Rajkó Orchestra to give gala concert in the Budapest Palace of Arts

The Rajkó Orchestra is to give a gala concert on Sept. 15 in the Budapest Palace of Arts (MÜPA) in celebration of 65 years of music-making, organisers told public television M1.

The concert will feature traditional Gypsy music as well as works of Liszt, Bartók and Kodály, István Gerendási said. Co-performers at the concert will include the Dohnányi Symphony Orchestra, the Budapest Klezmer Band, Váradi Roma Cafe and singers János Balázs, Magdolna Bubik and Ferenc Szigeti.

“Traditions must be preserved but you have to also be able to renew, too,” Gerendási told M1.

The Rajkó Orchestra was founded in 1952 to provide musical education for talented young Roma. Its art school, founded in 1990, currently trains 580 students, Gerendási said.

“The ensemble has always been a lot more than an orchestra; children here have acquired not only a music education but also their school diplomas, and later they can travel the world and familiarise international audiences with Gypsy music,” he said.

According to Palace of Arts, the first part of the evening will be closely tied to the repertoire of traditional Gypsy music, which is expanded with new colours and new content in each production. The second part will pay tribute to the greatest figures of Hungarian music, Liszt, Bartók and Kódály, with refined arrangements of their works.

Source: MTI