Karine Hetherington of ArtMuseLondon caught up with busy conductor András Keller, ahead of his 6-concert UK and Ireland tour with the Concerto Budapest Symphony Orchestra.

András – you have forged a brilliant career in music, first as a solo violinist, a concertmaster and chamber musician – and you are now touring the UK with the Concerto Budapest Symphony Orchestra, an orchestra with a long history behind it. How did you start working with them?

András K: After decades of enjoying a successful international career with the Keller Quartet, I decided to return to Hungary and create an international-level orchestra. Work started in 2007, which in essence involved my taking on the task of rebuilding an orchestra. I began with going back to basics, performing only pieces by Haydn, Mozart and then Beethoven in the first three years. Meanwhile, I started to systematically build up the repertoire, which has since grown into what is now perhaps the broadest in Hungary, ranging from the very greatest classical and 20th-century works to contemporary compositions. While Bartók and Beethoven take on a particularly prominent role in our programmes, I am also an admirer of Russian music, and the output of the most important Russian composers makes up a significant portion of a typical season’s repertoire too.

Does your playing violin influence your choice of repertoire for the orchestra?

András K: Absolutely not. In my case, being a violinist is not essentially connected to conducting and artistic management. Yet, I do often take up a violin in my hands during rehearsals, always in pursuit of the ultimate aim of demonstrating the conversational nature of expression and teaching how to make instruments sing.

You have toured extensively in your own right, but I believe this is your second UK tour with the orchestra, with the first being last year, when the orchestra was joined by the pianist Angela Hewitt. What did you discover about UK audiences and the different concert spaces? 

András K: I have been familiar with the English audience for decades, since we performed with the Keller Quartet in almost every major concert hall there, quite frequently in front of full houses. I have always admired the enthusiasm, attention and knowledge of the British public. Last year’s tour with Angela Hewitt, actually the first British tour for Concerto Budapest, was – and I’m saying this sincerely – a special experience everywhere we performed. At each venue, the audience lauded the artists of Concerto Budapest with great affection.

At the Cadogan you will be playing Beethoven’s Eroica symphony and Mozart’s G-minor symphony – very well-known masterpieces. Do you have to dig deep to find new, fresh interpretations for these well-loved works? 

András K:These pieces are among the greatest works in the music literature, and addressing them is a continuous lifelong process. So, the more we know about a work, the more questions arise, and as one grows more experienced with them, more and more new dimensions also open up. Furthermore, the interpretation is never final: it changes at every concert. A single shift in emphasis might sometimes alter essential nuances in the performance. It is a great task to take the stage with these works, because they approach the impossible :perfection. Obviously one can never fully measure up to them, but you have to try.

Between the Mozart and Beethoven on the Cadogan Hall programme, you also have Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 3 on the programme. This is a big departure from Mozart and Beethoven. Tell me a little about this work. I, for one, was surprised how joyous, upbeat, and free this work was in the first movement (I could hear 20th-century American composers (like Bernstein and Copeland) in it). The second movement is lyrical and passionate. I knew the work would be rich and original, but I was expecting a harsher, more austere tonal landscape for Bartók, and was pleasantly surprised! 

András K : Bartók’s Third Piano Concerto is a beautiful and fundamental summary and resolution of his entire oeuvre. You can find elements of all the different periods in his output in it, with all the different stages of his life dissolving into a beautiful state of peace.  For me, the musical family tree of the world is a wonderful  tree built over the course of several centuries, in which, in my view, Bartók’s musical father is Beethoven. The musical father of my mentor, György Kurtág, one of the greatest musicians of our time, is, in addition to Schubert and Mozart and others, Béla Bartók.

The eminent pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard is performing the Bartók with you. How is his playing suited to the work? 

András K: Pierre-Laurent has a deep and strong connection to Hungarian music. In his younger years, he worked extensively with Ligeti and Kurtág, and remains one of the most authentic performers of both composers. On this basis, everyone can be assured that he will play Bartók’s works with the same integrity. In addition, he is one of the most outstanding performers of 20th-century music, as well as of Beethoven. In his performance of Bartók, we will hear the experiences he gained through the works of Kurtág and Ligeti, but in a way that is also informed by the Beethoven tradition. In his interpretation, we will find the loftiness, nobility and narrative interplay that Bartók and Beethoven share.

How do you relax outside music or during intervals when performing?

András K : Whenever I can, I play football with my five-year-old grandson, and in the evenings, when possible, I relax by watching  television series. But every morning between 6 and 7, I read serious works of literature. And during the day, music, music…

KH

2023 UK Tour dates for András Keller and Concerto Budapest : 12th September – Fairfield Hall Croydon, 13th September – Guildford, 14th September – London Cadogan Hall, 15th September – Cheltenham, 17th September – Edinburgh and 19th September – Dublin.