Friday, Jan. 17, 2003 | 9:34 a.m.
What: Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra
When: 8 p.m. today.
Where: UNLV's Artemus Ham Hall.
Tickets: $29, $45, $59; discounts for students, seniors, military and persons with disabilities.
Information: (702) 895-ARTS (-2787); http://www.unlvtickets.com.
The Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra (HNPO) will feature works by Bartok, Mozart and Dvork in a concert tonight at Artemus Ham Hall at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
The orchestra will perform as part of the 27th season of the Charles Vanda Master Series.
Soprano Julia Hajnoczy will be guest artist in Five Songs from the "Twenty Hungarian Folksongs" by Bela Bartok. Three of them, "In Prison," "An Old Bitter Song" and "Lament," as their titles suggest, portray the misery of life -- illness, tears, pain, death and grief.
The other two, which are wedding songs, have a happier tone.
Music director and conductor of the HNPO, Zoltn Kocsis, is also an accomplished pianist and will be soloist in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in G-major, K. 453. The program opens with Bartok's "Dance Suite" and concludes with Antonin Dvork's Symphony No. 3, Op. 10, in E-flat major.
Kocsis began playing the piano when he was only age 5. After music school and conservatory, he received his degree at the Ferenc Liszt Music Academy in Budapest.
At the age of 18 Kocsis won the competition of the Hungarian Radio and was subsequently invited to perform with such distinguished orchestras as the Berlin Philharmonic. His touring career since then has included Europe, America, Japan, the Far East and Australia.
Among the orchestras with which Kocsis has performed are the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony.
Kocsis has played under the batons of such world-famous conductors as Claudio Abbado, Herbert Blomstedy, Christoph von Dohnnyi, Charles Dutoit, Yehudi Menuhin, George Solti, Michael Tilson-Thomas and Edo de Waart. He joined Sviatoslav Richter in performing four-hand piano works at the Hohemens and Tours Festivals.
In 1983 Kocsis founded the Budapest Festival Orchestra with Ivn Fischer and served as one if its artistic directors until 1997. The next year he was appointed music director of the HNPO.
Conducting and performing as soloist in a concerto sounds daunting. However, Kocsis said it is "more interesting than difficult" and "really is not much harder than 'just' playing or 'just' conducting.
"When playing the solo instrument," he said, "the artist uses not only the hands but also gestures of the body. Also, the conductor not only uses body language but, on a metaphysical level, also takes part in the playing of the orchestra instruments.
"There isn't any special technique required. The musical rapport with the orchestra, so that all play together, is mostly a question of style. We have the same musical education, with its roots in the same musical tradition. Both Mozart and Liszt form an integral part of that tradition."
Kocsis is equally adept at balancing his multifaceted life of conducting the HNPO, guest conducting major orchestras around the world, recording, composing and editing.
"Even when one is involved in several different things," he explained, "they are really doing only one of those things at a particular moment. It is absolutely necessary to immerse oneself in the current task."
Lyric coloratura soprano Julia Hajnoczy is only 26. A graduate of the Bela Bartok Conservatory of Music in Budapest, she has amassed an impressive number of awards in competitions in Hungary, among them the Jubilee Richard Strauss and Robert Schumann Song Competition in Budapest and the National Jubilee Kodaly Singing Competition.
Since 1998 Hajnoczy's career has encompassed concerts not only in Hungary but also throughout Spain and in Vienna.
"For a young Hungarian vocal soloist to succeed," she said, "it is very important that there is either an established manager or a well-known musician who believes in their talent, who thinks that efforts on their behalf will be worthwhile. It is of course a great advantage for me that Maestro Kocsis believes in me.
"He invited me for guest appearances in Hungary and other European countries. This present tour will be my first overseas. Another highway to success would be to have a great success in an opera role which brings the singer's name into the spotlight."
Hajnoczy is interested in opera, oratorio and lieder (songs).
"I would not like to give up singing any of the three," she said. "It is possible that opera is the biggest desire of most singers, but I also enjoy singing oratorios on stage, as well as lieder because it, especially, creates a very intimate relationship with the audience.
"I also have dreams and goals which include singing in all the important European concert halls and opera houses and the Metropolitan in New York."
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