Summary For many years, Müpa Budapest has done its best to illuminate ‘the queen of instruments’ with a variety of thematic series, such as the Organ Duel and Organ Stories events. People generally think of the organ as an instrument usually heard in churches, but the organ of the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall, while it does evoke Gothic cathedrals, is regularly used to perform a variety of musical pieces from different periods and of diverse styles. Tonight’s concert promises to be a special occasion as Dutch organist Reitze Smits partners with the Budapest Saxophone Quartet. For decades, Smits worked as a church cantor and organist, and has won top prizes in several prestigious international organ competitions. He has also taught organ and improvisation at the Utrecht Music Academy and at the Lemmens Institute in Leuven, Belgium, for many years. While many consider him to be an heir to the ancient organ traditions of the Netherlands, he is in fact a modern, openminded and versatile musician. “We played together in the anniversary gala concert at the Toulouse Organ Festival,” the curator of the Müpa Budapest organ concerts László Fassang said of Smits. “His intense musicality and the freedom with which he approaches the organ gripped me. As he performed, the organ of the Basilica of Saint Sernin suddenly transformed into a concert instrument.” The Budapest Saxophone Quartet, performing with its current line-up since 1997, is the first (and was, for a long time, the only) Hungarian classical saxophone quartet. “Since we all received classical music training, we had a big advantage over other saxophonists in that we had not only studied classical music but also played it,” said the BSQ’s youngest member Marcell Horváth. “For us, a Mozart or Haydn symphony can be experienced in its original form, you might say we can handle it. At the same time, we also love to perform transcriptions, especially of Baroque pieces.” According to the concept of Reitze Smits, who transcribed the piano pieces and symphonic compositions of various periods for the organ, these adaptations will play the main role in today’s concert. The programme presents not only broad stylistic horizons – featuring composers from Vivaldi to Poulenc, Handel to Milhaud, and including Rachmaninoff’s works originally composed for piano – it is also diverse in terms of orchestration: certain compositions are performed exclusively on the organ, some others will be played only by the saxophone quartet, and still others will be collaborative performances involving both the organist and the quartet.
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