Budapest Festival Orchestra

The Budapest Festival Orchestra was founded in 1983 by Iván Fischer and pianist Zoltán Kocsis. Numerous stars worked with the orchestra from early on: most notably, Sir Georg Solti, who served as Principal Guest Conductor until his death in the fall of 1997, as well as such soloists as the violinists Yehudi Menuhin, Pinchas Zukerman, and Gidon Kremer; and the pianists András Schiff, Radu Lupu, and Richard Goode. The musicians give around 40 performances per season in the MüPa Concert Hall and the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest. In addition, they make regular guest appearances at important festivals and in music centers. For example, they have performed at the Salzburg Festival, Vienna’s Konzerthaus and Musikverein, Carnegie Hall in New York, Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, the BBC Proms in London, the Maggio Musicale in Florence, and the Prague Spring Festival. Since 2018, the Budapest Festival Orchestra has been the resident orchestra at the Vicenza Opera Festival. It regularly commissions compositions and presents world premieres. The orchestra attracts young audiences through special concerts in which people can dance and through such projects as Midnight Music, the Cocoa Concerts series, and surprise programs. It also organizes the “Bridging Europe” Festival, which focuses on a different European nation’s culture each year. The Budapest Festival Orchestra, which has won many awards for its recordings, has been an independent foundation since 1992 and is supported by the State of Hungary, the City of Budapest, and national and international circles of friends.

LUCERNE FESTIVAL (IMF) debut on 26 August 1986 in works by Franz Liszt and Franz Schubert.

July 2022