Some 30 kilometres east of Budapest, at the southern tip of the Gödöllõi Dombvidék Landscape Protection Area lies the town of Pécel and its Ráday castle. Built between 1722 and 1730, it is notable for its murals dating from 1766 and featuring words by poet, translator and politician Gedeon Ráday. His life, which spanned the 18th century from 1713 to 1792, coincided with that of German-born composer Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788).
Did they know of each other’s existence? Perhaps, but at any rate poet, composer and mansion are being brought together by Budapest Festival Orchestra, whose Chateau Concert this Sunday starts off with a guided tour of the castle and its murals.
The programme continues with works by a number of period composers: C.P.E. Bach’s Twelve Short Pieces for flute and harpsichord, three concertos by Italian composer and violinist Evaristo Felice dall’Abaco (1675-1742), a Notturno for flute, horns and strings by Antonio Rosetti (born Franz Anton Rösler in Bohemia circa. 1750, died 1792) and a symphony by Austrian Carl Dittersdorf (1739-1799), the latter inspired by the same Ovidian Metamorphoses that feature on the hall’s murals.
Tickets for HUF 10,000 include the guided tour, a glass of champagne and the concert. The tour is in Hungarian but organisers can help with translation.
The ticket
Budapest Festival Orchestra
Sunday 2 June at 5.30pm
Ráday Castle, 2119 Pécel, Kálvin tér 1
Accessible by bus (metro M2 to Örs Vezér tere, then bus 169 to Pécel’s Kossuth tér); by train (from Keleti station, stop at Pécel railway station); by scheduled Volán bus on the Budapest-Dány line from Örs Vezér tere; and by car on the M0.
www.bfz.hu/en/ (in English)
