Miklós Perényi and the Concerto Budapest

The programme of this concert, just as much as the collaboration between the performers, is characterized by the duality of masterful expertise and artistic inspiration. The first work in this concert, the overture of Richard Wagner’s opera, positions precisely this twin sibling virtue, as well as community attention and reinforcement so indispensable for artistic performance, in the centre of attention. Robert Schumann’s A minor cello concerto dating from 1850 (defined by the composer as a concerto piece for cello with orchestral accompaniment) is performed with solo by a musician who is the true embodiment of the desired harmony of the abovementioned values. Miklós Perényi is the great instrumentalist who, in the second half of the concert, plays together with members of the accomplished Keller Quartet in a performance of the C major string quintet dating from 1828, the year in which Franz Schubert died. It is a masterpiece of chamber music summing up both the artist and his artistry. No lesser authority than György Kurtág himself declared of this composition and its sublime Adagio movement: “My ideal of beauty is the slow movement of Schubert’s Quintet.”