Okay, kiddies, I have four pairs of tickets to give away to Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle at Avery Fisher Hall on March 18. The performance is part of the New York Philharmonic’s Hungarian Echoes Festival led by the estimable Finnish hockey star Esa-Pekka Salonen. The problem is that Sequenza 21 readers are all such a bunch of smart asses that I can never come up with a question that stumps anyone for more than 30 seconds so that means the first person who reads this probably wins.
So, here’s what we’re going to do this time. Today, we’re giving away one pair each to the two people who come up with the best questions related to the topic of Hungarian music. Go to the Festival page, read what it’s about and then come back and leave the toughest question you can think of. Tonight, I’ll consult with a live Hungarian and pick two of the questions as winners. We’ll have another contest tomorrow to answer them and give away another couple of pairs.
Sok szerencsét!
For those who don’t know Hungarian and who want to learn it before attending this opera, the National Symphony will also be performing this work in exactly one year’s time – on Mar 8 – 10, 2012 (with Eschenbach, Matthias Goerne and Michelle DeYoung, and coupled with The Miraculous Mandarin). (There may only be two performances of the program. No narrator is listed.)
You also scroll through this link to see which premieres and contemporary classical works the NSO is performing next season :
http://www.kennedy-center.org/programs/newseason/#NCL
(Turangalîla-Symphonie is being performed by the NSO Mar 10 – 12, 2011,with pianist Cédric Tiberghien and ondes martenot player Tristan Murail.)