“The Army Band is Playing on Stefánia”

For the first time in its history, the Central Orchestra of the Hungarian Defence Forces is organizing a tripartite interactive family concert series entitled “The army band is playing on Stefánia". As HDF Chief Conductor Col. Zsolt Csizmadia told us, through their Sunday morning concerts in February, March and May, they would like to popularize wind music and within that, military music.

“We wanted to come up with a novelty, therefore we have decided that besides giving a concert, we should also make our performance interactive, similarly to the usual practice of some symphonic orchestras in concert programs," says Col. Csizmadia, adding that the audience of the first concert could try the brass instruments of the Central Orchestra and there was also a narrator – Gábor Fenyő from the Palace of Arts – who introduced the program, the pieces of music, and the instruments of the orchestra.

The next concert, scheduled for March 27, will offer a similar program to everyone. That Sunday morning will be devoted to welcoming spring, while on May 8, the last concert of the series will focus on the specific features of military music – told us Col. Csizmadia, noting that according to plans, as of September they would organize similar concerts for a wider audience.

“After the first event it is difficult to draw far-reaching lessons and consequences, but we can certainly state that – despite the relatively small audience – the concert was successful. I hope that a lot more people will come to Stefánia Palace to attend the next two concerts," says the chief conductor, who also told us that they had been thinking a lot about the title of the concert series. Finally they had chosen the chorus from ’Victoria’, Pál Ábrahám’s operetta, as it includes the words ’army band’ and ’Stefánia’.

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Photo: Tünde Rácz