A joint concert by Szabolcs Szamosi and István Pál “Szalonna”

Is there a pairing of instruments that, even in the stillness of a church, can preserve the celebrations, weddings and sorrows of village life? This joint concert by Szabolcs Szamosi, Liszt Prize-winning organist, and István Pál “Szalonna,” Liszt Prize-winning folk musician, is about precisely that: the invisible bridge that has always stretched between sacred and secular music, between the church organ and the folk violin — a bridge we rarely stop to notice. On this evening, the two artists make it visible.

The programme opens with Béla Bartók’s Moderato–Allegro: a fitting beginning, since it was Bartók who travelled from village to village with a phonograph under his arm, convinced that a peasant melody could contain as much depth as a symphony. Ostinato by László Kelemen — ethnographer and composer — continues in the same spirit. Its title refers to a persistently recurring musical motif, the kind of pattern that also lies at the heart of traditional dance music. And there is good reason why this music sounds so authentic in his hands: László Kelemen himself grew out of the folk tradition.

At the heart of the evening is the Genevan Psalm 42, the hymn beginning “Mint a szép híves patakra” (“As the Deer Longs for the Cooling Stream”) — a psalm associated with both the beginning and the end of life. It also holds a moving twist: although Albert Szenczi Molnár’s translation has made it one of the best-loved hymns of Hungarian Reformed Christianity for more than four hundred years, the melody itself is secular in origin. Researchers have traced it back to a popular French song preserved from 1505. In other words, the intertwining of sacred and earthly music is present not only in the theme of the concert, but within the melody itself.

The Morning Star carries a double light as well. In Christian tradition, it can symbolize both Christ and Mary, while in astronomical terms the same celestial body shines as both the morning and evening star: Venus.

The programme also includes Johann Sebastian Bach’s Concerto in D minor — the work of a young court organist still in his twenties, who transcribed one of Antonio Vivaldi’s violin concertos from the celebrated L’estro armonico collection for his own instrument, compressing the parts of two violins and a cello into a single organ. From this act of transformation, something entirely new emerged: Bach’s own voice, learning to speak in Vivaldi’s musical language.

The most beautiful music is born where two worlds meet.