Festival Fanfare

Pieces for wind are an essential part of the impressive oeuvre of Árpád Balázs (born 1937). His orchestral and chamber music for wind is always popular on the world's concert platforms. In 1990 he founded the Hungarian Association of Wind Ensembles of which he was the President until 1998. Since then he has been the President Emeritus.

The first version of the Festival Fanfare (with 3 trumpets and without French horn) was premiered at a national ceremony for the 1100th anniversary of Hungary in 1996. Later the composer transcribed the piece for brass octet. Being accommodated to the international standard scoring of brass quintets, the work reached its final form for two trumpets,horn, trombone and tuba in 2017.

With its palindromic form (A-B-C-B-A) the 4-5 minute-long composition is a set of historical pictures. The introductory and final sections symbolize the nation's perpetual resumption of the search for a new path and its will to survive. The inner sections invoke a vision of tumultuous battles and the splendour of the royal courts of kings and princes.