Triovirate Guitar Trio: Lilla Bátai, Zalán Sándor & Ágoston Szendi Presented by Liszt Academy

Anton Diabelli is a witty and sparkling representative of the classical style. This is best demonstrated by the fact that Beethoven, who was ten years older than Diabelli, wrote a monumental set of variations on one of his themes. However, few know that Diabelli was not only a composer and pianist, but also an excellent guitarist. The Triovirate Guitar Trio has chosen one of his works, originally composed for three guitars, as the opening piece of their concert. This will be followed by a composition by Darius Milhaud, a 20th-century French composer, originally written for two pianos. Milhaud adapted two movements from the incidental music for Molière’s The Flying Doctor, and inserted the overture from his opera Bolivar, which was ultimately not included in the opera’s score. The title character, Scaramouche, was a commedia dell’arte figure, and the theater company performing Molière’s play with Milhaud’s music also bore this name. Due to its popularity, the composer later adapted the piece into a solo work with orchestral accompaniment, first for alto saxophone and then for clarinet (the latter premiered by Benny Goodman). This concert will feature Zoltán Tokos’s arrangement. The evening will close with an arrangement by Sándor Szilvágyi, who transcribed Musorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, originally written for piano and inspired by the paintings of Viktor Hartmann.