Two outstanding musicians, Canadian conductor Peter Oundijan and American pianist Garrick Ohlsson were the Festival Orchestra's guests at its recent subscription concerts on April 16th, Friday, 17th, Saturday and 18th, Sunday, in the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall.
Both artists have appeared with the BFO in Budapest for the first time. The programme of the concerts has featured Phantasy on a Theme of Thomas Tallis by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Sergei Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No.5. in G Major and Félix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy's Symphony No.4. in A Major ("Italian").
Peter Oundijan:
The Toronto born conductor persued his violin studies at the Royal College of Music in London then at Julliard School in New York. Later he became the first violinist of the Tokyo String Quartet. He abandoned his instrumental carrier for being a conductor: 1998-2003 he was music director of the Nieuw Sinfonietta in Amsterdam. He has been Music Director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra for six years now and Principal Guest Conductor of the Detroit Symphony. In Europe he has frequent engagements with the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra and the Radio Philharmonique in Paris; in the US he has built ongoing relationships with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and he is a regular guest at the summer festivals of Tanglewood and Aspen.
Garrick Ohlsson:
The American pianist’s international career started with his triumph as winner of the 1970 Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw. A student of the late Claudio Arrau, he has come to be noted for his masterly performances of the works of Viennese Classical, as well as the Romantic repertoire; he has at his command some 80 concertos. In the recent past he performed three times at the Avery Fischer’s Hall in New York; he was the soloist of the American tour of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, he played with symphony orchestras of Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, with the Radio Philharmonique in Paris and with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Kurt Masur’s baton. Ohlsson had a great success with the Budapest Festival Orchestra and Iván Fischer at the BBC Proms Festival in London five years ago.
