The Béla Bartók International Choir Competition, organized every 2 years, has been considered one of the best in Europe since 40 years.

Accordingly to the tradition, to the opening concert the competition makes commissions to young Hungarian composers to write new choral pieces. In addition, one composer is commissioned to compose a bigger oratorical work. In 2010, this honourable commission went to me, which helped me to realize my old plan: to set in music the message of my favourite biblical book: the Book of Ecclesiastes.

I has been always impressed from this strange, sometimes cynical, but at least realistic, sober book, with its famous byword: “Everything is vanity!” I already wrote a choir piece from this words, but now I had the opportunity the compose a bigger work, in which dramaturgy can appear dramatically the Book of Ecclesiastes: the choir, who sings the Mass text, symbolizes the Faith, the hirsute prophet (the Ecclesiastes), who interrupts them from time to time, represents the Doubt. A doubt, the uncertainity are very human properties, the question is, how can a misgiving human being handle his doubt…

So the work has written and premiered, and now will sound again on CAFe Budapest Contemporary Art Festival. Participants: Krisztián Cser (bass), Eszter Zemlényi (soprano), Debrecen Kodály Choir and Budafok Dohnányi Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Gábor Hollerung.

https://gyongyosilevente.com/en/mujegyzek/oratorios-cantatas/

Once in three years I usually think to organize a new concert from my works.

Also this time – plus, from January, I am working as composer in residence at Budafok Dohnányi Symphony Orchestra, so this ensemble will be the host of this concert. I am extremely happy because of this, and very thoughtful too: how should I choose well from the new works born in last years? Such a concert is exciting only when it is versatile, if it can show the composer from many sides, if the works are varied, however, from the program could be seen an organic compositional path on which the composer in last years can march.

it is a tradition in my concerts to open them with a selection from my new choral works. My love since 20 years, the choral music is maybe the most important part of my compositional activity. Every year I compose 6-8 new choral pieces, so I desire to show a couple of them to the audience. With Dénes Szabó and Pro Musica Girls’ Choir I have a very friendly relationship: they are the commissioners and first performers of many new pieces; now, they will be the performers of those 8 pieces for female choir, which will open this evening.

The other pivot of the evening: the concerti, which are represented by two members.

The first performance of Flute Concerto was been in february, this year, in Győr, Hungary. It was commissioned by flautist Ittzés Gergely and Győr Philharmonic Orchestra. We’ve spoken about the new Concerto together with Gergely since 4-5 years. In its form traditional work with three movements has however a very important feature: the use of some modern flute playing techniques, of which greatest expert is Gergely maybe in the whole world. I was not familiar with multifonies (simultaneously playing of 2 or more voices), but with the help of Gergely (who has himself written the Cadenza of the first movement) I succeded!

The Piano Concerto (written for József Balog and Duna Symphony Orchestra) has its first performance in December 2011. Its style is quite more atonal, more scratchy like my choral works of other symphonic works because of juvenile influence of great Hungarian composer Béla Bartók, mainly two pieces of him: I. Piano concerto and Piano Sonata. The base of this neo-barbaric, rhythm-oriented musical world, Hungarian folk music, is the ground of my Piano concerto too. After a monumental 1st movement and lyrical, accordic 2nd movement could be heard a crazily running III. part, which ending is, however, quite unexpected…

The conclusion of the concert: first 4 movements of The Master and Margarita, an opera-musical based on the novel of M. A. Bulgakov, with the text of Szabolcs Várady. Yes, the genre of this two and half hour long piece is quite strange, I could say, this is ‘bit experimental: half contemporary opera, half musical or rock opera. The part of the orchestra is also a rock band. The rock or musical-intonation could be found in various places of the work, often in a movement changes the style several times. The opening 20 minutes of the opera takes place in Moscow, 1930s: the Master, a young writer, because of his seditionary novel Pilate is fired out from the Soviet Writers’ Society – however, he is not member of this organization…

The concert from my works takes place Sunday, September 23, 2018, 7:30 PM, Pesti Vigadó, Budapest. Performers: Péter Balczó, Orsolya Sáfár, András Hábetler, László Kálmán – singing, Gergely Ittzés – flute, József Balog – piano, Budapest Academic Choral Society, Dohnányi Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Gábor Hollerung.

We began at least 4 years ago to talk with my friend Gergely Ittzés, world-renowned Hungarian flute player about the idea to compose a new Flute Concerto for him.

Now the idea came finally true: however was born a new work with a classical three-movement-structure (quick-slow-quick), but it shows many interesting characteristics.

Gergely Ittzés is one of the pioneers of the modern flute playing, who enriched the literature of the flute with many new techniques, not only as flute player, but as composer. Can be mentioned especially a technique called multiphony, when on the instrument can be heard 2 or 3 voices simultaneously. This sounds very different then the normal flute sound, seems to be like flageolets, but a good ear can hear the different voices very well. In Gergő’s pieces can be found many witty ideas, many times on the edge of possibilities of the instrument: sometimes can be discovered even polyphony-like material on a monophnic instrument!

I just have began to get acquainted with this fantastic new possibilities: in the II. movement, orchestrated only for flute and harp, can be found some multifonies, which match good the ethereal character of this lyrical piece.

The other two movements are a bit different from the normal flute material: both contain breezy-angry d-minor music (especially the last movement). An interesting thing: the cadenza of the first movement was written by the soloist, Gergely Ittzés himself, so, of course, we’ll get many interesting innovations of flute technique.

