Balogh's new works in Győr

Balogh's new works in Győr

Máté Balogh, who is resident composer of the Győr Philharmonic Orchestra in the 2021–22 season, is preparing for two world premieres with the ensemble. What the two new compositions have in common is that they both use a traditional genre in music history: symphony and folk song arrangement. The works to be premiered now not only refer to these genres in general, but also specifically relate to earlier works paired with them at the premiere.

Folk Songs 1913 uses the instrumental ensemble of Luciano Berio's Folk Songs, this European panorama, but draws on the treasures of melodies from seven Central European ethnic groups, and the title refers to the last year of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy spent in peace. The three vocal movements use Czech-Moravian, Transylvanian Yiddish and Austrian melodies, while the three instrumental movements arrange a Polish Kujawiak, a Serbian Kolo and a Hungarian military march.

In the case of Sinfonia no. 1, the subtitle reads: Omaggio a Giuseppe Haydn, and this new composition will be premiered alongside Haydn's 47th Symphony in G major. Balogh’s symphony, like Haydn’s, uses a four-movement structure and a string ensemble completed only by with two oboes and horns, and tympani, an ensemble most of Haydn’s symphonies use. While Balogh adapts his model not only to the orchestration but also to the duration of each movement, the new work is contemporary not only in its musical language but also in its emotional intensity, especially in the slow movement written in memory of the recently deceased musicologist András Wilheim.

Photo: Máté Kérges