Meybahar Trio x Csontváry

A new series starts in one of the most unique spaces of the House of Music, in the Sound Dome, where, alongside 360° film screenings, we have already had live music evenings at DOME_LIVE events, but now under the title Dome Concerts, further live music productions will fill this unusual venue. At the first such event, the global music group Meybahar Trio, inspired by Greek and Asia Minor musical cultures, will perform, accompanying the Sound Dome's film DOME 016 Csontváry: Levant with their music.

The captivating world of Meybahar is rooted in the music of the Aegean Sea and Asia Minor cultures. The band is directly inspired by the connection of the ancient Eastern modal musical heritage with the present day and the charm of the beauty of moments freely re-experienced in space and time. Meybahar was born from the meeting of Greek santour player Marilia Pilti and violinist Márton Kopcsik in Budapest. The unique atmosphere created by the two instruments' play and Meybahar's sound is completed by percussion, wind instruments, double bass, and vocals. The three-member formation will set the Csontváry film of the Sound Dome to music for this concert, evoking the music of places visited by Csontváry – promising an unmissable experience.


About the Csontváry film:
An audiovisual adaptation of Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka's paintings under the sign of the sunlight path, from Naples to Jerusalem.

Vision or vision? Many have already asked this question when viewing the paintings of Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka. Considered quite unique and eccentric in the history of Hungarian art, the works of this artist leave no one indifferent. His painterly genius and the myth he himself fed, that he heard a divine revelation: “You will be the greatest plein air painter in the world, greater than Raphael” determined his entire art. He was passionate about the works of Raphael and Mihály Munkácsy, trained at Simon Hollósy's painting school in Munich, and later at the Julian Academy in Paris, to finally develop his unmistakable "Csontvárys" style.

Never-seen landscapes that keep dreams awake, and the reality directed towards the sky, the depiction of living nature trending towards surrealism, are keys to his art. He sought the sunlight path, the grand motif, and mysticism, and believed he could only find these in the East, in the countries of the Levant. At the turn of the 20th century, he made several trips to the provinces east of Italy, following the increasingly popular Asian tourist routes. “Athens, Constantinople, Baalbek, Damascus, Nazareth, Jerusalem, Cairo” – a listing on the cover of a Berlin travel guide published in 1901 provides almost a complete catalog of the painter's inspiring locations.
Our musical journey leads along a route made with four scenes and twelve paintings, from the city of Castellammare in the bay of Naples, through Athens, then Jerusalem, to the 6000-year-old cedar of Baalbek.

Csontváry's monumental paintings, masterly brushwork, and colors glowing from an unlocatable, unidentifiable light source filled with the power of the soul, are now enchanting visitors at the Sound Dome of the House of Music. By following the traveler from 100 years ago, eager to explore, one might board a plane, ship, or maybe a train, to pursue the myth and answer the question: is the master's oeuvre a sight or a vision?