LSO: Kirill Karabits conducts Bartok & Rozsa

Synopsis

Kirill Karabits conducts Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra – plus a rare performance of the Violin Concerto by Bartók’s fellow-Hungarian (and Hollywood legend) Miklós Rózsa. New worlds for old: from exile in America, Béla Bartók and Miklós Rózsa both longed for their native Hungary. Bartók imagined the nocturnal sounds of the Great Hungarian Plain, and transformed them into a defiant shout of hope and joy for a virtuoso orchestra. Rozsa, meanwhile, took time out from Hollywood to write a violin concerto that sings, dances and positively smoulders. It all adds up to a fabulously red-blooded evening of music from Kirill Karabits and LSO leader Roman Simovic: expect dark secrets, untamed melodies, and folk-rhythms in the raw. But it’s also a portrait of two composers grappling with the 20th century on their own, undaunted, terms. Today, Rózsa is still probably best known for classic film scores like Ben-Hur and Lust for Life: this rare performance of his Violin Concerto shows that even without the pictures, he can hold an audience spellbound.

Additional Info

• No: 8634
• Composer: Béla Bartók, Miklós Rózsa
• Conductor: Kirill Karabits
• Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra
• Artists: Roman Simovic
• Production year: 2021
• Run time: 01:19:00
• Producers: LSO
• Format: HDTV 16:9