A lost concerto from Hungary, 1942: world premiere ahead

Barnabas Kelemen, the brilliant young violinist from Budapest, wrote to me recently with an astonishing story. On 2 May at Carnegie Hall, New York, he is giving the world premiere of a violin concerto by the Hungarian composer Mihaly Nádor, who died in the Holocaust in 1944. It is part of a powerful programme from the American Symphony Orchestra under the conductor Leon Botstein: entitled 'Hungary Torn', it features world and US premieres of several works by Hungarian composers, including the US premiere of Dohnányi's Szeged Mass.

The Nádor Concerto dates from two years before its composer's tragic death. I asked Barnabas to tell us more about it...


JD: Barnabas, how did the Violin Concerto by Mihaly Nádor come to light? And how did you come to be giving its world premiere?

BK: I got a phone call from my dear friend, the viola player Peter Barsony, who said that after years of research he had found several interesting pieces from Hungarian composers who suffered under the regimes of the first part of the 20th century. One of the most interesting was the Violin Concerto by Mihály Nádor, who died in the Holocaust in 1944 and finished his concerto in 1942. The manuscript was found in the Hungarian National Széchenyi Music Library. Leon Botstein, the concert's conductor, is always interested in this kind of repertoire, finding interesting music that hasn't been played, but is really worth learning. And they asked me would I be interested...? And I very much was and I'm just more and more enthusiastic about the piece!

JD: What is the music like? What do you enjoy most about it? Do you think it is a work that might enter the general concert repertoire now?

BK: The greatest thing about this concerto, first, is that it's a real masterpiece. It's about 30 minutes long and there wouldn't be any part that I'd like to cut out or change! Nádor himself was a violinist, but mainly he was an operetta and film-music composer. He also composed several concert works. The piece is full of post-romantic colours, with Nádor's own voice: very virtuoso, with some interesting new ideas for violinists, many inspired by the Mid-European/Hungarian styles. They say that as he finished the first movement in Munich he wanted to premiere it, but at the end he had to confess that it was too difficult for him and he wasn't able to play it! Truly the Violin Concerto is equally as difficult as any of the greatest romantic violin concertos, if not more virtuoso than some. I think if we compare the piece to violin concertos by Goldmark, Walton, Elgar and Korngold, then Nádor has the chance to be part of this - though no one has heard it, so let's wait until the world premiere and the reactions...

JD: Do you think there are many more pieces by him waiting to be rediscovered and performed?

BK: Nádor was one of the best operetta and variete compsers of the early 20th century after Lehár and Imre Kálmán, with some great compositions for some of the famous movies of the '30s in Hungary. He was a student of the Ferenc Liszt Music Academy, where I happen to teach chamber music after being a violin professor for seven years. After learning and world-premiering his great Violin Concerto I will surely look into his repertoire what else I could play (indeed, premiere) as his concerto was a wonderful, great adventure in this style for me. Not many violinsts can get to know a masterpiece in this style first in the world and bring it to a premiere in Carnegie! It's a real honour that Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra asked me to play this concert in the Carnegie Hall, where I had the chance to play a recital 60 years after another Hungarian masterpiece had been premiered there by Yehudi Menuhin, the Solo Sonata by Béla Bartók. This piece was also on my recital's program in 2004.

JD: Do you have any plans for further performances or a recording? 

BK: I'm seriously thinking about both the further performances of the Nádor Violin Concerto and a recording, but first I'd like to perform the piece. I can't wait to hear the orchestration, not only from looking at the score. Hungary must take the Hungarian premiere very seriously!

Proms 2013: Hear 7 Wagner Operas for £5 Each

You'll need sandiwches, water, strong shoes and even stronger legs - those operas are loooong - but where else in the world can you go to the complete Ring cycle conducted by Daniel Barenboim and starring Nina Stemme, plus Tristan und Isolde, Tannhauser and Parsifal, each with major Wagnerian superstars at the helm, and stand just a few metres from the performers, and pay only £5 a time? Yes, the Proms are back and this is one great whopper of a Wagner anniversary season.

There's some Verdi - though no complete operas (apparently this is down to it's-just-how-things-turned-out, rather than any Wagner-is-best conspiracy, before you ask). And a more than fair pop at Britten, including Billy Budd from Glyndebourne. Fans of Granville Bantock, Walton, Rubbra, George Lloyd and Tippett could also be quite happy with this year's line-up.

