Hamar said he had proposed several programmes for his Moscow concert where he had a free hand to choose pieces.
?For practical reasons, I chose pieces from a programme I had played with the Hungarian Radio Symphonic Orchestra at the Palace of Arts on Saturday. Schumann?s Ouverture, Scherzo and Finale and his Symphony No. 2. Between the two pieces, Bartók?s Piano Concerto No. 3 will be played by Dénes Várjon,? he said.
From Moscow he will travel to Wiesbaden where he will fill the post of music director for the opera company from next season. This time he will go there to prepare the programme for the 2012-2013 season.
?I am transferring my contract from Zurich to Wiesbaden and I have been participating in the work there for months. It is common practice in Germany that the current and the future directors work together for at least a year which is very useful and makes the change of directors smooth,? he said.
On May 31, June 3 and 5, he will perform two theatre pieces by Bartók: Bluebeard?s Castle and The Wooden Prince at the Maggio Musicale festival in Florecne. The performance will be a coproduction with the Saito Kinen Festival in Japan, where Hamar will stand in to substitute for Japanese conductor Seiji Ozawa who is taking off a year.
Bluebeard will be sung by the renowned German baritone Matthias Goerne and Judith will be sung by Daveda Karanas from Greece. The coproduction will be directed and choreographed by Jo Kanamori and the Noism Dance Company will share the stage with the Maggio Musicale dance choir.
Hamar will conduct twice at this year?s Bartók+Puccini International Opera Festival in Miskolc. All three stage productions based on Bartók?s compositions will be performed for the first time on one evening: on the opening day on June 8 and two days later on June 10.
?I am very much interested in the interpretation of the three works that present the relationship drama between men and women in three different stages. I think it is possible. According to this interpretation, The Wooden Prince will be starting piece which is the stage of flourishing love. The heroes in Bluebeard?s Castle, a married couple living in the castle, realise that their desire for each other can only survive as long as they have their own secrets. At the same time, they also desire to reveal these secrets, even if this means their relationship will become vacant. The Miraculous Mandarin is the last stage, which reflects on contemporary times in many ways. The relationship between man and woman is restricted to commerce and becomes physical. However, eventually we can witness the victory of the eternal idea that men and women have been made to complement each other,? the conductor said.
Hamar added that he found great pleasure in working with these compositions because Bartók, despite being an extremely bashful person, seems to have known everything about the relationships between men and women and their many phases.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
