Budapest Music Weeks

Budapest Music Weeks

September-October

Music by the Hungarian composers Bela Bartók (1881-1945) and Franz Liszt (1811-1886) is a standby at the music festival held in Budapest from the last week in September through late October each year. But the festival was founded in 1959 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the death of Franz Josef Haydn (1732-1809), the Austrian composer who spent 30 years at the Esterházy Palace as court composer to Prince Nicolaus Esterházy.
The festival always includes works by Hungarians—Zoltan Kodály (1882-1967), Gyula IllyÉs, and Zsigmond Móricz as well as Bartók and Liszt—but there are works by composers from other countries as well. Performances of symphonic, chamber, and organ music are held daily, usually in the Budapest Opera House, the Erkel Theatre, the Academy of Music, and in nearby churches and castles. For one week in October, there is a "festival within a festival": the Contemporary Music Series, in which the latest works by Hungarian and foreign composers are premiered.
The Budapest Autumn Festival is held over the last two weeks in October and presents plays, art exhibits, films, and musical and dance performances.

CONTACTS:
Filharmonia Budapest
Kazinczy u. 24-26
Budapest, H-1075 Hungary
36-1-302-4961; fax: 36-1-302-4962
www.filharmoniabp.hu/page.asp

SOURCES:
IntlThFolk-1979, p. 199
MusFestEurBrit-1980, p. 109
MusFestWrld-1963, p. 145