CONDUCTOR
Cristoph Campestrini
Ádám Medveczky has taken the helm of the MÁV Symphony Orchestra many times since launching his conducting career in 1974 and enjoys a deep friendship with the ensemble. Although it was our wish to celebrate this 50-year anniversary with a special concert, illness on the part of the maestro sadly forces us to cancel the performance. As a token of our affection for him, we will still perform the programme he put together unchanged, with the orchestra playing under the baton of Austrian conductor Christoph Campestrini, a recurring guest for some years, and Eszter Sümegi and Gergely Boncsér serving as the soloists.
Ádám Medveczky kicked off his conducting career after winning second prize at the first Hungarian Television International Conducting Competition in 1974, finishing behind Ken-Ichiro Kobayashi. An outstanding figure in the world of the Hungarian State Opera and Hungarian musical life as a whole, he has conducted more than sixty different operas and countless concerts over the course of his career. This winner of Hungary's most prestigious awards and recognitions is particularly fond of and dedicated to conducting pieces by Hungarian composers - Liszt, Erkel, Bartók and Kodály. On the programme summarising his life's work this evening are arias, songs and orchestral excerpts from several dramatic works by Erkel and Kodály, as well as from popular operettas, which have never been far from his heart either. Adding their voices will be two outstanding opera singers: Eszter Sümegi and Gergely Boncsér. Taking the podium at this concert organised in Medveczky's honour will be Christoph Campestrini, for years a regular guest conductor with the MÁV Symphony Orchestra.