The "Golden Man" movie soundtrack concert

The Győr Philharmonic Orchestra was commissioned for an exciting project last year when they performed a piece written by Bence Farkas, award winner in film music category of MÜPA's (Palace of Arts) music competition in 2020. His composition entitled "Accompanying music" was made for world-famous Hungarian-born Hollywood film director, Sándor Korda's silent motion picture "The Golden Man" and was performed in 2021 by GYPO under the baton of young Hungarian conductor Gergely Dubóczky at the "Bartók Spring International Art Weeks".

Following that successful premier in the capital the piece has since made its way into the Youth Series of the current season and it was played for a total of 3500 local students here in Győr at the Olympic Sports Park over the course of two days. 

The silent film had previously long been on the list of lost pictures until by a lucky turn of events it was found in an archive in Germany and was subsequently thoroughly overhauled. Director Sándor Korda chose the very locations for his film that novelist Mór Jókai had dreamed up in his book. The picturesque scenes of the movie radiate the ambiance of the author's era in which the story was set.

This movie classic, however, posed a real challenge for the music-writer. "If somebody watches this early silent movie carefully they are likely to find it not so easy to absorb what they see. Today's viewers will probably find the story rather slowly unfolding and hard to follow, full of quaint acting gestures" - said the award-winning composer, Bence Farkas on MÜPA's official website. "The greatest challenge of them all was to find the right style that facilitates the absorption of the story. I thought if I'd applied the right contemporary techniques and assured playability the show could then be enjoyable and exciting".