Between July 12-24, 2023, the Debrecen audience is able to hear several performances in the concert series of the 22nd International Summer Academy of Young Musicians entitled Musical Evenings in the Big Forest.
This year, the Musical Evenings in Big Forrest concert series awaits those interested with even more colorful concerts for eight days in the Liszt Hall of the Faculty of Music of the University of Debrecen. Domestic and international artists hold free concerts at the event within the framework of the 22nd International Summer Academy of Young Musicians.
The Musical Evenings in Big Forrest concert series was opened by the Gordonka Gala on Thursday. The audience was able to listen to Antonín Dvořák’s Klid, Alfredo Casella’s Sonata No. 2, Johannes Brahms’ Sonata in F major in the performance of a special guest, the string player from southern Italy, the internationally sought-after soloist Roberto Trainini, who has won numerous awards. Stella Pontoriero, also of Italian origin, with whom they have played together for five years, contributed on the piano.
The series continued with the Singing and Piano Gala on Friday. Éva Bátori and Gábor Farkas, familiar artists from previous years, took the stage. Éva Bátori is the appointed vocal master of the Hungarian State Opera, the dreamer of the Contemporary Music Singing Competition, which was created in memory of Emil Petrovics.
The soloist of the other half of the concert is Gábor Farkas, one of the most outstanding pianists of his generation, winner of several prestigious international competitions. His talent and work were recognized by the Hungarian State with the Liszt and Junior Prima awards. As the opening piece of the concert, Miklós Csemiczky’s Songs from the series You Write It So was performed by Éva Bátori, with the participation of Dávid Kozma on the piano.
Gábor Farkas selected his program from several stylistic periods, J.S. Bach–Petri Egon: “Schafe können sicher weiden” – aria from the Hunter’s Cantata, Ferenc Liszt: Fountains of the Villa d’Este, Claude Debussy: Reflections on the Water, Maurice Ravel: Jeux d’eau, the works of Johann Strauss–Alfred Grünfeld: Vienna evening – concert paraphrase, and the encore tracks included the artist’s own transcription.
Saturday’s Brass and Piano Gala was opened by the Liszt Prize-winning trombonist András Fejér, who has held several courses at the Summer Academy in Debrecen in previous years, with Georg Friedrich Händel’s concerto in F minor, with the participation of pianist Edit Richter. Jean Francaix’s Sonatina was performed by trumpeter Bence Horváth, first trumpeter of the Hungarian State Opera, trumpet teacher at the DE Faculty of Music, and pianist Judit Váradi, artistic director of the Academy. This was followed by the performance of horn player András Kovalcsik’s modern piece Sigurd Berge: Horn-Lokk. The brass section of the evening ended with Zoltán Kovács’ Duet for Trumpet and Trombone.
At the request of the performers, the author created the piano version of the orchestral accompaniment, which was now played for the first time. In the performance, trumpeter Bence Horváth and trombonist András Fejér were partnered by pianist Judit Váradi.
The solo pianist of the evening was Giovanni Bertolazzi. The Italian artist’s most significant achievement is second place at the 2021 Ferenc Liszt International Piano Competition and the five special prizes he won at this competition. Regarding this, the organizing committee asked him to hold a master class at this year’s Summer Academy. The young talent played Ferenc Liszt’s Dante Sonata, Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen, Ernani Paraphrase, Recueillement and the 12th Hungarian Rhapsody. The audience’s unceasing celebration was rewarded by Giovanni Bertolazzi with three more encore numbers.
This year, 169 students from 19 countries came to the International Summer Academy of Young Musicians. 32 professors help them so that they can leave with happy satisfaction and more colorful musical knowledge at the end of the academy – emphasized Judit Váradi, artistic director of the International Summer Academy of Young Musicians at the opening event of the concert series – informed the Organizing Office of the International Summer Academy of Young Musicians.
Additional programs:
Monday, July 18, 2022, 7 p.m
VIOLIN GALA / VIOLIN GALA
Antal Zalai – violin, Balázs Boda – piano
Tuesday, July 19, 2022, 7 p.m
VIOLIN and CELLO GALA
Mária Zs. Szabó – violin, Tomasz Lisiecki – flute, Katalin Sarkady – piano
Wednesday, July 20, 2022, 7 p.m
SAXOPHONE and PERCUSSION GALA / SAXOPHONE and PERCUSSION GALA
Nikita Zimin, Levente Puskás – saxophone, Judit Váradi – piano, Marc Strobel – percussion, students of the percussion master course of the International Summer Academy of Young Musicians, and the SONUS percussion ensemble concert
Art director: István Szabó
Thursday, July 21, 2022, 7 p.m
WOODWIND GALA
Sanja Romić – oboe, Zsolt Szatmári – clarinet, jr. Mihály Duffek – bassoon, Judit Böszörményi, Edit Richter – piano
Friday, July 22, 2022, 7 p.m
PIANO GALA / PIANO GALA
Piano concert by Gábor Farkas
Saturday, July 23, 2022, 2 p.m
CONTEMPORARY MUSIC SINGING COMPETITION
In memory of Emil Petrovich
VOCAL COMPETITION in memoriam Emil Petrovics
( Debrecen YMSA)
