Sinfonia concertante Review by Kristóf Csengery, revizoronline.com
[…] Knowing all this, it is no wonder that I awaited Levente Gyöngyösi’s Sinfonia concertante, composed for four percussionists, the Pannon Philharmonic Orchestra concert, on the opening night of this year’s Symphonic Discoveries series, on November 15, 2013. The work was commissioned by the Amadinda Percussion Ensemble, which is celebrating its thirtieth anniversary, from the composer, who already a few years ago, when composing his 1st Symphony, asked the members of the quartet for advice on the use of instruments, and consulted with them during the writing of the Sinfonia concertante The solos of the three-movement piece with a slow introduction (fast-slow-fast) were performed by the four members of Amadinda: Zoltán Rácz , Károly Bojtos, Aurél Holló and Zoltán Váczi with extraordinary endurance and impressive virtuosity, and last but not least, great enthusiasm and full musical-humanity. identification, the orchestra of the Pannon Philharmonic is led by the group’s chief conductor, Tibor Bogányi commanded it.
Since the beginning of Gyöngyösi’s career, he has been consistently cultivating the retrospective mix style, which many call neo-romantic, and in others’ terminology, apostrophized as new eclecticism or post-modern, which draws richly and impartially from the storehouse of the entire musical history, receiving inspiration from a wide variety of styles and authors. This time was no different: the three movements of the Sinfonia concertante bombarded the listener with the most surprising stylistic combinations. At the very beginning of the opening movement, we could notice oriental sounds, then a section with a jazzy tone followed, which gave way to a section showing the influence of pop music (indicated by Andrew Lloyd Webber). But there were Bernsteinian moments, more than once Bartók was present in the historical background of the harmonies and characters – even Steve Reich appeared among the fragments of musical memories. The slow movement, which the composer dedicated to the memory of Zsolt Erőss, a mountaineer who died in tragic circumstances, is hauntingly beautiful. In it, Gyöngyösi covers a Transylvanian folk song within the framework of a quiet and poetic musical meditation. Finally, the finale begins with strong, rhythmic drumming, followed big bandsymphonic jazz, with important brass solos – and once again the spirit of Bartók emerges in this very dynamic closing movement. The whole work is characterized by the rich invention that flows without a moment’s pause, the compositional work that can be called brilliant – both in terms of shaping and orchestration – and (as can be guessed from what has been said so far) a strikingly “audience-friendly” tone. All of this almost predestines the piece to an unusual level of popularity in the case of contemporary music – this was also indicated by the noisy and enthusiastic reception of the premiere. Incidentally, at the beginning of the concert, Amadinda, as a kind of warm-up (and maybe a little foreshadowing the already mentioned oriental color of the beginning of Gyöngyösi’s work), embedded the heightened atmosphere with the musical gift of two great bravura numbers: before the Sinfonia concertante, ‘s Tambourin chinois in their sparkling virtuoso performance and the Chinese traditional play Romping Golden Pheasants . […]
