Denis Matsuev and the Hungarian National Philharmonic at the Palace of Arts

About the Event

In this highly‐anticipated concert, hear the mellifluous sounds of classical music by Shostakovich and Prokofiev at the Béla Bartók National Hall in Budapest.

This musician of extraordinary technical skill and legendary endurance has no problem performing three great romantic piano concertos on a single night. Denis Matsuev, born in 1975, is the embodiment of triumphant and unbridled musical power. His musical gestures are laden with enormous emotion, but he can also play with remarkable tenderness. He is most at home with his Russian repertoire, faithfully performing the works of Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky and Rachmaninoff.
On this occasion, we'll hear him play Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 2, a special composition completed in 1913, which is said to have been born, died and risen like a phoenix. The manuscript for the piece was destroyed during the Russian Revolution, but Prokofiev rewrote it from memory in 1923. The composition's technical demands also set it apart: even some of the most celebrated virtuosos do not dare to perform it due to its fiendish difficulty.
The concert's two orchestral pieces, Prokofiev's Overture on Hebrew Themes and Shostakovich's Symphony No. 6, are two treasures we rarely encounter. Conducting the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra on this night will be Alexander Sladkovsky who, like Matsuev, brings his message from a faraway land: the former student of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory now heads the Tatarstan National Symphony Orchestra.