Magyar Hírek, 1984 (37. évfolyam, 2-26. szám)
1984-05-12 / 10. szám
I I A BREAK IN REHEARSAL Thirty years of orchestral playing at the King Stephen the First gimnázium in Budapest Letter to my wife In the depths there are worlds listening, silent, the stillness wails in my ears and I cry out, but no one can answer it from far Serbia sunk fainting in war and you are not near. Your voice is braided with my sleep, I find it again in daytime in my heart, I listen, and around me the song of cold-feeling stately ferns floats up and on. 1 know nothing of when I might see you again, you who were strong as a psalm and sure as a stone, and beautiful as light and beautiful as shadow, to whom in blindness, dumbness I’d still travel, you’re exiled in these fields and so you flare inward upon my sight, mind-projected there: you were reality, now again you’re dream, and I back in my teenage lumber-room jealously pound my question, Do you love me? and whether at the peak of my youth you will some day, one day become my wife,—my hopes revive and dropping back into my waking life I know you have. My wife and friend, only so far away. Three savage frontiers. Slowly it is autumn. Will even autumn forget me here? The recollection of our kisses is sharper. Miracles? I believed in them and forgot their days, bomber squadrons fly over me, I gazed at the miraculous blue of your eyes in the sky but it clouded over and the bombs were dying to fall from the plane. I live in spite of them,— and am their captive. What I have sized up then is all my hopes and still I can return to you, the soul knows how I have dived down for you,—and so do lands and frontiers! Reddest embers, plunging flames fakir-like I’ll encounter if I must, but still I will come back; if I must I’ll take the toughness of tree-bark, and in these endless dangers I am appeased by peace of mind worth all the shouts and spears of wild men living turbulently, and the grave 2X2 of reason claims me in one cool wave. Lager Heidenau, in the mountains above Zagubica, Yugoslavia, August—September 1944. TRANSLATED BY EDWIN MORGAN Forced March Crazy when safe on the ground to get up and walk again— the man stirs knees and ankles like some galvanized thing of pain, but still he follows the road, you’d think he’d wings to lift him and the ditch is not his friend, he daren’t be a drifter, and if you ask why not, he’ll maybe tell you yet he has a wife in wait for him and a less mad, ugly death. What a crazy piety when yonder now for ages hearth and home have blistered to the dry wind raging, house-walls struck flat, the plum-tree bare, and night on the homestead crawling with fear. O if I could believe it—not only my heart holding what I must hold to, but a home, waiting late; could it be yet! as once on the old cool porch the bees of peace hummed while plum jam grew rich, and late summer stillness baked in the sleepy garden, fruits rocked naked in the leaves, and Fanni stood with her fair hair by the tawny hedgerow, and the slow morning slowly tracked its shadow— but this can still be! the moon is so round tonight! Stay, wait, my friend, shout at me! I’m on my feet! Bor, 15 September 1944. TRANSLATED BY EDWIN MORGAN “From bar No. 205, please!”—says conductor József Záborszky. “Violas only” The blood freezes in the veins of the youngsters in the back. Surely, solos will follow! Fortunately, we practiced this part quite a bit. This Wagner is really tough, but it is still possible to learn it! “First desk”—the voice of the conductor again. “You may do it singly.” The prediction was right, the “old man” really asked for solos. We are at a rehearsal of the symphony orchestra of the Budapest King Stephan I. School. There is time to think a bit, to lookback, while the others are playing. This year the orchestra has an anniversary, its thirtieth. It was established in 1954 by the perennially youthful, not yet seventy years old music teacher of the highschool, József Záborszky, an outstanding organizer and fine violinist. Originally he assembled a sixteen-member chamber orchestra. Following the great success of their first concert, more and more musicstudent pupils asked for admission, and the orchestra increased to 70— 80 members within a few years. The ensemble went on a working camping holiday to Balaton-Szeplak in the summer of 1957, and this became an established tradition. Various towns were the hosts of the orchestra each year. During these camping holidays the orchestra holds two three-hour intensive rehearsals each day, gives promenade concerts in the afternoons, and a big farewell concert. Noted instrumentalists of the State Opera helped the studies of members originally, but now some of the ex-pupils of the school (about 700 of them) are graduate musicians, and many of them contribute to the success of the performances coming back as permanent members, or as coaches. In the meantime (in 1969) the school also gave a home to the music school of the 14th district of the capital under the direction of József Záborszky, with mostly exmembers of the orchestra, who became graduate music teachers, on the teaching staff. Two further orchestras were formed in this institute, which brought together the young musicians of the district. Children between 8 and 12 form the “Cricket” orchestra. The best of them may get transferred to the “Intermediate Symphony Orchestra” of the music-school. Those, who excel in skill, and knowledge (and reached the age of 14) may be admitted into the “big”, that is the Stephen Orchestra. In 1970, the orchestra took part in the Second International Festival of Youth Orchestras at St Moritz, Switzerland, and obtained first position among nine orchestras from five continents. Now they tour foreign countries nearly every year. They toured Austria,, Finland, the GDR, West Germany, Italy and Switzerland. The orchestra has established contact among others with the Tonhalle in Zürich, the Leipzig Gewandthaus, and the Salzburg Mozarteum. These tours of foreign countries also contribute to building friendships with—among others—conductors Brenton Langbein in Switzerland, Alois Hochstrasser in Austria, Helmuth Steinback in the GDR, Siegfried Geissler in West Germany, Pekka Haapasalo in Finland, Gabriel Gandini in Italy, and Nikolai Anosov in the USSR, who have often been guest-conductors of the orchestra in Hungary and abroad. But the guest-conductors are not all foreigners. András Kórody was the first of Hungarian conductors on the rostrum. The repertoire of the orchestra ranges from Bach to Wagner, from Vivaldi to Bartók, and contemporary Hungarian composers. They gave world first performances of several works composed especially for them. The orchestra plays symphonies, symphonic poems, ouvertures, pieces from opera and operettas, oratorios, symphonic dances, and concertos. Noted Hungarian and foreign soloists have appeared with them including Dénes Kovács and Albert Kocsis, the violinists, Pál Lukács, the viola-player, Ede Banda, the cellist, Donatella Failoni and István Antal the pianists, Gábor Lehotka, the organist, Ida Tarjám Tóth, the cymbalist. Choral compositions are performed jointly with the choir of the gimnázium. The secret of the success of the orchestra has been asked about many times. Is it that the instrumentalists become accustomed to each other? Or is it the youthful verve, the assured replacements? Perhaps János Ferencsik hit the nail on the head, when he answered a question put by the King of Denmark after a concert in his country on which orchestra he prefered to conduct: “There is a youth orchestra in Budapest, the orchestra of the King Stephen the First Gimnázium, music with them is pure joy.” ANDRÁS ACZÉL Concert in the Cupola Hall of the Budapest National Gallery. 16. March, 1984 Conductor: Helmuth Steinbach (GFR) PHOTO: ZOLTÁN SZALAY 29
