“The point is for us to serve the country, the city and the community that makes our work possible. Because not everyone has the opportunity to come out to a concert hall, we will visit them instead: at schools, in churches and at nursing homes. These personal encounters are increasingly popular. Audiences and musicians alike appreciate being able to meet and interact with one another in a highly personal way, and not just from a distance,” said Iván Fischer, musical director of the Budapest Festival Orchestra, who considers these free community concerts especially significant in the life of his ensemble.
The Community Weeks are an important tradition for the BFO: their 11 April concert will mark the 100th performance by the musicians at nursing homes in Hungary; the milestone concert will take place at the District 10 nursing home of the Budapest Municipality on Gergely utca. Additionally, chamber music formations will visit nursing homes in Salgótarján, Szada, Mikepércs, Hajdúböszörmény, Szerencs, Mezőszilas, Tatabánya, Encs, Zalakomár and Tököl to perform their Playtime concerts.
The Festival Orchestra will also continue its concert series in abandoned synagogues and those used today for other purposes: the ensemble will visit Balatonfüred and Szentes this time. The Balatonfüred synagogue served as a place of worship until 1944; after the Second World War – like many other countryside synagogues – it was turned into a warehouse, a garage and eventually a restaurant before sitting vacant for many years. The local city government renovated the historic building in 2017, inaugurating it this spring under the name House of Jewish Excellence. The Festival Orchestra’s concert will be one of the first events held in the new building. The Szentes synagogue, which has had a similarly turbulent past, is currently home to the city library, while preserving its original stylistic elements on the outside.
The orchestra’s Baroque ensemble will bring Bach’s music to three churches during the April Community Week, this time directed by a master of early music, Midori Seiler. Seiler, exotically beautiful and explosively talented, is a returning friend of the orchestra, but this will be her first BFO concert in the countryside. In Jánoshalma and Debrecen, they will perform in a Catholic church, while in Dunaújváros they will be playing in a Lutheran church.
This time, the BFO will bring its playful, interactive programme, entitled “Music Castle”, to the heroes of the Dancing on the Square performance. The free concert is to be held in June in Budapest: the over 500 underprivileged children, along with their counterparts living in more fortunate areas of the country, will have the opportunity to participate in Salgóbánya, Téglás and Karcag. This will be the first chance for the children to meet one another as part of a shared, grand rehearsal. Additionally, they will participate in a skills-development and icebreaker programme led by the Foundation for Democratic Youth. A smaller ensemble from the orchestra will also visit Cserdi, allowing the young dancers preparing in Baranya County to meet one another.
Click here for the complete programme of the Community Week!
