In 2014, we celebrated the bicentenary of the birth of a great admirer of Italian Renaissance, the legendary Hungarian architect Miklós Ybl, who left behind not only his masterpiece, the Opera House but also such timeless works as the Castle Bazaar, St. Stephen’s Basilica and the Danubius Fountain on Erzsébet Square. The concert was attended by an audience of engineers and architects, and we have been trying to make the Ybl Concert a celebration of the architectural profession ever since. When compiling the programme for the concert, we try to select from masterpieces of Ybl’s contemporaries and often acquaintances. Before the concert, representatives of both the OPERA and the Ybl Society lay a wreath at the memorial tablet on the side wall of the Neo-Renaissance Opera House, accompanied by Italian Renaissance tower music, which was not possible for years due to the historical reconstruction of the building. However, 2022 saw the restoration of this beautiful tradition.

 

The guest of the 2025 gala is the Moldovan violinist Lilia Pocitari, who won first prize at the 2023 Bartók World Competition. This is not the first competition victory for the young artist, and the audience has already heard her playing at such prestigious venues as the Konzerthaus in Vienna, and she also appeared in Tel Aviv under the direction of Zubin Mehta. The special feature of the evening is that the violinist's mother also participates in the Bartók works in the programme playing the cymbalo.