More often than not, Janos Solyom's public appearances tend to become headline stuff in Sweden's national newspapers. This was especially true in the case of his 1995 project called Sounds of Defiance, the aim of which was to reconstruct, perform and keep alive music written in the concentration camp of Terezin by 20th century composers whom the Nazis wanted the world to forget.
Recitals revitalized
In order to breathe new life into that most beloved but slightly ossified art form, the Piano Recital, Mr. Solyom usually draws attention to his concerts in more than one way. Some samplers:
National composer re-discovered
Quite accidentally, Solyom finds in a library a little masterpiece by Swedish national composer Wilhelm Stenhammar, totally unknown to everybody, never before performed. So, he hires the Royal Dramatic Theatre in the middle of Stockholm, combines the Stenhammar-piece with music associated with Shakespeare, Ibsen and Strindberg, causes a furore and earns a place in the annals of Swedish musical history.
Who the hell was Alkan?
On another occasion, he puts on and sells out a recital in the city's vast Concert House to celebrate the 150th birthday of that great recluse of music, Charles-Valentin Alkan, totally unknown to Swedish audiences. The caption on the beautifully designed posters covering many a Stockholm wall is: WHO THE HELL WAS ALKAN?
Gustav Mahler: the Nostradamus of music
A somewhat irrational infatuation with Gustav Mahler's gigantic Fifth Symphony leads Mr. Solyom to prepare a viable piano version of the work. Whilst toiling away, he discovers a hidden programme behind it all, and comes to the conclusion that this symphony, written at the beginning of the 20th century, is nothing short of a prophecy of things to come: the two World Wars and the Holocaust. As if Nostradamus himself had written a symphony! In it you can hear all the torments of a Jew trying to become "one of them", the highly explosive contrasts between town and country, high and low, Jew and Gentile. Janos Solyom's presentation of Mahler's Fifth in words and on the piano is a novel and well-nigh unique way of bringing audiences closer to this roller-coaster of the human psyche.
In London, Janos gives three Sunday Morning Champagne Recitals at St. John’s, Smith Square that he calls ABC Concerts: A for Alkan, B for Brahms (the early sonatas) and C for Clementi.
Performing the five Beethoven concertos with the Stockholm Phil on two consecutive evenings also makes quite a stir.
Ailing Masters
This was a concert specially devised and exclusively created for the 15.000 delegates at the 19th European Congress of Cardiology in Stockholm in August 1997. It was called Ailing Masters and highlighted all kinds of heart conditions that classical masters suffered from and died of. Their symtoms can be traced in their music, at least when Janos Solyom is the "master of ceremonies"! This unique cardio-musicological foray featured him in his quadruple capacity as pianist, conductor, programme presenter and layman of medicine.