The story of the National Philharmonic Orchestra (formerly the Hungarian State Symphony Orchestra) began in 1923, with the formation of the Metropolitan Orchestra, which rapidly became one of the pillars of Hungarian musical life. After the war, Ferenc Fricsay and László Somogyi were appointed as principal conductors. During this era, Otto Klemperer also conducted forty concerts, while another regular guest was Antál Doráti.
In the 1950's, the orchestra began a series of highly successful foreign appearances. 1952 saw the appointment of János Ferencsik as principal conductor, which proved to be a match made in heaven for the orchestra. In the 1960's, a new wave of guest conductors took up invitations to conduct the orchestra, and their names read like a Who's Who of the profession: Ernest Ansermet, Antál Doráti, Zubin Mehta, Lorin Maazel, Sir John Barbirolli, Leopold Stokowski, Claudio Abbado and Christoph von Dohnányi. Soloists to perform with the orchestra included such legends as Sviatoslav Richter, Yehudi Menuhin, Anja Silja, János Starker and Ruggiero Ricci, to name only a few.
János Ferencsik's death in 1984 brought this chapter of the orchestra's history to a close. But in 1987, a fitting successor to Ferencsik was found in the person of the Japanese conductor Kobayashi Ken-Ichiro. Kobayashi enjoyed immense popularity in Hungary and he directed the orchestra for ten years. The next major change for the orchestra occurred in 1998 when it was renamed Hungarian National Philharmonic and together with the Hungarian State Choir (now Hungarian National Choir) became national basic institutions.
In the past few years, the orchestra has received a remarkable number of invitations to perform abroad, It has enjoyed immense successes at venues as far apart as the New York Avery Fisher Hall, the Tokyo Suntory Hall, the Birmingham Symphony Hall, the Athens Megaron Musicos and the Colmar Festival. ConcertoNet, the distinguished internet classical music journal nominated the orchestra's concert in New York in February 2003 as the winner of the Lully Prize for the best concert of the season.
In Spring 2003, after a long pause in making recordings, a CD consisting of Zoltán Kocsis’s orchestrations of Debussy and Ravel was published which immediately won the Hungarian Gramofon award and also the international jury prize at the Cannes Midem Classical Awards. In February 2004 the orchestra released a further three CDs: one contained three Bartók works – Dance Suite, Concerto and the Hungarian Peasant Dances. The editor in chief o the American ClassicsToday.com, the jury chairman of the Cannes Midem said „There exists no better recording of Dance Suite.” Of the Concerto, he wrote „there has never been a recording of this work like it, it is so exciting and in form and spirit, entirely faithful to Bartók’s score”

Born in Budapest in 1952, Zoltán Kocsis launched his international career at the age of eighteen when he won Hungarian Radio's International Beethoven Competition, and a scintillating solo career rapidly unfolded. He was invited to perform all over Europe, in North and South America as well as the Far East. In 1977, he was invited by Sviatoslav Richter to perform at his festival in France, and the two pianists also gave duet recitals together. He has performed with leading world orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Royal Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the San Francisco Orchestra. He has been a regular guest at international festivals in Edinburgh, Paris, Tours, Lucerne, Salzburg, Prague and Menton, and worked with such conductors as Claudio Abbado, Christoph von Dohnányi, Edo de Waart, Charles Mackerras, Lovro von Matacic, Charles Dutoit, Herbert Blomstedt and Michael Tilson Thomas. In 1983, he co-founded the Budapest Festival Orchestra with Iván Fischer, and since 1987 has regularly conducted. He is also a recognised composer. He is deeply committed to contemporary music and has enjoyed a fruitful relationship with, amongst others, György Kurtág, giving world premieres of numerous Kurtág compositions, some of which are dedicated to him. Zoltán Kocsis has recorded for Denon, Hungaroton, Nippon Columbia, Phonogram and Quintana, and was, for several years, an exclusive Philips Classics artist. He received an Edison prize for his recordings with Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra of the three Bartók concertos. In Autumn 1997, he became general music director of the National Philharmonic Orchestra (formerly the Hungarian State Orchestra). As a result, the orchestra's repertoire has broadened considerably, and since his appointment, several works have been given their world premiere. In recent years, he has toured many European countries, the United States and Japan with the orchestra as both conductor and soloist, and enjoyed immense critical acclaim. The orchestra frequently performs Kocsis’s own transcriptions of piano works by Bartók, Debussy and Ravel. The rejuvenated orchestra is now greeted by audiences and critics alike with the acclaim of world stars. In January 2004, Zoltán Kocsis was bestowed a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Cannes Midem, where he also received the distinguished French honour, Le Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from France's minister of culture, awarded for his supreme efforts popularising French music and for the entirety of his work as a musician. In March 2005, his work was, for the second time after 1978, acknowledged with the Kossuth Prize.
Bence Asztalos, singer, bass. Received a diploma in opera singing at the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music where his teacher was Sándor Sólyom-Nagy. From 2002 as a member of the studio of the Deutsche Opera am Rhein he has performed in the Düsseldorf Opera and the Duisburg Theatre. He has had roles in Salome and Ariadne auf Naxos (R. Strauss) and in Tosca. He has also appeared in the Hungarian State Opera House since 2000, at last year’s Spring Festival he sang in Verdi’s rarely performed opera, Alzira.