Budafok Dohnányi Orchestra has prepared a real spring programme to usher in the season.
The first piece is Debussy’s Petite Suite, composed between 1886 and 1889. The work was originally written for piano four hands, but was rewritten several times, and an orchestral version was composed in 1907. The Petite Suite is one of Debussy’s early works, written before the composer’s Impressionist period, and therefore still shows the influence of his contemporaries, the characteristics of the French Romantic school, including simple structure and sensuous harmonies. The first two movements of the four-movement work, En bateau (Sailing) and Cortège (Retinue), are linked to Verlaine‘s poems, while the second two movements, Menuet and Ballet, draw the listener in with their dance-like character.
It is well known that BDO is keen on playing and promoting works by contemporary Hungarian composers. Tonight’s concert will feature a performance of the Saxophone Concerto by conductor Kornél Thomas. The work was composed in 2022 with the aim of expanding the classical saxophone repertoire. As he is very interested in mixing different genres, he considered the saxophone to be a perfect instrument for this purpose. While listening to the work, you will surely discover American minimalism, Bartók-inspired harmonies, passages reminiscent of film music, grunge-rock and funk-jazz influences.
Schumann’s “Spring” Symphony (No. 1) is a true spring-awaiting work, written during perhaps the happiest period of the composer’s life. The youthful momentum of spring was also evident in the work’s genesis, as he sketched the entire symphony in four days and had the score ready a month later. The title was given to the work by Schumann himself, inspired by the last line of a poem by Adolf Boettger: “O, turn, O turn and change your course / In the valley, Spring blooms forth!” Each movement of the symphony also has its own title: The Beginning of Spring, Evening, Merry Playmates, Spring in Full Bloom. The four movements take us from the gloomy beginnings, when winter and spring are still fighting it out, to the fullness of spring, with its own exuberant joy and optimism. It is not by coincidence that this is one of Schumann’s most beloved and most frequently performed works. The first performance took place immediately after it was written, on 31 March 1841 in Leipzig, where Mendelssohn himself conducted the work.
