Howard Williams returns to Budapest (Budapest) on Tuesday, January 20, 2026, to conduct the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra at the Palace of Arts (Müpa). The program, English Night – Coronation, sweeps through roughly 300 years of English music, from Baroque brilliance to the modern edge of the 20th century. Expect a stately lineup spanning Henry Purcell and George Frideric Handel to Hubert Parry, William Walton, and Benjamin Britten, each spotlighting a different era of the island nation’s sound and ceremony.
From Chapel to Concert Hall
Purcell’s courtly brilliance and Handel’s grandeur open the door to Parry’s noble Victorian surge, then Walton’s steel-nerved swagger, and Britten’s lucid drama. It’s a curated arc of English identity—choral roots, pageantry, and postwar bite—reshaped for a 21st-century stage.
A Royal Commission
The evening’s rarity is a work by Scottish composer James MacMillan, commissioned by Queen Elizabeth II herself. Its presence anchors the concert’s coronation theme in living tradition, as Williams leads the orchestra through a program steeped in ritual, history, and unmistakably British flair.
