Győr, Hungary
On 16 October, the Győr Philharmonic Orchestra welcomes audiences to the Richter János Concert Hall in Győr, Hungary, for an evening showcasing the expressive power of the cello. Led by Martin Panteleev, the orchestra is joined by internationally acclaimed cellist Maximilian Hornung, whose artistry promises a performance of exceptional depth, elegance, and virtuosity.
Martin Panteleev was born into a family of musicians and began studying violin at the age of four. He received his early musical education at the National Music School “Lyubomir Pipkov” in Sofia, where he studied until 1995. He later continued at the State Academy of Music in Sofia in the violin class of Prof. Jossif Radionoff while also studying conducting and composition with Prof. Vassil Kasandzhiev.
After his debut with Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra in 2004, he became permanent guest conductor and later served as Chief Conductor from 2011 to 2017.
Throughout his career, Martin Panteleev has collaborated with more than 30 international orchestras including Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra, Berliner Symphoniker, SWR Philharmonie Konstanz, Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra, Royal Bangkok Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Nova Scotia, Orquesta Filarmónica de Jalisco, Orquesta Sinfónica de Buenos Aires and Israel Symphony Orchestra.
Read MoreHe has conducted in some of the world’s leading concert halls including Royal Concertgebouw, Berlin Philharmonie, and Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory. He has also appeared at major festivals such as Rheingau Musik Festival, MDR Musiksommer and Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival.
From 2012 to 2019 Panteleev served as Principal Guest Conductor of Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2011, he became the first conductor to lead an African orchestra on a tour of the United States.
Panteleev is also widely recognized as a composer. His works include three symphonies for large orchestra, cantata Planetary Traces for choir, orchestra, and soloists, Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra and symphonic poem Archetypes. His music has been performed in Germany, England, China, South Africa, Romania, Bulgaria, and North Macedonia.
For his artistic achievements he has received numerous awards including Béla Bartók Prize, the “Music and Earth” Composition Competition, Honorary Award of Bulgarian Ministry of Culture, and title “Musician of the Year” in Sofia in 2014.
Since 2018, he is as Principal Guest Conductor of Würth Philharmoniker and has led acclaimed performances in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and Belgium.
Maximilian Hornung has established himself as one of the leading cellists in recent years. His playing is characterized by great naturalness, paired with technical mastery and an enormously versatile, powerful and unique tone, which he always puts at the service of the music. His ability to connect with the audience on a deeply emotional level and his charismatic presence make him stand out. In addition to the much-performed core repertoire such as Dvorak, Elgar and Schumann, he also regularly devotes himself with great curiosity to the lesser-known cello masterpieces.
As a soloist, he has performed with such renowned orchestras as the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, the Orchestre National de France, the Bayerisches Staatsorchester, the Czech Philharmonic, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Helsinki Philharmonic, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra under conductors such as Daniel Harding, Yannick Nézét-Séguin, Paavo Järvi, Marie Jacquot, Mariss Jansons, Esa-Pekka Salonen, David Zinman, Pablo Heras-Casado, Semyon Bychkov, Bernard Haitink, Manfred Honeck, Antonello Manacorda, John Storgårds Michael Francis, Krzysztof Urbański and Robin Ticciati.
Read MoreHis chamber music partners include Anne-Sophie Mutter, Vilde Frang, Denis Kozukhin, Julia Fischer, Antje Weithaas, Hélène Grimaud, Daniil Trifonov, Hisako Kawamura, Christian Tetzlaff, Lisa Batiashvili, François Leleux, Joshua Bell, Yefim Bronfman und Herbert Schuch. He has been invited to numerous festivals, including Schwetzingen, the Salzburg Festival, Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Rheingau, Lucerne, Verbier, Lockenhaus, Ravinia and Hong Kong. He is a regular guest at venues such as the Berlin, Cologne and Essen Philharmonie, the Vienna Musikverein, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and London's Wigmore Hall. In recent years, he has also made a name for himself as a soloist and conductor and regularly conducts projects, most recently with the Orchestra della Svizzera italiana..
In the 2024/25 season, Maximilian Hornung will make his debuts with the Bergen and Tampere Philharmonic as well as the Essener Philharmoniker, will once again appear with the WDR Symphony Orchestra and will be artist-in-residence of the Munich Symphony Orchestra as a soloist, chamber musician and conductor in and around Munich. He continues to perform in play-conduct projects with the Munich Chamber Orchestra and the Wuppertal Symphony Orchestra. His chamber music appearances include the Rheingau Music Festival, Incontri in Terra di Siena and the Chamber Music Festival Taipei, as well as with Vilde Frang and Denis Kozukhin at London's Wigmore Hall.
His versatile discography is impressive and includes solo concerts as well as recordings with prominent chamber musicians. He received the ECHO Klassik Prize for his first album (Sony 2011) – for which he was designated as Young Artist of the Year – as well as for his recording of Dvořák’s Cello Concerto with the Bamberg Symphony under the direction of Sebastian Tewinkel the following year (Sony 2012). Further recordings have included Richard Strauss’ major cello works with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Bernard Haitink (Sony 2014) and Joseph Haydn’s cello concertos with the Kammerakademie Potsdam under Antonello Manacorda (Sony 2015). In 2017, Deutsche Grammophon released a highly acclaimed recording of Schubert’s Trout Quintet with Anne-Sophie Mutter and Daniil Trifonov, amongst others. Further recordings were released on Genuin, Linn Records, NEOS, Bridge Records, and CPO. In 2018, myrios classics released his recording of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 2 and Sulkhan Tsintsadze’s Cello Concerto No. 2 with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin under Andris Poga.
