Orsolya Korcsolán & Apolka Bonnyai

Violinist Orsolya Korcsolán and pianist Apolka Bonnyai take to the stage with a special programme at this Jewish Art Days concert. Károly Goldmark was perhaps the most defining composer of the turn of the 19th century, and the most performed composer at the Vienna Opera House. His work sits at the crossroads of Romanticism and Modernism, the meeting point of Classicist forms and new ideas. In Pest, Ferenc Liszt hosted him and, as a sign of his respect and esteem, played the Suite in E major with one of the greatest Hungarian violinists of the age, Nándor Plotényi. It was then that Goldmark’s grand opera, The Queen of Sheba, was born and became a genuine world success, and at his recommendation Gustav Mahler was appointed opera director in Vienna. The careers of several innovative artists were launched at the suggestion of Goldmark, among them the wunderkind Erich Wolfgang Korngold, who later went on to establish the inimitable Hollywood film music genre and won the first Oscar ever awarded to a composer. Goldmark also took his nephew, Rubin, who was born in New York, under his wing; he went on to teach several famous composers including Aaron Copland and George Gershwin. The works on display in Solti Hall poignantly evoke this diverse Golden Age.