‘La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra’

 ‘His pagan barbarity, his explosive and angrily defiant melancholy, his demoniacal instinct…these are all echoes…of the thousand-year-old Hungarian psyche’: words attributed to Béla Bartók. Following the two concerts devoted to the music of Liszt and Bartók, Alain Altinoglu continues his exploration of the Hungarian soul. If there is an undertone of pagan barbarity, melancholy, or the demonic, there is also great beauty, vitality, and subtlety, as in this programme focusing on Bartók and Kodály. Bartók’s Seven Choruses for Children, his ethereal Second Violin Concerto, and Kodály’s renowned Háry János suite show just how truly accessible modern music can be for a broader audience or that, as Kodály put it: ‘Real art is one of the most powerful forces in the evolution of mankind, and someone who renders it accessible to as many people as possible is a benefactor of humanity.’