Pedestrians listening to the Honvéd Male Choir, conducted by Péter Drucker, performing on the steps of the Western Railway Station for people on their way to work. Photo: Tamás Kovács (MTI)
The choir, whose members have been public employees since the ensemble's inception in 1949, may now have to generate its own cash. To highlight its money problems, the choir recently gave a free concert at Budapest's Western Railway Station. Onlookers were pleasantly surprised by the performance not only because of its unusual venue, but also because of the choir's repertoire, which included excerpts from Zoltán Kodaly's opera Háry János as well as a medley of rap songs by the Hungarian band Rapülők.
The Honvéd Male Choir will perform a similar crossover concert at Budapest's Palace of Arts on April 28. Guest performers at the concert will include Magdi Rúzsa, Péter Geszti, János Karácsony, Péter Novák and the band Madarak.
The Honvéd Male Choir is one of Europe's top choirs by virtue of its "artistic openness, dedication to educating talents and high professional standard. The dramatic power, tremendous voices, the dark tone of the basses coupled with smoothness and virtuosity combine the traditions of East and West," according to the choir's website.
The choir sings almost every genre, period and style of music, from Gregorian chants to contemporary music, from Russian church music to opera and jazz. It has recorded some 50 CDs and is preparing a recording of Mendelssohn's secular works for male choir as well as a selection of Hoffmeister's wine songs, which should be a real curiosity.
The choir has worked with such renowned conductors as Antal Doráti, Lamberto Gardelli, Zubin Mehta, Giuseppe Patané, Juri Simonov, Sir Georg Solti, János Ferencsik and Iván Fischer. It was awarded the Bartók Béla-Pásztory Ditta Prize in 1998.
