Bence Bánkövi, Marcell Szabó: Enchanted by Masters

Bence Bánkövi (cello) and Marcell Szabó (piano) bring Russian and Hungarian masters together on their new album, Enchanted by Masters. At the album launch concert at the House of Music, the two artists will perform the entire CD. First up are two works by Igor Stravinsky, which share the common feature of having been written with the assistance of a great Russian cello virtuoso: the Italian Suite, which uses themes from the composer's neoclassical ballet Pulcinella, was created with the collaboration of Gregor Pjatyigorsky, while the transcription of the one-act opera Mavra was created with the collaboration of Mstislav Rostropovich. The next piece is also an adaptation, an excerpt from Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's last opera, depicting the luxurious palace of the protagonist, Tsar Dodon. This is followed by Gyula Bánkövi's piece entitled Pain Frozen in Ice, then the Hungarian Rhapsody by David Popper, the first cello professor at the Academy of Music, which shows strong Liszt influences, and a rarely heard cello version of Béla Bartók's popular first rhapsody. The concert will close with Sergei Rachmaninoff's captivatingly beautiful Elegy, from one of his early solo piano cycles, also in a cello-piano transcription.

The newly released CD will be available for purchase at the venue, and the artists will be signing copies after the concert.