Prom 55 – Ivan Fischer & Budapest Festival Orchesta (II)

Part of the BBC Proms.

Hungarian folk tunes run through the veins of Iv?n Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra, while Gypsy rhythms set their pulses dancing. This concert – a true celebration of Hungary’s national music – traces the development of folk songs and dance, from their colourful, rough-hewn originals into virtuosic concert-hall reimaginings by Liszt, Brahms and Sarasate. In the second half comes Brahms’s dramatic First Symphony, whose darkness and drama eventually give way to an ending of transcendent musical triumph.