Budapest Festival Orchestra to Host Concert for Peace

Iván Fischer will conduct the concert, which will feature Ukrainian, Russian, Israeli, and Palestinian guest artists

By involving artists from two current major world conflicts — Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Palestine— the Budapest Festival Orchestra's (BFO) Concert for Peace calls for resolutions to these twin wars. The concert will take place on August 31 and will be conducted by Iván Fischer.

The concert will be held in Budapest's Heroes Square, which has played host to other memorable peace concerts in the past. In 1993, during the Bosnian War, a choir of Serbian, Croatian, and Bosnian singers performed Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 together, at the invitation of the BFO.

The program opens with Plea for Peace, a short work by American composer Augusta Read Thomas. This is followed by Bach's Concerto for Two Violins in D minor, played by Ukrainian violinist Diana Tishchenko, and Russian-British violinist Alexander Sitkovetsky.

Then, Israeli songwriter Idan Raichel will sing three of his works, accompanied by the Palestinian oud player Taiseer Elias. To close the program, the BFO grand orchestra will play the finale from Mahler's third symphony, "Was mir die Liebe erzählt."

"This time the members of the Budapest Festival Orchestra will be joined by musicians from war-torn regions," Fischer said. "Together, through music, we want to express our common hope that the suffering caused by armed conflicts can end, and that the future will be one of mutual respect and peace."

You can find out more about the concert here.