Contemporary Romantics 2.0 / CAFe 2018

János Vajda: Cello Concerto

Roland Szentpáli: Orpheus Ballet – world premiere

Károly Binder: Piano Concerto – world premiere

Featuring: Ditta Rohmann – cello, Károly Binder – piano, Tibor Fónay – bass guitar, Ákos Benkó – drums, Dohnányi Orchestra Budafok, Feledi Project, students of the Hungarian Dance Academy

Production design, set: Krisztián Minorics, János Feledi

Choreographer: János Feledi

Conductor: Gábor Hollerung

An “utterly romantic” piano concerto for symphonic orchestra and a jazz trio; a cello concerto written on an inner impulse; and a 21st-century, dynamic and spectacular ballet on Orpheus, which tells a story about the power of music and all-defying love with an energy that all but brings in mind rock music. The concert of the Dohnányi Orchestra Budafok, which celebrates its anniversary, features world premieres and amazing soloists.

Károly Binder wrote his piece in 2016–2017. For decades now, the composer has been interested in the sound of the prepared piano, the extension of traditional possibilities in a variety of directions, like the timbres of exotic percussion instruments.

The central movement of his new composition, for instance, is a scene of constantly changing rhythm patterns, a living proof of how well suited the prepared piano is to the fast-paced tempo of our age.