductors across Europe including Antwerp Symphony/Herreweghe, Radio Filharmonisch Orkest/Deneve, Deutsche Symphony Orchester Berlin/Chan, Orchestre National de Lille/Bloc and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. He continues his collaboration with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and Esa-Pekka Salonen, recording Bartók’s complete piano concertos due for release in Autumn 2023, and returns to Los Angeles Philharmonic for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.4.

Read more

Mihaly Berecz (piano)

Winner of the Liszt-Bartók Prize at the 15th Concours Géza Anda 2021 Mihály Berecz was born in Budapest in 1997 and began to learn the violin at the age of six. Later, in parallel with his work in various orchestras, he began to devote himself to the piano with Edit Major and Erzsébet Belák. He obtained his First Class Honours Bachelor of Music degree at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Christopher Elton, however. Winner of the Debut Berlin International Concerto Competition, Mihály performed for the first time at the Berlin “Philharmonie” in June 2017. Previous awards include the Golden Prize of the 2nd Manhattan International Music Competition and the Harriet Cohen Bach Prize of the Royal Academy of Music. At the 2013 Young Euro Classic Festival he performed Liszt’s “Hungarian Fantasy” at the Konzerthaus Berlin. Also in 2013, and upon the invitation of Zoltán Kocsis, he made his debut at the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall, Budapest. At the Liszt Academy, where he frequently performs, he recently played Mozart’s “Jenamy” concerto under the baton of Mikhail Pletnev. Mihály’s interest in historical interpretation has led to performances of fortepiano concertos with renowned orchestras playing on period instruments, such as the Orfeo Orchestra. Between 2020 and 2022, as part of a scholarship from the Hungarian Academy of Arts, he performed Béla Bartók’s complete solo works of in eight concerts at the Hungarian Radio’s Marble Hall.

Download the full biography on the link above.

More information and tickets