Dennis Russell Davies & Liszt Academy Symphony Orchestra Presented by Liszt Academy

Dennis Russell Davies, one of the most innovative, original conductors of our day, is in Budapest to conduct Liszt Academy Symphony Orchestra. Davies graduated from the conducting and piano department as a student of The Julliard School, and he picked up a Grammy Award in 1979 for his recording of the Aaron Copland orchestral suite Appalachian Spring. A year later he continued his career in Europe including a stint as music director of the Stuttgart Baden-Württemberg State Opera. He has led several top ensembles, recently being chosen as artistic director and principal conductor of Brno Philharmonic Orchestra. His concert with Liszt Academy Symphony Orchestra opens with Symphony No. 1 by Leonard Bernstein, written when he was 24. A programmatic work nicknamed Jeremiah, it rests on texts from the Hebrew Bible. Besides this work only played in Hungary very rarely is Gustav Mahler’s 4th symphony, which the composer structured around motifs of an earlier song, Das himmlische Leben.