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about
Rudolf Balázs is a Hungarian violinist born in Budapest of a musical family. At the age of six he began his music education playing the piano. Later he changed to the violin and finished his studies at the Szabolcsi Bence Music School with distinction, and started playing with the young early music scene in Budapest. He continued his studies at the Szent István Conservatoire and later at the Weiner Leo Conservatoire in Budapest.
Wanting to explore baroque violin technics he moved to Rome and started his private studies. After spending more than a year in Italy he moved back to Budapest and had intense lessons with violinist Monika Tóth.
In 2010 he began his studies at the Early Music department at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Leipzig with Professor Susanne Scholz. In November 2018 Rudolf has been awarded with an MMus Music (Performance, Musicology, Pedagogy) under the guidance of Elizabeth Kenny and his violin teacher Caroline Balding at the University of Southampton.
He appears regularly with fine English and continental ensembles including The Hanover Band, The Sarabande Consort, Orchestra Barocca Lorenzo da Ponte, The Welsh Baroque Orchestra, Barock Orchester, Harmonia dell’Arcadia Bamberg, Ensemble OrQuesta, Musica Poetica and Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin. He has been appointed concert master of Musica Florens since 2013 in Budapest. He has been a soloist with Salisbury Baroque.
Rudolf works with Talenti Vulcanici, under the support of Il Centro di Musica Antica Pietà de' Turchini, which discovers and revives forgotten music from the and 18th century Naples. He recently recorded a CD with Talenti Vulcanici for the label Outhere and appeared with the ensemble in December 2018 in Stockholm.
LATEST RELEASE:
STABAT MATER – CONCERTO PER FLAUTO
CANTATA “ECCO L’ARA, ECCO IL NUME”
Nicola Bonifacio Logroscino, OUT THERE MUSIC
Rudolf plays first violin.
Composed 25 years after the celebrated work of the same name by Pergolesi, and for the same forces, the Stabat Mater by Nicola Logroscino (pronounced “Logròscino”) belongs to the long list of compositions born of the Neapolitan school, beginning with the model by Alessandro Scarlatti (1723). Although inspired by its illustrious precedents, this work distinguishes itself in its strong theatrical character, derived from the author’s long experience in opera (especially comic opera), of which he was a leading figure until the mid-eighteenth century. His Stabat Mater thus seems to be a veritable synthesis of operatic style, whereby lengthy arias alternate with lively duets, and passages of almost folk origins alternate with very simple recitatives. Giulia Semenzato, soprano, and Raffele Pe, countertenor, are the protagonists of this important rediscovery. This album – the first monographic recording dedicated to the composer – includes a brilliant cantata for soprano as well as a concerto for flute (played by Marcello Gatti), a work that represents a precious addition to the repertoire for this instrument. The ensemble “Talenti Vulcanici”, under the direction of Stefano Demicheli, deliver an instrumental performance of stylistic coherence and calibrated virtuosity, following their successful recording, Arias for Nicolino (A427), praised by critics for its “theatrical tautness and élan”, and “a reliable sense of pacing, detail and texture”. - David Vickers, Gramophone, August 2017
in concert:
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teaching
windsor music school
Rudolf teaches on a weekly basis at Windsor Music School, based in London. The lessons are 1-1 lessons with age groups ranging from four years to adults. Part of Rudolf’s responsibilities is to deliver lessons at Brandlehow School in Putney as delivered by Windsor Music School.
Private lessons
Rudolf delivers private lessons and tuition to other professionals and violin enthusiasts of all ages alike and is regularly available in London and Hampshire areas. If you are interested in further information about private lessons please contact Rudolf here.
One of the important aspects of Rudolf’s methodology of violin teaching is to ensure that students are instructed and helped to adopt healthy postures whilst playing. These good habits need to be instilled early in order to avoid muscle strains and tensions and later damage, so that students can play comfortably and healthily, and enjoy making music (such instruction is also good more broadly in ensuring good posture for class work and other situations throughout life). As part of this aspect of my teaching Rudolf also uses exercises with elements of the Alexander Technique and yoga.
