The programme for the festival, among the capital?s biggest and best, was announced on Wednesday, and the tickets for events went on sale at ticket offices. Tickets were available earlier online.
The festival starts on March 16, 2007. It will feature 128 events at 48 venues around Budapest.
?The Budapest Spring Festival crowns the city?s cultural life each year,? mayor Gábor Demszky said. The festival also functions as Hungary?s ?cultural ambassador (?) a bridge between east and west,? he added.
The Budapest Spring Festival has managed to maintain a leading position among Hungary?s many festivals, thanks to the high quality of its programmes, undersecretary at the Ministry of Education and Culture Márta Schneider said.
Festival director Zsófia Zimányi said the 27th Budapest Spring Festival would have a total budget of HUF 1.3-1.4 billion, 38 percent of which would be financed with state subsidies. As many as 40 percent of tickets have already been sold online, with many tickets sold abroad, she said.
The festival will open with an evening dedicated to Kodály featuring the National Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir. The programme will include Kodály?s song cycle ?Twenty Hungarian Folk Songs?, arranged by Zoltán Kocsis, ?Double Dance from Kálló? and ?Te Deum of Buda Castle?.
The festival will see the return to Budapest of Russian violinist Maxim Vengerov, as well as a Richard Strauss evening with the Budapest Festival Orchestra and a concert by the Hamburg Radio Orchestra conducted by Christoph von Dohnányi.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
For more details visit http://festivalcity.hu/btf2007/?l=en
