Danubia Orchestra Óbuda has commissioned three Hungarian composers to honour Bach’s The Art of Fugue with their music. The premiere takes place on January 30 at the Academy of Music, Budapest under the direction of Benjamin Bayl.

Bach’s The Art of Fugue has excited the general public and composers with its perfection and fragmentation for more than two hundred years. Now the Danubia Orchestra Óbuda has commissioned three Hungarian composers to express with their music what this masterpiece says to them today.

The 12 movements written by the three composers will be premiered in a kaleidoscopic arrangement, like a whole-evening collective composition, on November 20 at the Academy of Music, Budapest under the direction of Benjamin Bayl.

UPDATE: Due to the epidemic situation, the premiere has been postponed to 2021.

Ensemble arTrium (Steffi Mölle – flute, Odile Skarnes – viola, Zsuzsanna Aba-Nagy – harp) gives the Austrian premiere of Symmetry-Asymmetry by Balázs Horváth at the Alte Schmiede in Vienna on March 19.

More about the concert.

THReNSeMBle also performes pieces by Marcell Dargay, Péter Tornyai, Rafal Zapala and Pierre Boulez. Waiting for... by balázs Horváth and Summer Music by László Tihanyi will be premiered in Poland by THReNSeMBle and Balázs Horváth at the 43. Poznańska wiosna muzyczna, Poznań Festival on 22 March.

More about the concert and the festival.

Five compositions will be performed by the Vienna ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Péter Eötvös on 8 October. The program is on the one hand dedicated to Ferenc Liszt who was born 200 years ago and on the other hand presents the prize winners of the Gustav Mahler Composition Competition and the Hungarian Music Forum.

THReNSeMBle (Artistic leader: Balázs Horváth) will participate at the Gaudeamus Interpreters Competition in Amsterdam. Beside the works of Franco Donatoni, Theo Lovendie, Pierre Boulez and Yannis Kyriakides will be played Péter Tornyai’s Abfall-Musik, Zoltán Jeney’s Self-quotations, Balázs Horváth’s Waiting for... and László Tihanyi’s Summer Music.

The program of the competition is also performed in Budapest on 31 March and 4 April.

www.thrensemble.com

Balázs Horváth’s Divergent for trumpet and big band is performed by Croatian Radio Television Big Band conducted by Saša Nestorović on 13 April, organised by ISCM World New Music Days and Zagreb Biennale.

www.mbz.hr