From a project orchestra for young talents to one of the best orchestras in the world - the Budapest Festival Orchestra has made this ascent at an impressive pace. Founded in 1983, the orchestra combines outstanding quality and a love of experimentation with international appeal. It is a regular guest at the festivals of Salzburg, Edinburgh, London, Lucerne, Bonn and Prague, and has been heard on the stages of North America as well as in Asia. His recordings of works by Mahler, Bartók and Mozart have received numerous awards, including two Grammys. Equally important to the Budapest Festival Orchestra is its "grassroots" work: it not only organizes its own music festival, the Bridging Europe Festival, but also has children's and discussion concerts on its program, and plays in bars and public squares. CLOSE

Iván Fischer lives music: he composes, plays several instruments and is almost legendary as a conductor. After studying in Budapest and Vienna, he worked as Harnoncourt's assistant in Salzburg before England discovered him: in 1976 he won the conducting competition in London, in 1979 he became chief conductor of the Northern Sinfonia, and in 1982 he toured the world with the London Symphony Orchestra. Subsequently Fischer devoted himself increasingly to activities in his homeland, above all to building up the Budapest Festival Orchestra. With the orchestra's triumphal march through the international concert halls, Fischer also received the attention he deserved. In addition to guest conductorships in the USA and Great Britain, he took over the musical direction of the Berlin Konzerthaus am Gendarmenmarkt. In 2006 he was awarded Hungary's highest honor for artists, the Kossuth Prize. CLOSE

After winning competitions in Athens, Sendai and Dortmund, Ukrainian pianist Vadym Kholodenko also won the Van Cliburn Competition in Texas in 2013 - a breakthrough for the pianist, who trained in Kiev and Moscow. Numerous performances in North America and the Far East followed, Kholodenko was resident artist with the SWR Symphony Orchestra in Stuttgart and another tour of Asia is scheduled for March 2024. In addition to solo works by Rachmaninov, Schumann and Liszt, he has recorded all of Prokofiev's piano concertos, as well as rarities such as Rzewski's "The People United Will Never Be Defeated!" and the piano version of Mozart's Requiem. He combines a "steely technique" with "moments of crystalline delicacy", according to the Guardian, and for the critic Norman Lebrecht, Kholodenko has long been one of the "elite of classical pianists". CLOSE

Johannes Brahms' "Hungarian Dances," perhaps his most popular works ever, owe their origin to a political tragedy. After the failed revolution in 1849, many Hungarians sought refuge in Hamburg, among them several musicians. The young Brahms thus came into contact with their culture at an early age; in 1852 he went on a tour with the violinist Eduard Reményi. He later used the material he had collected in two booklets for piano four-hands; the "Hungarian Dances" became even more popular in the orchestral versions, some of which were written by Brahms himself, others by various arrangers.

Mysteriously, with a wistful horn call from the distance, the 2nd Piano Concerto by Johannes Brahms begins. And also otherwise this piece is not stingy with surprises: It is laid out in four movements like a great symphony, including a gripping scherzo. Instead, Brahms spins a delicate web of chamber music threads in the slow movement, carried by the solo cello, among others. And the Hungarian tonalities so beloved of the composer provide a rousing finale. With this work, completed in 1881, Brahms succeeded once and for all in overcoming the fiasco of his 1st Piano Concerto.

Johannes Brahms' D major Symphony was written under fortunate circumstances in the summer of 1877. A year earlier, his 1st Symphony had celebrated its premiere and gained widespread acceptance. The follow-up work was now much easier for him to write. The piece was already finished in the fall, and was heard in December - finally confirming the composer's reputation as a worthy heir to Beethoven. The fact that the Second is sometimes referred to as his "Pastorale" underscores this kinship. And indeed, its relaxed, cheerful tone seems to reflect the impressions of nature that Brahms received in the Alps.