The Budapest Festival Orchestra has offered us two concerts on the tour that is taking place at the Quincena Musical in San Sebastian. After Donostia-San Sebastian, they will be in Santander (Cantabria) and Gstaad (Switzerland), with almost the same program. Created in the mid-1980s by the incumbent director himself, Ivan Fischer, is considered one of the largest orchestras in today’s central Europe. Fortunately, he often visits us on the occasion of the Fortnight, so we can appreciate the evolution of this group.

For the second meeting this year, the Budapest team offered us a lively and attractive program called Mozart.

First of all, 38. They interpreted the Symphony in re major KV 504 Prague. When in January 1787 Mozart travelled with his wife to Prague, he carried in his luggage a new symphony that premiered there and which since then is called Prague Symphony. It's a symphony with many parallels with Don Giovanni. The main theme of the Allegro is similar to the overture of Don Giovanni: a brilliant and evil laugh comes out of the depth; on the other hand, the style of the Symphony is a dramatic operation with elegant and sudden gestures, and the last Presto has a frenesis to the champagne of Don Giovanni. We note that the Budapest Festival Orchestra has been able to make all these sensations available to the public with great expressiveness. It's not an introverted orchestra, nor is it an introverted conductor. On the contrary, it is an expelled group that easily transmits the musical message to the public.

The strong dish of the night was the interpretation of the work KV 626 in Réquiem re menor, along with the Orfeón Donostiarra. The offered version was more conventional than the orchestra itself presided over by Fischer brought us to the Fortnight in August 2016. On that occasion, Collegium Vocale Gent was part of the Orchestra, achieving a special sonority and a touch of spontaneity. On this occasion, the location of the Orfeón Donostiarra was traditional and the result was balanced, compensated. It could be said that it was a quiet version but with some force at some moments, as in the passages of Lacrymosa or Lux aeternam.

A good concert. We look forward to the next visit of this great orchestra.