World Premiere – 5 February 2026, 7:30 pm, Pesti Vigadó
An oratorio about faith, absence, and the loss of meaning.
On 5 February 2026, at the Pesti Vigadó, the world premiere of Kecskés D. Balázs’s new oratorio, The Crucified (Der Gekreuzigte), will take place. This large-scale composition, based on texts by Friedrich Nietzsche and featuring an unconventional libretto, rethinks the tradition of the sacred oratorio from a 21st-century perspective. The work also pays tribute to the 125th anniversary of Nietzsche’s death.
The conceptual point of departure for the piece is Johannes Brahms’s A German Requiem. Brahms’s biblically based yet theologically unorthodox composition shifts the focus away from the fate of the deceased toward the consolation of the living. Kecskés D. Balázs reverses this idea, posing the question: how can a sacred work emerge from profane, philosophical texts? Der Gekreuzigte begins with Nietzsche’s thought while remaining musically deeply connected to the great oratorio tradition.
At the center of the oratorio’s text stands the famous passage “The Parable of the Madman” from Nietzsche’s The Gay Science, in which the declaration “God is dead” is articulated. Nietzsche’s passionate, prophetically charged language addresses the fundamental questions of modern humanity: faith, freedom, responsibility, and the search for meaning in a world where traditional metaphysical frameworks have been destabilized. Through the incorporation of texts by János Pilinszky and biblical passages, the work creates a powerful post-religious tableau that explores the experience of the loss and absence of transcendence—an existential tension in which modern human beings both distance themselves from traditional spiritual frameworks and yet remain profoundly exposed to their longing for meaning.
The premiere will be performed by the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir, conducted by Gergely Dubóczky.
Soloists: Nóra Tatai (soprano), Csaba Horváth (baritone).
Programme:
Franz Liszt: Two Legends
Franz Liszt: Two Episodes from Lenau’s Faust
Kecskés D. Balázs: The Crucified (Der Gekreuzigte) – World Premiere
