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This year's Spring Festival ended with a favourite opera, a new musical, the liberation of the Firebird and the bustle of the Fringe.

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Yesterday Radu Lupu, who was giving a concert there, visited Tamás Vásáry in the Palace of Arts before his performance. While the old acquaintances played the piano for each other, the conductors also met: Iván Fischer talked with Péter Eötvös who was rehearsing for today's concert.

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Roberto Alagna gave a wonderful "history of music lesson" on Puccini in the Palace of Arts: he sang, in order of composition, a selection of arias by the Italian composer born 150 years ago.

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In the concert hall show elements are icing on the cake. Something on top of a quality performance. This something was Nigel Kennedy's football at his concert on March 27th.

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The four points of the compass met in Budapest on the evening of March 26th. Dance came from Andalusia, gospel music from Alabama, and at the concert of the Amadinda Percussion Group Western music answered the sounds of Asia.

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On the evening of March 25th the programme of the Saint Ephraim Male Choir was linked to the church feast and that of the National Philharmonics to the musical anniversary.

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On March 24th the Spring Festival spread a feast of world music productions by eight groups on its stage, and a 12-course Renaissance banquet on its table.

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The programme for the first ten days of the Spring Festival was partly determined by Easter that fell unusually early this year. The last of the concerts marking the holiday were held yesterday.

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Works by the choreographer José Limón and composer Hans Pfitzner were performed simultaneously in two halls of the Palace of Arts. Each of the two productions reflected on the work and legendary life of a great predecessor.

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The theory held in the 15th century about the mystical power of the dance conveyed by the Micrologus ensemble in their concert in the Italian Institute of Culture also underpinned Soul Dance, the performance by Yvette Bozsik in the Millenáris Teátrum.

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The spirit of the cultural interchange among the peoples and regions of the Danubian Habsburg Empire - and the later Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy - was revived by the concert held yesterday in the National Concert Hall, with both its participants and its programme.

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The story of the destructive emotional connections between two women and a man, and the result of Kálmán Berkes’s fruitful professional connections were presented at the same time on the evening of March 19th.

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On March 18th, 2008, many, many years after the hay market ceased to exist, the name Széna tér (Hay Square) gained new meaning. Hay giants appeared next door to the square, making themselves at home in different corners of the Millenáris Park.

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What makes a festival a festival? What makes it more than the mere sum of its events? The programme of the BSF on March 17th gives a clear answer to this question.

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The sixteenth of March brought three concerts where anyone could experience the energies that are released when independent music workshops get together and co-operate.

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The pleasant spirit of the national holiday was felt at several events of the Spring Festival. It was there at the Muzsikás Ensemble's concert and at the events in Vörösmarty tér, and it seems to have been present even in the Academy of Music.

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An exhibition titled Star in the shadow of the raven - János Vitéz and the beginnings of Humanism in Hungary opened at 3 p.m. yesterday in the National Széchényi Library, marking the start of the 2008 Budapest Spring Festival. The flag throwers in Renaissance costumes, drummers and knights in armour who appeared in the Lion Court were a reminder that this year's Festival and the exhibition are among the events of the Renaissance Year. In addition to many famous Hungarian and foreign artists, this year's festival will be marked by the 150th anniversary of the birth of Giacomo Puccini, the participation of Cluj as our guest, and the appearance of artists living with disability in the series devoted to equality of opportunity. And for the first time in the history of the festival two chief sponsors - MOL and OTP Bank - have joined forces in support of one of the major series of arts events in Hungary.

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The Budapest Spring Festival wishes to remind you once again that the tickets for the Vengerov-concert are not valid for Nigel Kennedy’s Mozart and Beethoven concert. Until March 1, all Vengerov-ticket holders are offered the possibility to exchange their tickets for the Nigel Kennedy concert. The Nigel Kennedy-tickets that are not reclaimed until the above date will be sold without restrictions.

Those who wish to attend the Nigel Kennedy-concert but do not have Vengerov-tickets will be put on a waiting list until March 1, following which the remaining tickets will be sold in order of the waiting list.

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You don't have to miss the best events of the Budapest Spring Festival just because you are a single!

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