I realise I only did half an account of the concert I went to last week.
Assuming the link will die in time, the full programme was:
Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra
Zoltán Kocsis: conductor
Jenõ Jandó: piano
Attila Fekete: tenor
Kodály: Intermezzo
Rachmaninov: Three Songs - The Pied Piper; Oh, Never Sing To Me Again; What Wealth of Rapture
Liszt: Piano Concerto No. 2 in A
Dvorák: Symphony No. 9 in E minor, "From the New World"
Berlioz: Rakoczy March
Attila Fekete was pleasant to listen to. I always find it fascinating when you see a relatively young and unknown performer and wonder if in years to come they will remain only to the cognoscenti or become wider known. If he becomes wider known, just remember that I was sat just a couple of feet from him, and considered him pleasant, and, in the final song, passionate. But not mind-blowingly brilliant.
Zoltán Kocsis struck me as a very good conductor. Not that I'm any expert, but sometimes I just have to rely on my instincts. A bit of a show off, though - he conducted the Dvorák and Berlioz without a score. Ooh, look at him...! At the end he shook the hand of not only the leader of the orchestra, but also the principal of the second violinists, violas, cellos and double-basses, having also initiated applause for the other sections. I have never seen a conductor do that before.
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