With deepest regret, we have received the news of the death of Zoltán Kocsis, Hungarian pianist, composer and conductor, with whom the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra had twice arranged appearances that were, unfortunately, never actualised. One of the most significant and most versatile figures on the Hungarian music scene, Kocsis was supposed to direct the Belgrade Philharmonic in the current season (2016/17), within the concert series For Adventurers. However, some time ago, the artist cancelled all his concerts due to bad health, and conductor Michail Jurowski will stand in for him in the concert on 9 December.
The celebrated musician also had an arranged appearance with our orchestra in the season 2014/15, which was cancelled due to the same reason. On that occasion, the stand-in conductor was Daniel Raiskin. Kocsis did the Belgrade Philharmonic a great honour by delightedly accepting arrangements with our orchestra but, unfortunately, both the orchestra and the Belgrade audience have been denied this experience.
Zoltan Kocsis was a renowned Hungarian artist at the forefront of international artistic circles. He was one of the world’s leading peformers of the music of Béla Bartók and, from 2007, he was the chief music director of one of Hungary’s top symphony orchestras – the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra. Moreover, Kocsis promoted the contemporary Hungarian music of the 20th and 21st century. In addition to his activity as a conductor, soloist, chamber musician and teacher, he was also a composer, taking credit for countless orchestrations and piano transcriptions.
Zoltan Kocsis appeared with renowned orchestras such as the Berlin, Vienna and New York Philharmonic Orchestras, and as a soloist he cooperated with prominent maestros including Claudio Abbado, Colin Davis and Lorin Maazel.
