A Magyar Nemzeti Férfikar Liszt-estje / LISZT ÜNNEP 2025

Liszt: Le forgeron (The Blacksmith)
Liszt: Titan
Liszt: Les quatre élémens (The Four Elements)

Featuring: Thiago Bertoldi – piano, Hungarian National Male Choir

Conductor: Richárd Riederauer

The Hungarian National Male Choir offers an insight into one of the most exciting, yet little known, corners of Ferenc Liszt’s oeuvre. Liszt was on the road almost constantly between 1838 and 1847: from Lisbon to Moscow, and from Glasgow to Constantinople, there was hardly a city in Europe where he did not give concerts. The strains of travelling notwithstanding, he kept composing during this period, including several choral pieces with piano accompaniment. One of the most special of these is the cycle, The Four Elements, which has French lyrics and was later adapted for orchestral accompaniment. Liszt had plans for an orchestral overture to introduce the four movements, with a foretaste of the most important themes of the choral pieces. None of the versions of The Four Elements were published during the composer’s lifetime; only the music for the planned overture was made available to the public – in the form of what is probably Liszt’s most popular symphonic poem, Les préludes.