A study by the Head of the Musicology Department was published in a prestigious English-language collection of essays

It is entitled “Mad Day” and the “March of Bacchus”: Figaro in Mahler’s Third Symphony. Professor Péteri points out in his writing that Mahler makes a multilevel reference to the march in the third act of Mozart's work in the first movement of his composition ("Pan Awakes, Summer Marches In"). This can be demonstrated not only on the level of themes and motives, according to the expert, but also in other musical dimensions, such as instrumentation, sound space management, as well as dynamics. The presence of the Dionysian (Bacchus) spirit is also used by Professor Péteri as proof of the connection between the two works, as the programme of the symphony openly refers to it. In the Beaumarchais play and the opera based on it the questioning and subversion of social values, hierarchy and identities also point to this. Figaro was the third most frequently conducted work in Mahler’s repertoire as an opera conductor. The 1906 Figaro production in Vienna, according to contemporary recollections, also focused on revolution and the presentation of social tensions.

The thirty essays of the collection, published by the prominent publisher Routledge in London and New York this year, have been written by internationally renowned experts who present the rich and complex subject of musical interpretation across a range of disciplines. In addition to Lóránt Péteri's work, the book also includes a study by Hungarian music historian Márta Grabócz and one by Hungarian aestheticist Bálint Veres, the latter of which the editors, Esti Sheinberg and William P. Dougherty recommend not only to academicians, but also to those interested in music.