The Mures County Council, the Targu Mures State Philharmonic Orchestra and the Iunona Association announced on Monday the organization of a symphony concert at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Budapest, in November of this year, in continuation of the cultural diplomacy project launched in 2024, when the Mures orchestra performed in Vienna, followed by last year's concert in Berlin.
"We begin 2026 with promising plans and projects, including the concert of the Targu Mures State Philharmonic Orchestra in Budapest on November 11. We are pleased that, at the initiative of the Iunona Association, Mures County is part of a series of successful cultural diplomacy events. After Vienna two years ago and Berlin last year, this year the Philharmonic Orchestra comes to Budapest, strengthening Romanian-Hungarian cultural and diplomatic ties. The concert is especially important for us: Hungary is our closest neighbor historically and culturally, and Budapest is a natural point of connection. Although we often host Hungarian artists at the Targu Mures Palace of Culture, the Philharmonic has not performed in Budapest since 1990, making this event a true cultural landmark," said Mures County Council president Peter Ferenc at a press conference.
Co-president of the Iunona Association, Mihail Porutiu, emphasized that the cultural diplomacy project, initiated in 2024, in Vienna, and continued last year in Berlin, has passed the test of maturity.
"This concert has a special significance. It was built as a project of our community - academic, cultural, entrepreneurial, and civic. It belongs to all the citizens of Targu Mures and Mures County. We are extraordinarily rich culturally: Romanians, Hungarians, Roma, Saxons. For this reason, the project carries such a positive meaning," said the co-president of the Junona Association.
Porutiu noted that the project was formally accepted during a December meeting at the Romanian Embassy in Budapest.
"We will follow the same pattern as in Vienna and Berlin: a partnership with the Romanian Embassy in Budapest. On the evening before the concert, there will be a reception at the Embassy with partners, Hungarian officials, and representatives from Mures County. The next morning, we will host an economic forum for companies from Mures and Hungary, and an educational forum in partnership with the University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science and Technology, as in Vienna and Berlin. In the evening, the concert will crown these two days of cultural diplomacy," Porutiu emphasized.
Performing alongside the Targu Mures State Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra will be Hungarian pianist Gergely Bogányi, winner of the Kossuth Prize and of the Liszt Ferenc Prize, and inventor of the Bogányi piano.
"I am honored to be part of the November concert. On November 11 in Budapest, I will play our new piano, a world innovation we have worked on for 20 years. Its shape, sound, and inner construction differ from traditional pianos, though we respect the classical design. This is a huge innovation, never done before anywhere in the world," Bogányi told the press.
Orchestra director György Levente announced that the program will include George Enescu's Romanian Rhapsody No. 1, followed by Liszt's Concerto in E-flat major performed by Bogányi.
"For the encore, Maestro Bogányi will compose a 10-minute cantata for solo piano, baritone - for my voice - and orchestra. It will likely be in Latin, a virtuosic religious hymn. In the second part of the concert, we will perform Brahms's Second Symphony. As encores, we will probably reprise Grigoras Dinicu's Hora Staccato and a Brahms Hungarian Dance, as we did in Berlin," Levente said.
The program will be conducted by Pablo Boggiano, with a public general rehearsal scheduled in Targu Mures in October.
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