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interests
the jacobean court masque
The court masque represented a strong collaboration between poetry, music, dancing, acting and stage design. In the Jacobean Era an emerged need for creating drama per musica reached its peak. This reflected strongly on the actual politics and intellectual pathways of a modern society on the British islands, showing James I's and Anne's literary tastes and political awareness. The court masque’s richness in providing numbers of different ways of self-expression and mediums for making various statement and meanings is significant. These aesthetic modes collaborate with each other and create an organic mixture of rhythm, sound, mathematical shapes and visual effects. The masque is an early Gesamtkunstwerk. A very good example here is the Lords Masque, performed on 14 February 1613, is one with a generous number of surviving scores and authentic music, building on classical mythology in a spacious cosmic setting with rapidly shifting episodes. A small universe of its own.
Great productions such as the court masque must have been a crucial playground and workshop, where different styles and technics where melting together. Some players were reading the old fashioned lute tablature, others were thinking in the new order of continental basso continuo. The court masque in Jacobean era was a space for development and looking outwards to Italy and France for the necessary technical and theatrical skills.
thomas campion
Thomas Campion, who lived from 1567 to 1620, was a medical doctor practicing in London and an amateur musician and great poet of his time. Campion’s style in composing the music for his lute songs, masques and instrumental intervals is different from such contemporaries as John Dowland in England. At the same time there is a significant similarity with such leading composers from Italy as Giulio Caccini, the key figure of the new monodic style of expressive repertoire for solo voice and basso continuo. Caccini’s Le Nuove Musiche challenges the performer with virtuoso passages and a strong need for sprezzatura in performing them. Surely Caccini’s music was very fashionable, circulating in European households for private entertainment and intellectual discussion.
We can imagine the environment that Campion worked in quite well. It is however more difficult to recreate or reimagine the manner in which his music was performed in. The preparation process for the court masques involved serious training and studying for the performers. It is hardly imaginable that the coaches of such celebrations would not have aimed for the latest fashion in performance practice. Campion would have known such continental fashions and taken advantage of his experiences from continental living and studying medicine in Caen, northwestern France, where he received his degree in 1605.
To be able to follow the performers’ practices we need to look at regional treatises which are touching upon our topic. One very important consideration here is that there is no printed treatise or other discussion writings about ornaments from this period in England. All the important textbooks were born on the continent. However, we have some ornamented versions of Campion’s songs to look at, and from these we can get an idea about the performance practice taste of the early 17th century English performers. Surely the ornaments cannot be taken as unquestionable codes for embellishment, because not all of them are well established ornaments or else they look forward to a later date.
italian early baroque
It has always been an inspiring thought for me to imagine the environment of the so-called Florentine Camerata, a group of intellectuals in flourishing renaissance Florence under the patronage of Count Giovanni de’ Bardi who recomposed fashions in literature and music. With particular reference to music, the Florentine Camerata based their ideals on a perception of ancient classical Greek drama, looking back to the tradition of monody. The reawakening and influence of this can be seen in wonderful examples such as Giulio Caccini’s collection of songs Le Nuove Musiche.
Instruments such as the cornetto, dulcian and violin joined the virtuoso passages of singers, creating a baroque illusion of melting together, often entering an engaged dialogue. The violin became a leading instrument in chamber music, partly because of its possibility of free intonation (“fret-less playing”).
