MUSIC
FRIDAY & SATURDAY, APRIL 5 & 6, 2019
8:00 PM

Budapest Festival Orchestra
Carnegie Hall
881 7th Avenue, Midtown, Manhattan

$15-$98
https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2019/04/05/Budapest-Festival-Orchestra-0800PM
https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2019/04/06/Budapest-Festival-Orchestra-0800PM

This really stretches the inner limits of what this List covers.  But Bartók, whose music is the subject of these two concerts, provides an excellent way in for people who think they don't like mainstream classical music.  It's not because Bartók makes extensive use of Hungarian folk music, but because that music, with its pentatonic scales and strong rhythmic underpinnings, sounds so modern, so accessible to listeners of African-derived American pop music.  The Saturday show is particularly notable in this regard, coupling a concert performance of Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle -- a unique and stunning experience, and one of the very best operas of the 20th Century -- with contrasting sets of Hungarian folk songs sung by the Hungarian folk legend Márta Sebestyén and Bartók folk-song settings.  But don't ignore the Thursday show, featuring Bartók's chef de ouevre, the Concerto for Orchestra, along with the savage Miraculous Mandarin suite and some almost never-performed choral pieces.  It doesn't hurt that the Budapest Festival Orchestra is one of the world's best, and that its founder, Ivan Fischer, is not only a genius conductor but also a profound musical thinker who is one of the best programmers in the business (as these shows attest).

MAKE A NIGHT OF IT:  Donburiya not only serves delicious Japanese food, but it stays open as late as a New York restaurant should.