Miskolc Symphony Orchestra

The story about the Hungarian Symphony Orchestra, Miskolc The Hungarian Symphony Orchestra Miskolc was established on the 1st of November 1963 and has been one of the most magnificent cultural institutions within the region - at the same time one of the most prominent performers on the national musical stage ever since. Its founding conductor was Péter Mura who managed the orchestra as a director and conductor until his retirement in 1984. He also set the underlying operation protocol for the orchestra (consisted initially of 55 members), developed its repertoire and elaborated its particular euphonious tone.

From 1984, the artistic director and first conductor of the orchestra had been László Kovács. The 50th anniversary of the establishment of the orchestra was celebrated in the season 2013/2014. With this jubilee started a new period in the history of the orchestra, which brought considerable changes in the artistic and management branches. In May 2014 the Mayor of Miskolc named the new chief conductor, Tamás Gál and a new executive of the orchestra Krisztina Szászné Pónuzs. From 2018 the artistic director of the orchestra is the Ferenc Liszt, Bartók-Pásztory and Prima prize owner, Mátyás Antal, who has been the artistic director of the Hungarian National Choir for decades.

The conductor Mátyás Antal

Mátyás Antal (b. Budapest, 1945) graduated at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music as
a choirmaster and flute player, and studied conducting at the Royal Music Academy of
Brussels.
 

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The orchestra performs more than eighty concerts in each program season in the frame of subscription series and individual concerts. The orchestra have two self-organized season ticket. The Hangforrás (Source) season ticket includes four concerts; the program is built every year on some musical specialties. In the seven evenings of Tűzvarázs (Firemagic) season tickets, a number of popular music performances can be seen by the audience who love the serious music. In addition, they also play the Filharmónia Magyarország Nonprofit Kft. Season ticket.

The series of youth concerts also play an important role in the activity of the orchestra. Vast majority of the traditional subscription performances were held at the House of Arts’s concert hall in Miskolc. In the recent years the Promenade concerts have become popular: they are held in the Summer Theatre of the National Theatre, Miskolc; their programmes are in harmony with the moods of the summer and late summer evenings. These moods are reflected in the title and the programme of the newest CD called Promenade, issued by the Hungarian Symphony Orchestra Miskolc in November 2013.

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The ensemble is also present in a number of unique and permanent programs in the city's life. Every year there are Christmas concert and New Year’s Eve concerts for example. The orchestra frequently performs in other domestic cities – including the auditoriums of Budapest – as well as abroad. Its international contacts evolve dynamically and its recognition has spread over the national borders, partly due to the CD recordings of the last decades (one of them: Leó Weiner’s symphonic poem Toldi was awarded with Diapason d’Or in 2009). A considerable part of the CD recordings contains rarely played masterpieces, including compositions of Ernő Dohnányi, Leó Weiner and Jenő Hubay for instance; some of them are world première recordings. A set of three CD recordings comprising the works of Sándor Veress was made during the nineties.

Several contemporary music pieces were played by the Hungarian Symphony Orchestra Miskolc for the first time. The most prominent and internationally recognized Hungarian and foreign conductors and soloists are featured as guests at the concerts held in Miskolc, including Oliver von Dohnányi, Yuri Simonov, Kobayashi Ken-Ichiro, Marco Balderi, Rico Saccani, Mika Eichenholz, Karolos Trikolidis, Piotr Anderszewski, Shlomo Mintz, Lylia Zilberstein, Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Sergei Nakariakov, among others.

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They often have guest performances throughout the country, in the capital, as well as on the stage of more prestigious European concert halls; for example in the fall of 2016 they played Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake for six times with the Ballet Company of Teatro alla Scala in Milan, in the Paris Convention Centre, occasionally in front of nearly 4000 people. The orchestra played under the baton of the excellent conductor Rossen Milanov.

In March of 2017 they have spent a week in Notthingham, where they were involved in the Nutcracker beside the St. Petersburg Classical Ballet. In the fall of 2017 they have performed a Disney concert in Athens, in February 2018 they have played a Mozart programme at the Champs-Elysées Theater in Paris, and in August they have played at a prestigious festival, at the Les Nuits de la Citadelle in South France, Sisteron. Recently the concert series of Ravenna which name is Ravenna Musica started with the orchestra's concert in Italy.

The Hungarian Symphony Orchestra Miskolc has a major challenge, namely to find a personality to get ready for the 21st century. The musicians got themselves a leader who started off with the objective of preparing the orchestra to serve the altering needs of audience.

All this can be said that the Hungarian Symphony Orchestra, Miskolc is a growing cultural value of the city of Miskolc, and it receives even more appreciation both in Hungary and in abroad.

Some great musical events

China 2013.

Concertgebouw Amsterdam 2014

Scala Paris 2016.

Citadelle de Sisteron 2018.

Paris 2018.

 

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