THE BLUE FRANKISH SEASON TICKET SERIES IN 2020 AT THE CAVE THEATER OF FERTŐRÁKOS
The Győr Philharmonic Orchestra considers it its mission and challange to popularise classical music. One of our main goals is to come up with innovative ideas to broaden the scope for all music lovers by creating new series of concerts for younger people in particular. Having run paralel with the Ferenc Liszt Concert Series, launched a few years ago, we had created the Blue Frankish (Kékfrankos, popular Hungarian red wine brand) series also, targeting the greater Sopron region for our audience. This latter series had successfully run for two consecutive years with four performances each season respectively. That series was a good chance for many to have a first experience of a GYPO presentation.
This was all back in 2014 through 2016 when our company had the good fortune to appear amongst others with the likes of the splendid accordion virtuoso Zoltán Orosz, violinist/singer Katica Illényi, popular operetta singer Attila Dolhai, lovely Hungarian pop singers Andrea Szulák, and Adrien Szekeres. It was this time when one of GYPO's most beloved guest conductors, Tibor Bényi, and prominent Hungarian pianist, Balázs Szokolay, were introduced to the graeter Sopron audiences.
The Győr Philharmonic Orchestra has recently dicided to re-launch the Blue Frankish Series in the summer of 2020. At a press conference held on a Thursday morning deputy director Gábor Ősz talked at length about the detailed program of the series taking place at the Cave Theater in Fertőrákos, Hungary. Mayor of Sopron, Ciprian Farkas, managing director of the company Pro Culture Sopron, András Pataki, and deputy director, Péter Kóczán, were also present at the event.
The cultic masterpiece Carmina Burana by Carl Orff is scheduled to kick off the concert series on June 13 at the Cave Theater of Fertőrákos. Conductor of the evening will be Péter Oberfrank, the excellent group of vocalists include soprano Kinga Kriszta, tenor István Horváth, and bariton Csaba Szegedi. The oratorical work also features the Lantos Choir of Budapest (led by Ágnes Gerendai), the Ferenc Liszt Choir of Győr (János Csorba), the Ferenc Liszt Teachers' Choir of Sopron (Ágnes Makkos), and the Sonitus Scarbantiae Women's Choir (Katalin Harcz).
After the first performance, our local, and from-across-the-border audiences can meet us again on August 1 for the second show of the Blue Frankish Series. It is dubbed "A tribute to John Williams", and GYPO is to play some of the world-famous composer's most well-known movie soundtracks. They will include the bombastic music of Star Wars, Hook, Schindler's List, Artificial Intelligence, Jurassic Park, Superman, Shark, Memoirs of a Geisha, Harry Potter, Harry Potter, E.T., and Indiana Jones. In a hopefully nice, warm summer night at 8pm GYPO will be conducted at the Cave Theater by Alex Johansson.
The date of the final concert of the series is September 5, 2020, when our orchestra will be conducted by artistic director Kálmán Berkes, featuring soloist Gergely Bogányi who will play the powerful E flat major Piano Concerto by Ferenc Liszt. The evening, subtitled "Bogányi", is to begin with the overture of Richard Wagner's opera "The Flying Dutchman". The second part of the concert has Antonin Dvorák's timeless masterpiece, his Symphony "From the New World" on offer.
The Győr Philharmonic Orchestra sincerely hopes that our reinvented Blue Frankish Series is destined to reach not only people in the vicinity but tourists visiting Hungary as well. There will not only be fabulous music played but also a selection of premium quality wine of the Jandl cellar offered to those lucky enough to attend the program.