Maximilian Hornung, born 1986 in Augsburg, began taking cello lessons at the age of eight. The teachers with whom he has studied most intensely are Eldar Issakadze, Thomas Grossenbacher, and David Geringas. As cellist of the Tecchler Trio, in which he played until 2011, he won the First Prize of the ARD Music Competition in 2007. At the age of only 23, he became first principal cellist of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and held this position until 2013. Maximilian Hornung has been supported and sponsored by his mentor Anne-Sophie Mutter and the Borletti-Buitoni Trust in London. Since the spring of 2022, he has been Artistic Director of the Traunsteiner Sommerkonzerte.
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra debut of cellist Maximilian Hornung on Friday night added another element of surprise to Strauss’ work [‘Don Quixote’]: His performance seemed to take stock of all this textured material and rise above it all, producing a breath with each statement. (...) Mr. Hornung’s clear-eyed interpretation capably sifted through Strauss’ dense musical material, his tone direct yet warm. Like an able guide navigating through an undiscovered forest, he commanded the pace of the work…
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The professionals of classical music are familiar with the names of Artur Nikisch, world-famous conductor and founder of several well-known European and American orchestras, and János Richter, world-renowned conductor, but just a few of those know that both of them were connected by thousands of ties to the city of Győr which hosts Győr Philharmonic Orchestra. The career of Artur Nikisch began here, then he became one of the most significant characters of the musical life of the era, whereas in 1862 János Richter’s father, Antal Richter established the predecessor of Győr Philharmonic Orchestra, the Song and Music Association of Győr, which became the Orchestra of the Municipality of the city of Győr in 1894, then several years later the semiprofessional art institution was transformed into a professional concert orchestra. After changing the director and the concept in 2008 the Győr Philharmonic Orchestra renewed, and the latest success story of the Orchestra began since then.
Read MoreBy now the work of the Orchestra is characterized by professionalism, innovative solutions, and international standard, which provides world class professional qualities to its partners, audience, soloists and guest conductors who have worked with it, by realizing the objectives of the founders of the Orchestra according to the spirit of the current era. The performances of the Orchestra were followed by great successes nearly in all European countries, and it has even managed to gain the professionals and the audience’s considerable recognition on the most significant stages of Asia, in China, South Korea and Taiwan.
The Orchestra went on a successful tour to the Far East and Europe with the legendary Italian film music composer and conductor, the Oscar winner Ennio Morricone in the spring of 2009, furthermore the Ensemble gained special professional recognition as it was chosen and nominated to be the residence orchestra of the Hungarian gala of Operalia, the international opera competition, established by Placido Domingo. The Orchestra has been conducted by famous Hungarian and international maestros over the past decades including Alpaslan Ertüngealp, Michalis Economou, Angelo Epfrikian, Lamberto Gardelli, Zsolt Hamar, Arvid Jansons, Mariss Jansons, András Keller, Kobayashi Ken-Ichiro, Zoltán Kocsis, János Kovács, András Ligeti, Ludovit Rajter, Yuri Simonov, Gilbert Varga, Carlo Zecchi, Alastair Willis, Attilio Tomasello, Erwin Ortner…
We have entertained our audience with worldfamous soloists including Alexandru Agache, Kristóf Baráti, Gergely Bogányi, Gábor Boldoczki, András Csáki, Jörg Demus, Annie Fischer, Walter Fraccaro, Endre Gertler, Ida Haendel, Jenő Jandó, Cyprien Katsaris, Zoltán Kocsis, Michael-Martin Kofler, Ildikó Komlósi, József Lendvay, Gyöngyi Lukács, José Cura, Olesya Petrova, Bobby McFerrin, Bruce Dickinson, Erika Miklósa, Aga Mikolai, Sándor Nagy, Jevgenyij Nyesztyerenko, Zoltán Orosz, György Pauk, Miklós Perényi, Dezső Ránki, István Ruha, Vilmos Szabadi, The King’s Singers, Gilbert Varga, István Várdai, György Vukán, Bernadett Wiedemann, Sabine Meyer, Sarah Chang, Sharon Kam, Angel Blue, Stefan Pop,
Sergei Nakariakov, Cyprien Katsaris, Ramón Vargas, Canadian Brass, Wiener Sängerknaben ...
In addition to keeping the standard classicaltraditional pieces on its rich repertoire, the Orchestra is able to perform popular music by combining it with its professionalism.
According to the expectations set forth to this regional, cultural ensemble and top musical institution of the region, it serves simultaneously as a classical-traditional orchestra, a crossover film band, an outdoor or gala orchestra, a smaller or bigger chamber orchestra and possibly a concertbrass and reed band.
The Director of the Győr Philharmonic Orchestra has been Géza Fűke since July 2008, the Artistic Director of the Orchestra has been Kálmán Berkes, Liszt Award and The Gold Medal of the Grammy Prize holder clarinet player and conductor, who has been the professor and conductor of Musashino Academy of Music, Tokyo, between 1992 and 2017. The chief conductor of the Orchestra has been Martin Rajna since January 2021.
