Lunchtime Concerts: Where Saxophone Meets Piano

In 2024, MA students from the Institute of Art and Music at ELTE BTK launched their project Practice at the Highest Level, offering music students the chance to perform in Budapest’s iconic Trefort Garden. The goal of these concerts is simple yet powerful: to enrich cultural life and weave high-quality musical experiences into everyday routines.

Performers:
Viktória Pusomi (Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music) – saxophone
Noémi Bakó (Franz Liszt Academy of Music) – saxophone
Balázs Márton Péter (Széchenyi István University Faculty of Arts) – piano

Program:
Jean-Baptiste Singelée: Duo concertant, op. 55
Jun Nagao: Paganini Lost

The audience first heard the ensemble in 2023 in the Solti Hall of the Liszt Academy of Music. Subsequently, the musicians were given the opportunity to perform in the Lunchtime concert series at the House of Music, where they played to a full house. The members met during their high school years, so they are not only colleagues but also childhood friends.

The works performed at the concert were all originally written for the saxophone. Singelée's Duo concertant dates back to the time when the saxophone was invented, making it one of the freshest pieces composed for the instrument during the Romantic era. Jun Nagao's Paganini Lost evokes the theme of Paganini's 24th capriccio while creating a modern soundscape. The two pieces create an exciting dialogue between classical and contemporary saxophone literature.