Akiko Suwanai and Concerto Budapest A Zeneakadémia saját szervezésű programja

The audience have become accustomed to finding that Concerto Budapest, resident orchestra of the Liszt Academy whose chief conductor is András Keller, inviting a world star to virtually every concert, and this occasion is no different. Mendelssohn’s immortal Violin Concerto in E minor is performed by Akiko Suwanai, who in 1990 and 18 years old, won the International Tchaikovsky Competition, the youngest violinist in the history of the contest. Having studied in Tokyo, New York and Berlin, the artist now performs on one of the most famous violins in the world: the 1714 Dolphin Stradivarius, which was once owned by Jascha Heifetz. Akiko Suwanai uses the instrument with the permission of the Nippon Music Foundation. Of course, the tones of this marvellous instrument in the hands of a master performer are just one of the many attractions of the concert since, besides the Mendelssohn work, the programme includes what is perhaps Tchaikovsky’s most ‘Beethoven-like’ work, Symphony No. 5 performed under the baton of András Keller – who is gaining a reputation as a Russian symphonic specialist – as well as the moving Funeral Music by Witold Lutoslawski, composed on the death of Béla Bartók and performed two days after the anniversary of Bartók’s passing away.