Wolf Péter: Sommerreise & A Reckless Requiem / LISZT ÜNNEP 2023

Péter Wolf – Péter Fábri: Sommerreise – world premiere

Péter Wolf – Péter Fábri: A Reckless Requiem – world premiere

Featuring: Kati Wolf [1] – soprano, Krisztián Szenthelyi [2] – baritone, Judit Faludi [2] – cello, József Balog [1], Péter Wolf [2] – piano

Lyrics: Péter Fábri

Animation: Dániel Szalai

Director: Kriszta Kováts

If there is an iconic song cycle in the classical lied repertoire, Schubert’s Winterreise is certainly one. While it continues to charm audiences at recitals, the cycle, which was composed almost two hundred years ago, has also been discovered by theatre, ballet and cinema. Péter Wolf and Péter Fábri have put a twist on the story of the work, and the twenty-four songs of their Sommerreise, or, Summer Journey have a heroine, in contrast to the inconsolable, lovelorn man of the original. The woman enacted by Kati Wolf is on her own because her love has disappeared, but instead of fleeing, she has just arrived somewhere. All sorts of things happen to her, but what matters most is that she starts her life again. The piano part of the song cycle will be played by József Balog, an inspired interpreter of Péter Wolf’s composing idiom and style.

Consider but the compositions of Mozart, Berlioz, Verdi or Ligeti, and it is evident that for modern man, a Requiem is not, first and foremost, a mass for the dead with a Latin text and a strictly prescribed structure, but a self-contained concert genre that provides believers and non-believers alike with an opportunity to ponder eternal questions related to death. Péter Wolf’s eight-movement Requiem is centred around life-loving man, and not a God that judges all. The young baritone, Krisztián Szenthelyi will be partnered by the composer and Judit Faludi.

Performance with an interval, in English with Hungarian surtitles.

This concert of the Liszt Fest is presented by Müpa Budapest as a joint event with Papageno.

Supporter: National Cultural Fund of Hungary