On the world premiere of the work, organized in Győr, Richter Hall, Gergely was accompanied by the other commissioner of the piece, the outstanding Győr Philharmony Orchestra, conducted by the wonderful, Grammy-nominee conductor, Alastair Willis (USA).

https://gyongyosilevente.com/en/mujegyzek/concertos/

In recent years I have developed a close professional and friendly relationship with Dénes Szabó, the magician of Hungarian choral life and one of the most wonderful choral sound in the universe. From time to time they present my new choral works, and these can be heard in their performances on CDs.

For this year’s tour of Cantemus Children’s Choir in Japan, two new works in Latin have been written: the DOMINUS IESUS IN QUA NOCTE, and REGINA COELI. These two works can be performed in pairs, as a pair: the slow, painful character of Dominus Iesus can be followed almost without interruption by the medium tempo Regina coeli, which ends with a fast, jubilant Alleluia.

1

The longest. The most exhausting. The most distressful.

Yet, to write a musical-theatrical piece based on Mikhail Afanasievich Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita is the most challenging task of my life as a composer; to write a piece from this mystic novel, the evergreen favourite of my anaesthesiologist-ambulance man friend, Zoltán Csordás, who, already at the beginning of our friendship when I did not even know anything about Russian literature, let alone read the novel, could talk about it for hours upon hours. We gave lectures in Józsi Reményi’s flat on some important things almost on a weekly basis. I think it was in 1998: I focused on Figaro; he talked about The Master and Margarita. It was at the time when they visited Moscow together with Józsi. They made a pilgrimage to every scene, took numerous pictures and back home at the occasion of the lecture, he showed us Bolshaya Sadovaya 302 bis, Patriarch’s Ponds, Sparrow Hills in the photos.

As I mentioned before, I did not read the book then but as I was listening to the philological analyses of Csordás, it became obvious that this was a very significant and exciting work. Later, I read it and I liked it but there were still obscure parts. The breakthrough was brought about by the second reading years later. I was stunned and annihilated. I had no chance against it in much the same way as the poor Moscow-bureaucrats who had no chance against the subversive Force which sprawled into their lives. “I need this work”, I thought. It cast a spell on me just like a truly exciting woman would have done whose beauty is only a cover on the many other layers deep inside. First, the beauty layer catches the eye but the really exciting things are underneath… I need this work and how else would a composer think of such a masterpiece than writing an opera out of it?

It is an inhuman demand because the piece is so colourful, multi-layered and the story itself is so ramifying that the most important yet most difficult task of any libretto-writer/dramatic advisor would be: to shorten. And shortening in the case of such a whole of a book is a constant minefield. For a long time, my attitude towards this giant was to let it be… maybe in the future, when the situation would be mature enough, as well as myself.

 

2

Then, a good 15 years later, we are sitting in my friend conductor Gábor Hollerung’s office on Kerepesi Road. “Write us something big”, he tells me. By this time, we had the First symphony under our belts which, considering its size, was up to this criterion. Enormous orchestra, soloist, choir, electronics, several percussions, 17 and a half minute-long closing movement – what else do we need?

“My pleasure. Our common projects are always pretty successful”, I said. Then: “But what kind of composition do you have in mind?”

We looked at each other and said almost at the same time: “Some light music!”

Since time immemorial (actually, since 1994 when we performed rock opera King Stephen by Levente Szörényi in Esztergom), I have been longing to write something that mixes the rhythmic world and crazy energies of light music and the opportunities of contemporary classical music and symphonic orchestra. They, the Dohnányi Orchestra, take part in many light music projects. I was there at their concert with Sting when the Arena almost exploded and we had such a good time with my wife in the first row… but how did Gábor suspect that this was my heart’s desire? Somehow he knew.

Of course, I said yes.

 

3

By the time I got home, the plan was ready: I will write a rock-opera out of The Master and Margarita. Or a musical. Or whatever it turns out to be, there will surely be a drum set, an electric guitar and many 12/16 measured taa-doo-doo-baa-doo-baa-dooooo, oh yeah. One can feel so crazily excited about such an idea that he does not even consider the obstacles of the practical side. Such a monstrous-gigantic production could easily slip on several banana skins:

• Laying fingers on universal masterpieces is quite risky – reaching up to their ‘toes’ is difficult, let alone emerging at their level.
• What on Earth is there in common with the Bulgakov-novel, its plot of the 1930s and rock music?
• The mixing of genres, fashionably referred to as crossover, hides serious dangers, too: the composition will drop out of classification. Deciding on where to place it is also a good question: would it be suitable for the Madách Theatre or the Opera House?
• I have never, ever written light music (apart from tiny experiments) and perhaps it is not the best idea to start with such an utterly important piece.

Well, I bumped into these difficulties later, during the phases of planning and creation. The topic and the style are both extremely challenging to deal with. Think about it! The Stork Calif was completed in one year and four months. In January, 2016, only the 3/5th of The Master and Margarita’s piano extract (no mention of orchestration!) is ready. It would be two years in April until putting the first note down. It does not give in without a struggle.

4

The pink bubble of falling in love with the idea had faded and when I cooled down, I began to plan and put the idea into practice. I re-read the book. I asked a fantastic poet, the Kossuth award-winning Szabolcs Várady, to write the libretto of the opera. Upon his recommendation, we involved his colleagues, literary translator Róbert Bognár and actor-director András Schlanger, in the work who finished the script of the opera after numerous consultations on dramaturgy, characters, structure, etc. Szabolcs used this as the basis of the libretto.

Finally, after the libretto was done, it was my turn: the first note was born on 15 April, 2014.

5

In the upcoming months, as I have planned, I am going to give an account of the preparation and the composing process in the Video-blog. Apart from me, my colleagues will also express their opinion on the matter.

I would like to emphasise the huge amount of work and the unbelievable devotion (from many of us) we put into the making until the audience would notice the first posters on the Andrássy Street:

“The Master and Margarita – opera-musical in two acts”.