The glass ceiling is shattering nicely as Marin Alsop takes the helm for the Last Night, becoming the first woman ever to conduct it. Better late than never, and she is a brilliant choice for the task.

Guest artists on the Last Night include Joyce DiDonato and Nigel Kennedy. Nige will be appearing earlier in the season too, playing the good old Four Seasons with his own Orchestra of Life plus the Palestine Strings, which consists of young players from the Edward Said National Conservatories of Music. Lots of piano treats as well - soloists to hear include Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, the terrific duo of Noriko Ogawa and Kathryn Stott, Daniil Trifonov in the rarely-heard Glazunov Piano Concerto No.2 and Imogen Cooper and Paul Lewis playing Schubert's Grand Duo for piano duet in a late-night Prom.

There's one thing, though, that sent me into meltdown. Leafing through the listings, one turns to 6 August and out leap the words KORNGOLD: SYMPHONY IN F SHARP. I've waited 30 years for this. Erich Wolfgang Korngold's one and only full-blown symphony is coming to the Proms at long, long last. It is being performed by the BBC Philharmonic under John Stogårds. And guess what? I'm supposed to be away on holiday on 6 August. If that isn't the Law of Sod, then what is?

Meanwhile we're promised more TV coverage of the Proms than ever before, and plenty of stuff online, and the invaluable iPlayer to help with catching up. But really, there's no substitute for being there. If you've never been, get a taste of it in the launch film above. Book your tickets now.

Full listings here.

SIR COLIN DAVIS, 1927 - 2013

Sir Colin Davis has died at the age of 85. 

Goodnight, dear maestro. May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.

Some memorials from JDCMB:

The big interview: http://jessicamusic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/when-jd-met-sir-colin-davis.html

Elgar Violin Concerto centenary performance with Nikolai Znaider & the LSO, 10 November 2010

Music, museums and a wake-up call

The habit of many musicians, administrators and other pundits to say that classical music mustn't be a "museum culture" (or words to that effect) has been bugging me. This week alone I've seen such phrases trotted out in interviews with two people whose work I greatly admire - novelist and Sunken Garden librettist David Mitchell, and even Jonas Kaufmann in the German article I linked to the other day. 

I have a think-piece in The Independent today (written before I saw either the Mitchell piece or the Kaufmann one) about why we should rethink this old cliche. Museums are doing rather well. Doesn't anyone ever go to one? 

I have a Tate Buddy. We go to Bankside, have a cuppa gazing out at the best view in London, then dip into all manner of fascinating exhibitions or the permanent collection. We never leave without learning something new. That's part of the point: to discover something, to learn about it, to find your brain and spirit stirred by fresh ideas. It doesn't matter if you go in thinking you know nothing about whatever-it-is, because you will by the time you go home. It's sad to think of the number of people who shy away from trying a concert because they think they don't know enough about it... And at the Tate, the gallery itself is part of the treat; walking through it, you sense the pride that is taken in its sleek contemporary expertise. Contrast that with the recent Royal Albert Hall experience described in the article.

Speaking of the Tate, I went to the premiere last night of Michel van der Aa's Sunken Garden, which wouldn't look out of place there. More of that later.

RPS Awards promise a fine vintage for 2012

I was on BBC Radio 3's In Tune yesterday, talking to Sean Rafferty about the just-announced shortlist for the Royal Philharmonic Society Awards. It's chock-full of great people and projects, with what seems an unusually high quotient of British nominees - the legacy of the London 2012 Olympics, I suspect. And proof, as if it were needed, that if you invest £s in culture, as in sport, you can get some extremely good results. British artists really had a chance to shine last year. Vital not to forget this now that that particular heady bonanza is gone. A fitting treat, too, for the RPS, which celebrates its 200th anniversary in 2013. UK listeners can hear the programme here for 6 more days.

Full RPS Awards shortlist is here. Highlights include a Singers shortlist of Sarah Connolly, Alice Coote, Bryan Hymel and Bryn Terfel, Conductors Kirill Karabits, Andris Nelsons and Richard Farnes, Composers established and new, Operas highly contemporary, and many more projects with a plethora of Olympic and educational associations. Daniil Trifonov puts in a particularly welcome appearance on the Young Artists shortlist.