Weiner: Violin Concerto No. 2 / Ballade / Suite

Leó Weiner combined the German and French Romantic tradition with a distinctive Hungarian musical language in his music. While many of his contemporaries explored new paths of musical modernism, he remained committed to a fundamentally Romantic musical language while also intensively engaging with Hungarian folk music.

The fifth installment in his orchestral works includes compositions spanning nearly five decades. The “Ballade” op. 8, composed in 1911, is heard in Weiner’s 1921 version for clarinet and orchestra, with Csaba Klenyán as soloist. In the “Suite on Old Hungarian Folk Themes” op. 18 from 1931, Weiner incorporated Hungarian dance melodies into an expansive symphonic context. In contrast, the second violin concerto in B-flat major op. 45, composed in 1957 and one of his late works, continues Weiner’s Romantic tradition well into the post-war period.

Júlia Pusker, who had already performed Weiner’s first violin concerto in this series, takes on the solo part in the second concerto; Csaba Klenyán is the soloist for the “Ballade.” The MÁV Symphony Orchestra Budapest performs under Valéria Csányi, who has also conducted the previous installments in the series.