The Budapest Festival Orchestra’s concert combines the works of the most prominent figure of 19th-century Czech national music, Antonín Dvořák, and one of the “3 B’s” of classical music, Ludwig van Beethoven. The programme is made special by Slavic touches and the prominence of the piano.

Dvořák’s career had a rocky start, but reached incredible heights. Though his parents wanted him to become a butcher, he preferred to take piano and organ lessons. He was a humble workaholic, given to composing practically non-stop, but did not publish his works for a long time because he believed they would not interest anyone. In 1874 he won a prestigious music competition, earning him a grant from the Austrian state as well as the support and friendship of Brahms (another one of the 3 B’s). He went on to one success after another with catchy melodies gaining him worldwide popularity. He demonstrated perfect ease in every musical genre, and great variety (also testified by his compositions performed at today’s concert). He introduced a Slavic touch, rhythms and dance forms into classical music, exemplified most clearly by his Slavonic Dance No. 7 and his chorus Misto klekáni.

The concert features two piano concertos, Nos. 2 and 3 by the other star of the evening, Beethoven. The former, reflecting the influence of Mozart (and, to a lesser degree, Haydn), was his first published piano concerto, even though it was assigned the number 2. Piano concerto No. 3, composed a few years later, is an emphatically Beethovenian work, mature, powerful and unlike anything else, allotting an important and prominent role to the piano.