Classical composers are such thieves! I've lost count of how many have ripped off old folk tunes for their works. Okay, I'm kidding - but old songs have long provided inspiration for wonderful orchestral adaptations. The evening's second piece was a suite of five songs from Bartók's "Twenty Hungarian Folksongs". In 1933 the composer added orchestral accompaniment to these five and stated, "These are not arrangements, but original compositions even though they made use of old folk melodies." Yeah, tell it to the judge, Béla.

What's a folk tune without a singer? Soprano Júlia Hajnóczy lent her clear voice to the five songs, entitled 'In Prison', 'An Old Bitter Song', 'Wedding Song I', 'Lament', and 'Wedding Song II'. She sang in Hungarian, of course, and it was too dark to follow the words in the program, but what struck me was the mood of each piece. The sad songs were beautiful and poetic but not at all dark, and the happy wedding songs were playful and intimate rather than exuberant and celebratory. The line "I am pretty Jani, aren't I, I am meant just for you" says it all. Perhaps Hungarian peasants were much more even-tempered than we might guess. Had these folk adaptations been written by Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich, we would have been dancing in the aisles one minute and looking for razor blades the next. Nobody does manic depression like the Russians.

Harold L. Weller, conductor of the Las Vegas Philharmonic, was right: there's no really good way to situate a piano for a piece like this next one. Maestro Kocsis is also an excellent pianist, and his podium was replaced at center-stage by a grand piano for Mozart's 'Concerto No. 17 in G Major'. Maestro Weller was talking about the problem of getting full volume from the instrument, but I was thinking about how it looked. I'm used to the conductor facing away from us, but when he's sitting at a piano, it seems rather strange. The upside, however, was the fun I had watching him play and conduct at the same time. As his eyes and hands constantly switched from one task to the other, he reminded me of a lady commuter trying to apply makeup in her rear-view mirror.

Ah, Mozart. The concerto sounded like a dance as much as the Bartók pieces did. Written in the three-movement style of the day, Wolfgang's concerto started "allegro," light and moderately fast, then relaxed in an "andante" second movement, then sped up again for the third movement - in this case "allegretto," accelerating to "presto" for the energetic finale. This translates into "dancing in the parlor, refreshing ourselves with a glass of wine, and then dancing out on the lawn." The concerto was played by an ensemble of strings and winds from the orchestra, with no percussion. The alternation between ensemble play and solo piano was smooth and precise and didn't break the flow of the music. We've all heard Mozart's wonderfully identifiable sound; I describe it as "All Europe in a good mood." I even saw some of the orchestra's musicians swaying to the gentle rhythms when they weren't playing. Mozart will do that to you. In my mind his music evokes elegant gatherings of happy Hapsburg aristocrats who don't care how hungry the even-tempered peasants are.

The Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra was formed in 1923 as the Hungarian State Symphony Orchestra. Bartók's "Dance Suite" was commissioned that year in commemoration of the official union of the adjoining cities of Buda and Pest (probably because no one liked the name "Pest"). Zoltán Kocsis became conductor and music director in 1997 after 14 years heading the Budapest Festival Orchestra. More information is available at the Philharmonic's excellent website, www.hunphilharmonic.org.hu/index.asp?lang=EN. This link should get you to the English-language version (the one without all the accent marks).

Hearing the orchestra play Antonin Dvorak's 'Symphony No. 3 in E Flat Major', and reading the program notes, I couldn't help thinking of wine tasting. The Symphony is said to contain influences of Richard Wagner (a really "big" cabernet), and Dvorak's work in general reportedly hints at his admiration for Beethoven (a complex burgundy), but what I tasted most in this piece was the peppery zinfandel of Tchaikovsky. The first movement contained powerful horns and sweeping strings, and with its constant shifts from intense to calm and back, it reminded me of the 1812 Overture without the cannons. The movement ended big with a rather climactic final chord reminiscent of the Swan Lake ballet suite. Like wine tasting, it's all rather subjective: "Did you taste the chocolate and blackberries in the finish?" Yeah.

During the pause, Maestro Kocsis (now only conducting) leaned back against the podium rail for a very long time. Whenever I could see his face tonight, he always had a somewhat bemused look, and at this moment I wondered if he were daring the audience to applaud when they weren't supposed to. Dang! He must have heard about us. Fortunately, no one bit this time.

After the "allegro" first movement, the second was played "adagio" in a peaceful but somber funeral march. The graceful string melodies required great finesse from the violinists as they showed us the meaning of "pianissimo." The third movement came back "allegro vivace," even more energetic than the first. Intensity still increased and decreased, but the staccato horn-playing never let the music calm down. The final crescendo featured triumphal fanfares (trombones again) and a big, sharp ending note.

As the audience applauded enthusiastically, Maestro Kocsis did something I hadn't seen before: he wandered among his musicians, shaking hands as he encouraged (and sometimes even goaded) individuals or sections to stand and be recognized. After he got tired of returning to the podium for bows, he led the orchestra in a brief encore, the Brahms 'Hungarian Dance No. 10' - "one of his originals," said the conductor. Where have I heard that before? This very lively piece was played "presto" and sounded positively ebullient. Now, that's a dance! Okay, maybe the Hungarian peasants could get a little manic, but that's a good thing. The old folk tunes certainly provided a rich musical experience tonight. Throughout the performance, the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra sounded crisp and very sure of itself, as if it had been playing this music for years and years - which it has.

— Reviewed at Artemus W. Ham Concert Hall, Las Vegas; January 17, 2003 by Robert LaGrone, Las Vegas Jetsetters Magazine Entertainment Editor.