If we celebrate the gems of Hungarian music, we can hardly find anything more authentic than traditional folk music, Bartók's clearest spring and the domestically most popular and internationally best-known representatives of this genre: the Muzsikás Ensemble, founded in 1973. The partnership between the formation playing a pioneering role in the Hungarian traditional folk music revival and the Concerto Budapest Orchestra and András Keller goes back several decades.
At the Hungarian Gems concert, the ensemble will evoke the folk music tradition of various regions ranging from Slovenia to Transdanubia, the Great Hungarian Plain, Transylvania, from Gyimes to Moldova. Two worldwide celebrated and regular guest artists will take to the stage alongside the ensemble. The Hungarian Heritage and Prima Primissima Award-winning folk singer Mária Petrás acquired the then still alive csango musical tradition in her childhood. She conveys this traditional folk culture with great authenticity and precision. The Prima Primissima Award-winning cimbalom player, Kálmán Balogh has been conducting profound research on the traditional cimbalom performance of villages since the 1970s. He took an active part in the Hungarian cimbalom-revival movement and the urban popularisation and teaching of the rural traditions. Their joint Hungarian Gems concert is a genuine curiosity recalling the most natural Hungarian music tradition.