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Even though the National Philharmonic Orchestra is an important national institution, it has been subjected to repeated budget cuts over the past several years, and it now needs an extra HUF 300 million just to "function normally", Kocsis said. Despite the lack of money, the orchestra plans many big performances this season, including ones of Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle and Mahler's 8th Symphony.
At a special Christmas concert, the orchestra will perform Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker together with the Budapest Puppet Theatre and the Hungarian Radio Children's Choir.
As part of the Extraordinary Music Meetings programme, orchestra members will visit local schools with the aim of popularising classical music and giving pupils a look at the process of rehearsing for concerts.
Two representatives from classicLive, a Finnish webservice for watching classical music concerts both live and on demand, also spoke at the press conference. The National Philharmonic Orchestra is one of the first ensembles featured on the site.
It will play live on classicLive on September 25 at 17:30 GMT, or 19:30 local time, performing Bartók's Suite No. 2, Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor with soloist Alexei Volodin, and Brahms' Symphony No. 1 in C minor.
Author: Éva Kelemen
