The Solti Memorial Tour 2007 - Concert at the Budapest Palace of Arts 10th September 2007

This concert, the middle of three which comprised the Solti Memorial Tour, took place in the Bartok Hall of the Budapest Palace of Arts. The WOP Patron, Lady Solti, introduced the concert by explaining the dedication to two great men who had died unexpectedly in the 3 months prior to the event: Mikhail Rudyak, the Managing Director of Ingeokom (who generously sponsored the concert) and Russell Johnson, the leading acoustician, who designed the acoustics of the Bartok Hall.  The WOP Founder, Sir Georg Solti, was remembered with a short filmed excerpt (from the Rossini William Tell overture) from the first WOP concert in Geneva in 1995 projected in the hall before the start of the programme - and by Maestro Gergiev at the end of the evening with the 2nd movement of Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra played as an encore. The Solti Memorial Tour 2007 was made possible by major support and additional sponsorship from Fortis, Solvay, Belgian National Lottery, Ermenegildo Zegna and Yoko Nagae Ceschina.

The programme performed was:

Richard Wagner Overture: Tannhäuser (1844)

Hector Berlioz     Roméo et Juliette – orchestral excerpts (1839) Introduction, Romeo Alone, Love Scene, Queen Mab Scherzo, Romeo at the Tomb of the Capulets

Sergei Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet Op. 64 (1934-35) – excerpts from Ballet Suites 1 and 2

Montagues & Capulets, Juliet the Young Girl, Friar Lawrence, Minuet, Masks, Romeo & Juliet, Death of Tybalt, Romeo & Juliet before Parting, Dance of the Antilles Girls, Romeo at Juliet’s Grave

Encores: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Scherzo (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 61, 1843), Bela Bartok Presentando le coppie from Concerto for Orchestra (1945), Hector Berlioz Hungarian March (Rákóczy) from La Damnation de Faust (1846)