Hungarian National Philharmonic at Bartók Béla National Concert Hall
The Hungarian National Choir The National Choir has performed the great choral works of music history, and has given numerous contemporary works their world or Hungarian premières. It has been lead by a great many excellent conductors, including Antal Doráti, Péter Eötvös, Ádám Fischer, Michail Yurowsky, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Lawrence Foster, Nicola Luisotti, Yuri Simonov and Tamás Vásáry. The National Choir has brought to the Hungarian audiences numerous pieces composed for choirs, including works by Hungarian composers György Kurtág, Zoltán Jeney, Zsolt Durkó, Ferenc Farkas, Kamilló Lendvay, György Ligeti, György Orbán. In addition to appearing in Hungary, the choir performs extensively at international events.
“I do not know if Webern ever considered the future performers of his cantata, but it is a fact that a choir has to enter self-confidently (forte dinamica) without any orchestral accompaniment or preliminary auxiliary sound and after nearly four beats of a cappella sections all four parts end up on notes that we can also hear in the orchestra. It would be impossible to land a choir in a more exposed situation than this, but the members of the National Choir did not even appear to be making any particular effort while accomplishing this task.” Szabolcs Molnár, Muzsika, March 2004
Chorus Master, conductor and flutist Mátyás Antal The Chorus Master was born into a musicians’ family (his father was István Antal, an excellent concert pianist of international renown). He became acquainted with all the different musical instruments at an early age. After obtaining his degrees he was a flutist in the Hungarian State Orchestra for almost 20 years. Since 1990 he has been the choral director of the Hungarian National Choir. As a conductor he has performed in nearly all countries of Europe as well as in Japan and China and he has made numerous recordings.