Programme:
Sergei Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 1 in F-sharp minor, Op. 1
Béla Bartók: The Miraculous Mandarin, Suite, Op. 19, Sz. 73
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Sergei Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18

Mikhail Pletnev’s extraordinary pianistic talent, which he demonstrated at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1978, where he won the Gold Medal, has earned him universal acclaim. Over the course of his career he has also proved himself to be a remarkable conductor. He will appear on two successive evenings with the Concerto Budapest Symphony Orchestra, one of Hungary’s oldest orchestras, which has been performing the classical repertoire and works by contemporary Hungarian composers with great success since 1907. In two evenings they will perform all four of Rachmaninoff’s piano concertos and music by Béla Bartók. The programme will begin with Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 1,  the composer’s first published work, which immediately showed his gift for melody. This will be followed by Bartók’s The Miraculous Mandarin,  a sonically bold work full of aggressive rhythms, quartal (fourth) chords and dense textures. After the interval the concert will continue with the ever popular Piano Concerto No. 2,   which established Rachmaninoff’s fame as an outstanding concerto composer. The orchestra will be conducted by András Keller, a world-renowned violinist and teacher and the founder of the multiple award winning Keller Quartet. The orchestra’s music director and chief conductor since 2007, its centenary year, he has succeeded in modernising it through originally conceived programmes and festivals.