On the last weekend of the summer the Budapest Festival Orchestra played a "csárdás" for the Italian Prime Minister on the banks of Lago Maggiore, before crowning this with works works by Mahler and Bartók at the Edinburgh Festival. In the capital of Scotland, our music director Iván Fischer also won a prestigious Bank of Scotland award.
The last weekend of the summer was extremely eventful for the Festival Orchestra: after playing a concert in Stresa on the banks of Lago Maggiore on 25 August the Orchestra travelled the next day to the Edinburgh Festival, where the audience was entertained with Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 5 as well as Béla Bartók's Peasant Songs and Violin Concerto No. 1. – with Barnabás Kelemen playing the solo. Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti was a surprise guest at the concert in northern Italy, and was welcomed by Iván Fischer and the BFO by playing the famous Csárdás composed by his namesake. In Edinburgh, alongside the celebrations following the end of the concert, our music director Iván Fischer received the prestigious Herald Archangel award from the Bank of Scotland.
