Highlights from the first, second and third movement of Concerto no.5 "The Forest in April", performed by Maya Fridman and the Noord Nederlands Orkest, conducted by Nicolò Foron.

Concerto no.5 "The Forest in April" (2021) - Highlights (Live recording)

Performed by the Discantus Ensemble, conducted by Péter Mészáros. Recorded at the Fasor Reformed Church, Budapest, 06.06.2021.

Miserere:

You created my inmost being. (Psalm 139, 13)
Miserere nobis. (Have mercy upon us.)
My frame was not hidden from you. (Psalm 139, 15)
Your eyes saw my unformed body. (Psalm 139, 16)
Miserere nobis.
Your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me were written is your book
before one of them came to be. (Psalm 139, 16)

Miserere - for mixed choir

Performed by the Residentie Orchestra, conducted by Nicholas Collon at the NTR ZaterdagMatinee Concert series January 13th, 2018. (World Premiere Recording)

Dedicated to Rick van Veldhuizen

Commissioned by NTR ZaterdagMatinee with financial support from Dutch Performing Arts Fund. Score published by Donemus

Le café de nuit (2017)

The piece is dedicated to John Michael Tresh.

Performed by Voce Chamber Choir (United Kingdom) and conducted by  Edward Watkins.  Recording by Linas Paulauskis

Nunc Dimittis

St. Mary's Mass for St. Peter

Ave Verum - Michael Garrepy

Balázs Kecskés D. is a Budapest-based composer, who writes music that calls to listeners’ imaginations offering them the sound space to experience the collision of multiple worlds. His influences range from St Augustine to Friedrich Nietzsche, from Franz Schubert to Katy Perry, and from J. S. Bach to Meredith Monk. His oratorio, Komm has been described as having a “unique profane spirituality, through which the audience can … be part of a truly sacred experience” (Bartók Radio, New Music Journal). Komm was presented at the 67th International Rostrum of Composers in October 2021, and in 2022 it was performed by Nils Scweckendiek in Gdansk and Helsinki. His orchestra piece, Blue, commissioned by the Netherlands Philharmonic was recently premiered at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam. Upcoming projects will include new choir pieces for the San Francisco Choral Artists.

His works have been premiered by ensembles such as the Helsinki Chamber Choir, the NeoQuartet, the Estonian Collegium Musicale Chamber Choir, the U.S.-based Garth Newel Piano Quartet, the Hungarian Radio Orchestra and Choir and the Budapest String Orchestra. Balázs’s compositions have been performed in Düsseldorf, Riga, London, Tbilisi, and Hot Springs, Virginia. 

One of only two composers selected to be mentored in the Peter Eötvös Foundation in 2021, Balázs has written music for groups such as Ars Nova Ensemble, France, the Danubia Orchestra Óbuda, Hungary and the Győr Philharmonic Orchestra. Balázs won the Istvánffy Benedek Award of the Hungarian Composers’ Union in 2020 and 2019. This award is given annually to an outstanding composer under 40.



As a lecturer at the Composition Department of the Liszt Academy of Music, Balázs teaches baroque and Viennese classical techniques and contemporary music analysis. Through his teaching activity he maintains a living connection with the classical repertoire, while exploring the latest in contemporary techniques together with his students. Understanding music in its broader cultural contexts, Balázs writes essays on everything from electronics and AI in classical music to comparing pop songs to Schubert Lieder.

He holds degrees from the Liszt Academy of Music where he studied with János Vajda, and spent a semester at the Luigi Cherubini Music as a student of Paolo Furlani.

Miserere - for mixed choir

Balázs KECSKÉS D.

Related tracks