“THE BEST BAR IN TOWN”
by Ròza Orbàn
I was supposed to write about metamorphosis, but it changed into something else and I can’t blame it for this – This is how I wanted to start this text, so that it would be in tune with the theme of Rudolf’s recital. You really want to be in tune whenever baroque music comes up. Indulge in the newly arisen tonality. I personally want to be in tune with anything that starts with a tonic. You can’t possibly reject something like that. Given my tonic, I become well-tempered within bars and around them as well and it just doesn’t stop getting better from here, even though I didn’t even modulate yet. After a certain amount of tonic I become more daring, when suddenly a thought about parallel minors strikes a chord in my head. I go for a walk and visit those infamous minors living not so far from us. I go there and look around. I’ve heard stories about them. About the things they do. The ways they behave. That they are different and that I shouldn’t go there. That they have no harmony. That I am sharper than they are. But then my ears get used to them almost immediately, I don’t even notice as it happens. I am just wondering that maybe those minors aren’t that much different at all. Maybe I was being lied to the whole time. It feels like the same old melody. They offer me another tonic, that I gladly accept. I was out anyway. I am standing outside the bar with a glass in my hand. Was this the terrible thing they tried to keep me away from? What’s so scary about it? After a while I start to be cold. There is noise coming from the inside. We exchange numbers and I go back to my other friends. They sound strange, but my ears get used to it in a minute. We are just chatting. A friend of ours has a recital the next day that we attend together. I go home early. I have a text to work on. I still have to figure out what to write about metamorphosis.
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gallery
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Selected performances
31.08.2018, Arcola Theatre, London.
Francesco Cavalli, Xerse
Ensemble OrQuesta
27.07.2017
Royal Gala Concert
Danielle de Niese soprano
Colin Lawson clarinet
Jorge Jimenez director/violin
Guy Black conductor
The Hanover Band (first violin section)
Buckingham Palace, London
Mozart Clarinet Concerto in A K.622
Mozart Soprano arias
Schubert Symphony No.5 in Bb9 in Eb
3 December 2016, Chiesa di Santa Caterina da Siena, Naples, Italy
Talenti Vulcanici ensemble della Pietá de’ Turchini
Christmas music from baroque Naples
Angelo Ragazzi (1680-1750): Sonata a 4 XII op. 1 in sol maggiore “Pastorale Apparizione (recitativo) – Andata (Allegro) – Adorazione (Vivace) – Canzona – Ritornata (Allegro) – Allegro
Giacomo Maraucci (sec. VIII): Cantata pastorale per soprano con strumenti (allegretto grazioso, allegretto, larghetto)
Francesco Manfredini (1684-1762): Concerto grosso Pastorale per il Santissimo Natale op.3 No. 12 (largo, largo, allegro)
Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725): Cantata pastorale per la nascita di Nostro Signore “Oh di Betlemme altera povertà” per soprano, due violini, viola e basso continuo
Alfonso Maria de Liguori (1696-1787): Quando nascette Ninno – versione per soprano e archi (arrangiamento di Alessandro Quarta)
Conductor Stefano Demichelli.
19 November 2016, ‘St Cecilitide Concert’, Stationers’ Hall, London
The Hanover Band and Chorus
Pergolesi, Stabat Mater; Vivaldi, Gloria
Rudolf played the first violin
with Mhairi Lawson Soprano and William Towers Alto
17 March 2016, Chapel of Jesus College, Cambridge, UK.
The Saraband Consort and the Jesus College Choir, Mark Williams conducting, with soloists Ed Lyon, Katy Hill, Anna Harvey, Jaliya Senanayake, Michael Mofidian. Rudolf played the first violin.
Johann Sebastian Bach, St John Passion BWV 245
7 May 2014, Leuven, Belgium.
Luca Baroque Orchestra, director Makoto Akatsu.
Friedrich der Grosse, Simfonie nr.3 ‘Il Re pastore’
J.J. Quantz, Concerto a 10 No. 4 in G major
J.G. Graun, Suite in d-minor for 2 horns, strings and basso continuo
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Concerto for harpsichord and hammerklavier in E-flat Wq.
27 July Krakow and 29 July 2014 Swidnica, Poland.
Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, and Poland Akademia Bachowska. The Bach Festival.
Johann Sebastian Bach: ‘Die Kunst der Fuge’ BWV 1080
6 March 2013, Teatro Communale, Ferrara, Italy.
Orchestra Barocca Lorenzo da Ponte, dir. Roberto Zarpellon
Antonio Vivaldi: Orlando Furioso RV 728
7 November 2010, Christ Church in Eutritsch, Leipzig, Germany.
Monterverdi Project players
First violin
‘Musica religiosa’:
Vocal and instrumental works of Claudio Monteverdi.
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CONTACT
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