Hongaars Voorzitterschap herdenkt 200e geboortedag componist Franz Liszt (en)
Last week on Friday the Vatican City hosted one of the most important events of the Hungarian presidency of the Council of the European Union and the bicentenary of the birth of the Hungarian composer Franz Liszt: Pope Benedict XVI attended a concert given in his honor by Zoltán Kocsis and the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir.
Playing and listening to music in the huge Paul VI Audience Hall with a seating capacity of 6300 is an outstanding experience and challenge for musicians and audience alike. Last Friday Franz Liszt, the great Hungarian composer born two hundred years ago was invoked by the National Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir conducted by Zoltán Kocsis with an outstanding performance and a sophisticated choice of program.
The greeting speech given by the President of the Hungarian Republic, Pál Schmitt was followed by three piano pieces by Liszt orchestrated by Kocsis: the Festive March for the Goethe Centenary - in honor of the Pope of German origin - and Ave Maria (alternative title: The Bells of Rome), as a reverence to the City which played such a significant part in Liszt’s life. Between these two pieces they performed The Valley of Obermann, which was included in the Swiss volume of the Years of Pilgrimage, and is one the most interesting orchestrations (or “orchestral redefinitions”) by Kocsis. Liszt’s most significant and most personal, deeply religious work, the 13th Psalm was performed by the Philharmonic Orchestra joined by the Hungarian National Choir and tenor István Horváth.
Liszt composed the 13th Psalm for tenor solo, choir and orchestra in the summer of 1855, during his Weimar-period. The psalm, first performed in November that year ”rose from the abundance of the heart”, he wrote. About the tenor part, which is the rendition of the king’s complaints, he said the following: ”I allowed myself to sing, and David’s emotions of desperation spread into my flesh and blood”.
The Paul VI Audience Hall built in 1971 is the size of a sports hall, and its special lights and atmosphere and of course, the presence of Benedict XVI sitting in the middle was a great inspiration for the musicians and audience, too. There were about one hundred and fifty Hungarian musicians on the podium, but this large number was needed, as the acoustics of this grandiose place - where there are no upper-circles, and the seats are in one single flat level - was a serious challenge for the National Philharmonic playing without sonorization.
The concert was a great success not only with the audience and the Hungarian diplomacy - among them the Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán; János Martonyi, Minister of Foreign Affairs; and Miklós Réthelyi, Minister of National Resources and their wives -, but the music-lover Pope Benedict XVI, too. After the concert the Holy Father spoke to those present, thanking the artists and emphasizing the beauty of the orchestral sonority.
“The transcriptions reflect the conductor Zoltán Kocsis’s brilliant orchestration in Liszt’s spirit. Each tone of the orchestra is manifested in these three compositions, and the music of the strings, the brass, the reeds, and percussions could be clearly heard. They were extremely characteristic and so different from each other. However, we never had the impression that they played a multitude of sounds broken away from each other. These different tones expressed one harmonic musical idea. This is why we were presented with so much beauty, the joy of listening, and a wide scale of sentiments was induced: the march made us feel delight and festivity; the recurring, effusive melody of the second piece brought forth awakening, and finally, Ave Maria was a deep inspiration for prayer.”