Budapest Ensemble to Tour With New Name : Classical music: The Budapest Chamber Orchestra ‘Franz Liszt’ brings a program of baroque and classical to the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa on Sunday.

Perhaps it’s never too late to make a change--even a somewhat fussy one. Two years ago, after a quarter century of building a strong reputation as “the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra,” the members of the Hungarian ensemble voted to change their name to “the Budapest Chamber Orchestra ‘Franz Liszt.’ ”

“Outside of a piano concerto which we have toured with, Liszt didn’t write anything for chamber orchestra,” explained cellist Paul Kelemen via a static-filled telephone line from his home in Budapest. As one of the only orchestra members who speaks English, he also has served as its manager of foreign concerts for the past 20 years.

“We thought the title might make more sense this way,” he continued. “Most people don’t even know that Franz Liszt was a Hungarian.”

Sunday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa, the Budapest Chamber Orchestra “Franz Liszt” will offer a program of music by Telemann, Handel, Mozart and Schubert. It is the group’s first American tour under the new title, though, according to Kelemen, this is actually its ninth U.S. visit.

“For the past 15 years our personnel has remained unchanged with the exception of an addition we made three years ago,” he pointed out, mentioning his wife, harpsichordist Zsuzsa Pertis, who has performed with the group as long as Kelemen. “There are several other married couples in the group as well, which gives us a special unity and ability to play together,” he added.

Violinist Frigyes Sandor started the ensemble in 1963 at the Franz Liszt Music Academy in Budapest with a group of students. Somehow, most of the original students never left the organization--and upon graduation made a career out of it.

Since its inception, there has been no official conductor, although concertmaster Janos Starker--like Sandor before him--often is referred to as director. Starker starts each piece and sometimes cues from his chair, but rarely indicates specific details as a conductor would.

“We like to think of the group as a large string quartet,” said Kelemen. “All decisions are made democratically and the members tend to all the business matters, repertory and anything else that needs to get done--including setting up chairs.”

This spirit of democracy has been with the organization since the beginning, though Kelemen acknowledged that recent events in Hungary have given the musicians a new outlook.

“Everything is changed in Hungary now,” he said. “All of the musicians there are much closer to the rest of Europe, and that’s a good thing. (But) because of the new democracy, different groups are fighting each other more than before, and different factions within our own orchestra are no exception. Democracy is not a great tradition in our country, so we have to learn it now.

“It’s as if the economic problems from the last 40 years are culminating now. There have been no changes yet, but there is an uneasiness in the air because usually the first cuts to be made are in culture.”

Kelemen appears prepared for the new way, however, and quickly is learning about the advantages of a free market society.

He began his own business two years ago, Conexus Concert Management, which he boasts is the first private enterprise related to music in Hungary.

“There are so many talented people in Hungary,” he said. “(It’s) a country with only 10 to 15 million people, (yet) there are great musicians from here all over the world.

“In Budapest alone, where there are about two million inhabitants, there are two opera houses performing repertory every day.

“Plus there are three first-class orchestras and three other very good orchestras that work full time, and we still have more musicians than we use or need.”

The Budapest Chamber Orchestra “Franz Liszt” will play Sunday at 3 p.m. at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Tickets: $10-$30. Information: (714) 556-ARTS.