June 19–21, 2026, Eger and Bélapátfalva will light up again with the Bükki Művészeti Napok (Bükk Arts Days) Baroque Festival, blending historic venues, summer nights, and vivid live performances. The aim: to bring Baroque music to life in authentic spaces—churches, castles, and open-air courtyards—while keeping classical culture open to everyone, not just purists. With Eger’s storied streets and the Bükk’s natural backdrop, music, history, and landscape fall into easy harmony.
Opening Fanfares and Sacred Echoes
Friday, June 19, kicks off at 16:30 on Eger City Hall’s balcony with open-air brass: the Liszt Academy Trombone Quartet sets the tone under artistic director Buda Gulyás. At 17:00, the Farkas Ferenc Music School hosts Énekek éneke (Song of Songs), performed by the Tercina Ensemble with actor Anna Györgyi weaving text and timbre. By 19:00, the spotlight shifts to the Abbey Church in Bélapátfalva for Canticum Canticorum (Palestrina 500), a luminous concert by the Cantus Agriensis choir, led artistically by Buda Gulyás, featuring contralto Kornélia Bakos and conducted by Péter Pál Gergely.
Opera Spark and Handel’s Kings
Saturday, June 20, at 17:30, the Bartakovics Béla Community House hosts J. Haydn’s fizzy comic opera Az énekesnő (The Diva), staged by the Budapest Chamber Opera. Cast: Nóra Ducza as Gasparina, Kornélia Bakos as Apollonia, Zoltán Megyesi as Don Pelagio, and Gergely Biri as Don Ercole, under artistic director Pál Németh. At 19:30, the Chapel of the English Ladies (Kossuth L. u. 8.) turns to Scripture with Salamon király nyomában (In the Footsteps of King Solomon): excerpts from G. F. Handel’s biblical oratorios, featuring alto Eszter Balogh, bass Lóránt Najbauer, and the Savaria Baroque Orchestra, conducted by Pál Németh.
Sunday Radiance and Marcello’s Psalms
Sunday, June 21, at 11:00, the Archbishop’s Courtyard (Széchenyi u.) presents A szépség dicsérete (In Praise of Beauty), a matinée with the Eger Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Máté Szabó Sipos. At 16:30, tower music rings out from the Cistercian Church gallery with the Liszt Academy Trombone Quartet. At 17:00 inside the church, Benedetto Marcello’s Psalms of David unfold with a stellar quartet: Nóra Ducza (soprano), Péter Bárány (countertenor), László Kéringer (tenor), and László Jekl (bass).
