The Budapest Festival Orchestra is giving a concert with a world-famous conductor and world-famous soloists. And no one is the least surprised to hear that Miklós Perényi is a world-famous cellist.

The famous novel by Abbé Prévost (Prévost d’Exiles, 1697-1763), Histoire du chevalier Des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut was published in 1733 and because it portrayed a love affair that violated public morality and so was to be condemned by society, the book was banned and burnt. However, of all Prévost’s works, it was Manon Lescaut that inspired a number of composers in the 19th century and filmmakers in the 20th century.
Giacomo Puccini achieved his first real success with the première of Manon Lescaut (1893). His following operas, about the fate of women – La Bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly – still represent a big challenge for singers, directors and stage designers alike. After a highly successful Tosca, Sergei Masloboischikov (1957), Kiev-born painter, film and theatre director has created a sensitively lyrical and visually original performance.

The Muzsikás ensemble, which has been active for three decades, makes traditional Hungarian folk music a special experience. Its music-making follows the traditional mode of performance and improvisation of the best village musicians in the characteristic Muzsikás style.
The ensemble is known and popular in Europe, America and Japan. It is typical of its versatility that it is equally at home at folk, folk music and world music festivals, at classical music, alternative music, jazz, Celtic music or Jewish music events. It was the first to have folk music accepted as an independent style on an equal footing with all other genres. Mária Petrás, ceramic artist and singer born in Moldavia, has been a regular guest at Muzsikás concerts since 2005. Besides the big concerts, the Muzsikás Ensemble attaches great importance to the children’s dance houses it holds regularly in Budapest and the special singing and music lessons it gives in schools around the country.
The ensemble has won many prizes and awards. Outstanding among these are the Prize for Hungarian Arts, the Ferenc Liszt Prize, the Kossuth Prize and the Hungarian Heritage Prize.