Budapest (MTI) – The German government has commissioned Hungarian conductor Ivan Fischer, who is music director and chief conductor of both the Berlin Konzerthaus and the Budapest Festival Orchestra, to programme and conduct a commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the Berlin Wall’s collapse on Nov. 9.
The event taking place in the Konzerthaus’ main hall is scheduled to be attended by Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Joachim Gauck, and addressed by EP President Martin Schulz.
Guests will include former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and former Hungarian Prime Minister Miklos Nemeth, the orchestra said in a statement.
It said that Fischer did not want to disclose further details, noting however that the concert that the Festival Orchestra had given on August 18, 1989 in Budapest had been historic.
Fischer at the time invited 400 East German refuges to attend BFZ’s Beethoven concert, it said.
After the concert a 15-member group of West German diplomats went to meet Fischer in his dressing room to thank him.
Photo: www.bfz.hu