‘Budapest Festival Orchestra, Tishchenko & Fischer’

Boogie-woogie and Bach? We wouldn’t automatically associate the two, but the combination works perfectly for the conductor and composer Iván Fischer. His new composition, Dance Suite for Violin and Orchestra, is a tribute to J.S. Bach with surprising titles such as bossa nova, tango, ragtime and boogie-woogie. Fischer conducts his own work, placing it alongside Dvorák’s Symphony No. 7. This highlight of 19th century symphonic music is overflowing with drama. The key of D minor persists throughout the four movements, only transforming into the major key six bars before the end. Light at the end of the lyrical tunnel! The main programme is preceded by two short, virtuoso pieces: de Falla’s Spanish Dance with the violinist Diana Tishchenko, and Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 4 with Jenő Lisztes on the cimbalom, a stringed instrument played with hammers.