Pianist

Four works - four completely different musical worlds. Two composers from two eras, yet behind these many contrasts there is some pleasant unity. Perhaps it is genius, perhaps the love behind the sounds. In the first half of the concert, entertainment plays the main role. First, Jörg Widmann, who has just left school, proves that the wild pulsation of techno can also be beautiful, and that music based on monotonous foundations can suddenly turn into a complex six-part canon. This is followed by what many consider Mendelssohn's best chamber work, the sometimes playful, sometimes moving, but always extremely melodious mature trio. After the break, contrasts are much more strained against each other, as passing away confronts youth, an orchestral sound replaces the chamber line-up, and this time Mendelssohn becomes the novice and Widmann the mature composer. The latter commemorates the famous pianist Lars Vogt, who died in 2022 at the age of 52, while the former, with his unnumbered piano concerto, is building on classical traditions and is currently establishing his own rank among composers.

Evening concert - Nice. Good. News. Rank.

Pannonhalma Archabbey

Everything is more mysterious at night. The garden too. Our ears become sensitive to the slightest sound, our eyes search for familiar shapes. One of the most special events of the festival is the night concert, which starts in the open air and then continues in a chapel that seems even more mysterious and sacred under the cover of night. The program begins with a string sound born out of nowhere, a melody written for solo cello by Jörg Widmann, and culminates in Mendelssohn's youthful sextet for five strings and a piano. Everything in between revolves around the theme of night and nature. In the Mendelssohn song selection, the moon and the starry sky immediately appear, the next song sings about the silence of the night, then we hear the poet's love reverie in the silent forest, who compares his heart to the moon, and finally Suleika casts a dream on the narrator's eyes. And the dream comes in the form of Widmann's experimental piece, reminiscent of Bartók's night music, but stretching to jazz, in which the twelve notes of the piano remind us of the unusual time of the concert.

Night concert - Up and down, wide night

The garden is an essential environment for music and musicians. Not only for open-air concerts and traditional serenades, but also for stimulating the creative process and the composer's mental health and spiritual development. Composers are often inspired by nature, walking in the forests, while also needing solitude and silence. The garden provides a framework for nature, offering both freedom and longed-for solitude, home and incomprehensibility. At the festival's opening concert, the orchestral sounds of the teenage Mendelssohn, who composed thirteen string symphonies between climbing two trees, form the fence. In between, the chamber works of the more mature author and two works by the other resident composer, Jörg Widmann, can be heard. Intimacy and playfulness meet in the four-hand piece by Izabella Simon and Dénes Várjon, and in the Mendelssohn song bouquet, whispered declarations of love are heard in the shade of abundant foliage. Widmann's performance and arrangement of Mendelssohn's beautiful slow movement is a highlight, but the composer also pays tribute to Schumann for a few album pages.

Opening concert - Sacred garden, abundant foliage

A performance by the pianist The Washington Post has said can convey “uncommonly deep poetry out of the music.”

EPSG:4326

Dénes Várjon, piano

Yale University

Concert  at the Teatro Olimpico

Teatro Olimpico

‘One of the most unusual pieces written for cello’ (Bachtrack), Kurtág’s brilliant Double Concerto engages both soloists and an orchestra divided into two sparring sections, physically separated within the performance space, in an intense dialogue. What results is an extraordinary listening experience: surrounded by music from several directions at once.

The Unanswered Question

The Bridgewater Hall

Dénes Várjon and Nicolas Altstaedt compete in Kurtág’s commanding Double Concerto, as Thomas Adès conducts. ‘One of the most unusual pieces written for cello’ (Bachtrack), Kurtág’s brilliant Double Concerto engages both soloists and an orchestra divided into two sparring sections, physically separated within the performance space, in an intense dialogue. What results is an extraordinary listening experience: surrounded by music from several directions at once. Ives’ The Unanswered Question also immerses the listener in sound, with druid-like strings beneath the questioning trumpet and increasingly chaotic woodwind. In contrast, Thomas Adès’ peaceful Lieux retrouvés (Rediscovered Places) explores natural and man-made landscapes whilst Debussy’s revolutionary Images, three orchestral montages combining harmony, texture and colour, creates musical paintings that changed orchestral writing forever.

Pianist

Dénes Várjon

Events

Upcoming events

Apr 23, 2026

The Unanswered Question · The Hallé

Apr 23, 2026

The Hallé – The Unanswered Question · The Bridgewater Hall

Past events

Aug 23, 2025

Evening concert - Nice. Good. News. Rank. · Chamber Orchestra of Europe

Aug 23, 2025

Night concert - Up and down, wide night · Chamber Orchestra of Europe

Future and recently performed repertoire

Piano in Piano Trio No. 1 by Mendelssohn

Chamber Orchestra of Europe

Piano in Piano Sextet by Mendelssohn

Chamber Orchestra of Europe

Piano in Piano Concerto in A minor by Mendelssohn

Chamber Orchestra of Europe

Piano in Double Concerto by Kurtág

The Bridgewater Hall

About

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