CELEBRATION OF SPRING

Portuguese conductor José Eduardo Gomes rose to fame by winning a prestigious prize at the European Union Conducting Competition. His program includes a piece by a famous compatriot, José Manuel Joly Braga Santos (1924-1988), and one of the most popular works by the most renowned Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959). He composed several pieces with the title Bachianas Brasileiras, in which he combines the musical traditions of his homeland and the traditions established by the great European composer Johanne Sebastian Bach. The vocal solo in this work sounds as if it was written for a musical instrument. In honor of the forthcoming Easter holiday, conductor Gomes included the piece Stabat Mater composed by Giovanni Baptista Pergolesi, the famous baroque composer. The medieval poem is about the mother of Jesus Christ, mourning her crucified son. The work can be performed by a two-voice female choir or by two solo singers. The latter version will be performed at this concert.

Klára Kolonits is a Kossuth Prize-winning artist, a chamber singer at the Hungarian State Opera. Her repertoire includes more than twenty soprano roles, mainly in operas by Mozart, Verdi and Erkel. Andrea Meláth is a Liszt Prize-winning artist and a private singer at the Hungarian State Opera. She has had 21 opera roles, most notably Bartók's Judith in Bluebeard's Castle, which she has sung in Palermo, Stuttgart and Canada. She has been head of department at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music since 2013.