Zoltán Kovács

Zoltán Kovács is also a practising musician — principal bassoonist at the Hungarian State Opera House, and formerly a player in the Budafok Dohnányi Orchestra — so it is a particular pleasure for me to present his works. He studied composition with Emil Petrovics, an outstanding composer and creator of masterworks. Zoltán Kovács writes extremely evocative music. In his art he follows, in many respects, the philosophy of his teachers’ generation (János Vajda, György Orbán), which remains, as a natural matter of course, faithful to the musical traditions of earlier centuries and to the collective musical memory of the twentieth. He draws boldly on his great predecessors, yet fuses it all into a distinctive, cohesive, endearing and enjoyable language.

He is a musician who, by his own admission, believes in classical beauty rather than in novelty for its own sake, who prizes beauty and proportion, and who, as a composer, stays committed to classical musical values. I first came to know his First Symphony, inspired by the legend of Saint Agnes, and was at once captivated by the music and by the range of techniques he employs. It is an exceptionally vivid, clearly drawn piece, appealing and accessible to the audience — a deeply human work, able to bring contemporary music closer to everyone.