Sunday 3 October 2021, 11.00
FRANZ LISZT, MASTER OF THE TRANSCRIPTION
Lecture by music historian Mária Eckhardt, concert by Kálmán Dráfi and János Balázs
Old Music Academy - Chamber Hall (1064, Budapest, Vörösmarty utca 35)
Programme:
Franz Liszt, master of the transcription lecture by music historian Mária Eckhardt
Liszt: Sonnet 123 by Petrarch Wagner – Liszt: Isoldes Liebestod Schumann – Liszt: Widmung Liszt – Balázs: Hungarian Rhapsody no. 6 Puccini – Balázs: Lauretta’s aria Ponce – Balázs: Estrellita J. Strauss – Cziffra – Balázs: Reminiscences
Performed by: Kálmán Dráfi – piano János Balázs – piano
The musicians in this concert commemorating Franz Liszt, born 210 years ago were themselves students at the Music Academy Liszt founded, then later teachers, and as faithful custodians of Liszt’s legacy after several generations, they have compiled the programme for the concert from transcriptions. A considerable portion of Liszt’s oeuvre consists of piano transcriptions, including works in which he aimed to reproduce the transcribed work on his own instrument, though for the most part he fashioned them in his own image, ‘transfiguring’ the musical material taken as a basis from other composers or from folk traditions, or sometimes even from his own, earlier works. In this concert we shall hear examples of all of these. The programme proves that Liszt’s tendency to improvise, which shows in his transcriptions and one of the most dignified exponents of which was György Cziffra, who was born one hundred years ago, is still a living tradition today.
(Programme note written by Mária Eckhardt)
Performers
János Balázs graduated from the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Budapest. One of the most sought-after and successful pianists, he is a regular performer in renowned concert halls around the world. He is the artistic director of the György Cziffra Festival and Memorial Year.
Anyone who has heard him play will have had a suggestive and totally unique concert experience. Critics have praised the subtlety of his playing style, the fascinating variety of his piano timbre, the infinite dynamic range and his impressive technical ability.
He is a returning artist at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, the Philharmonie in Cologne, and the Liszt Academy and the MÜPA in Budapest. He has given successful concerts at the Cité de la Musique, the Palau de Musica, the Barbican Centre, the Wiener Konzerthaus and the Royal Conservatory.
In 2016, he launched the György Cziffra Festival in Budapest, with the aim of preserving the spiritual and musical legacy of his idol. Over the past five years, the festival has become one of the most prestigious classical music events in Hungary. In honour of the 100th anniversary of Cziffra's birth, the Hungarian government has declared 2021 the Cziffra György Memorial Year, and János Balázs has been asked to be the artistic director.
The winner of almost every professional and state award in his country, he was awarded the Kossuth Prize at the very young age of 31. Among his international awards, particularly prominent are the Young Steinway Artist title and the Polish State Prize.
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Kálmán Dráfi was born in Budapest in 1955. He studied at the Liszt Academy of Music, where his teachers included Mihály Bächer, Pál Kadosa, Ferenc Rados, György Kurtág, András Mihály and Melinda Kistétényi.Between 1974 and 1976 he continued his training at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, in the class of Bella Davidovich.Since 1977 he has been teaching at the Liszt Academy of Music, and since 2012 he has been Head of Department in the Keyboard and Harp Department at the Liszt Academy. In 2002 he received his DLA degree.Kálmán Dráfi has launched generations of pianists on their careers. The Liszt Ferenc Auditorium in Senlis, founded by György Cziffra, was an important milestone in both his international career as an artist and as a teacher; there he was a leading teacher of young musicians. He teaches courses at the Tokyo Gedai Academy, Toho University, Osaka Ondai University and at the Toho University Vienna branch. He has given concerts with the Hungarian State Symphony Orchestra under the baton of János Ferencsik, András Kórodi, Kenichiro Kobayashi, Ervin Lukács, Ádám Medveczky and János Kovács, and with the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Mariss Jansons. He has performed with the Boston Philharmonic, and Seiji Ozawa, while his chamber partners have included Miklós Perényi, Dénes Kovács, András Kiss and Géza Kapás. He has conducted the Failoni Chamber Orchestra, the Hungarian Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra and the Hungarian State Opera Symphony Orchestra on several occasions. He regularly performs at the Liszt Academy. He is the winner of numerous prizes, including the Special Prize of the Liszt-Bartók International Piano Competition in 1971, the Special Prize for the Best Bartók Interpretation at the Liszt-Bartók International Piano Competition in 1976, and the prestigious Liszt Ferenc Prize, awarded by the State in 2012.
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Mária Eckhardt (*1943) is an Erkel, Szabolcsi and Széchenyi Prize-winning music historian and conductor. Her work in scholarship and organizing research is of outstanding importance in the history of Liszt scholarship both in Hungary and internationally. Her main areas of research are: the life and oeuvre of Franz Liszt; Liszt’s contemporaries and pupils; Hungarian music in the 19th century; and the history of musical institutions. After her years on the scholarly staff of the Music Collection of the National Széchényi Library (1966–1973) and in the Institute of Musicology in the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (1973–1986), she was the director of the Liszt Ferenc Memorial Museum and Research Centre until 2009, and then became its scholarly director until her retirement in 2013. She is currently co-president of the Hungarian Liszt Ferenc Society, the editor-in-chief of its bulletin, and an honorary member of the German, British, and American Liszt societies. She has published six books, and many studies and catalogues, in Hungarian, English, German, and French. She has delivered papers and lectures in almost all the countries of Europe (and regularly in Weimar), the USA, and Canada, and has organized guest exhibitions in Poland, Portugal, and Germany. She is also active as a music editor and preparing critical editions. Alongside her scholarly work, in 1970 she founded and led the Choir of the National Széchényi Library. Prizes she has been awarded include: the American Liszt Society Award of Excellence (1985), the Erkel Ferenc Prize (1986), the Ipolyi Arnold Prize (1999), the Szabolcsi Bence Prize (2004), Grand Prix of the National Association of Hungarian Artists (2004), and the Széchenyi Prize (2018).
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