The Cziffra Festival, celebrating its 10th jubilee year in 2025, is coming to  Brussels this year with two special concerts to introduce the young stars of classical music. This evening, the audience will meet Ildikó Rozsonits, a young pianist who gained admission to the School for Exceptional Young Talents of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music at just ten. Her musical career has been soaring high ever since: In 2022, she was awarded the Junior Prima Award, and in 2024, she won the Creative Artist Award of the Cziffra Festival. In the framework of the Talentum Hungaricum programme, she continues to learn and improve her skills under János Balázs’ mentorship. The Cziffra Festival aims to support young talents and provide them with the opportunity to make an international debut. “Talent management is a very multifaceted undertaking, and we strive to cover as many aspects of it as possible,” said János Balázs, the festival’s Artistic Director. These evenings not only provide an exceptional musical experience but also give the audience a chance to meet the most promising young artists of the future of classical music. 

(Joint concert of the Cziffra Festival and the Liszt Institute Hungarian Cultural Centre Brussels) 

Funded by the Prime Minister’s Office, the Gábor Bethlen Fund and the Ministry of Culture and Innovation

The New York Music International Grand Prix Award-winning CD, ImprovisArt, by Hungarian pianist János Balázs will be presented during this special evening. The concert program, which has been performed to great acclaim on renowned stages worldwide, was released as a CD in 2021. This recital pays tribute to the legendary pianist György Cziffra, in whose honor Balázs has been organizing an international memorial festival in Budapest for the past ten years, featuring world-renowned artists.

The internationally acclaimed Hungarian pianist, Kossuth Prize winner, and Young Steinway Artist János Balázs is celebrated for his extraordinary improvisational skills across multiple genres beyond the classical stage, including jazz, world music, and folk music—each influenced by classical traditions and the 20th-century art of improvisation.

Music critics highlight the delicacy and rich tonal colors of his piano playing, his vast dynamic range, and his mesmerizing virtuosity. Listening to János Balázs perform is like embarking on a journey through time, as he masterfully recreates the intimate atmosphere of the 19th-century golden age of piano music, reminiscent of composers and pianists such as Franz Liszt and Frédéric Chopin.

Hailed for her “colorful, flexible and expressive playing” (Res Musica), pianist Alexa Stier has performed extensively in Europe, the United States and in South America. Alexa is a prizewinner of the Olivier Messiaen International Piano Competition, the Orléans International Piano Competition, and the George Enescu International Piano Competition and the founder and artistic director of ContemporArt Chamber Music Festival. Alexa holds diplomas from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the Yale School of Music, where she is currently a doctoral candidate.

Hungarian clarinetist Noémi Sallai, praised for her „smooth fluency” by The Milbrook Independent, was selected as the sole clarinet fellow in Carnegie Hall’s prestigious music program, Ensemble Connect for the 2018-2020 season. A multiple prize winner in national and international competitons in Italy, Hungary, Slovenia and the United States, Ms. Sallai has spent her summers at the Crescendo Summer Institute, the Sarasota Music Festival and the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and appeared as a clarinetist in renowned groups such as the Budapest Festival Orchestra and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Ms. Sallai holds a Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School of Music and a Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Arts degrees from Bard College. Ms. Sallai currently serves as the Cultural Attaché of the Liszt Institute Hungarian Cultural Center New York.

Supported by: The Prime Minister’s Office, Bethlen Gábor Fund, Ministry of Culture and Innovation

The joint concert of pianist János Balázs and clarinetist Maurizio D’Alessandro promises a rediscovery of well-known 19th-century works. The Italian instrumentalist and the legendary Hungarian-born piano virtuoso, who is an international ambassador of the legacy of Cziffra György, have shared the stage before, although their collaboration is relatively new. Their artistic creed is rooted in their passion and commitment to the Romantic era, which will be at the forefront during this concert, part of the international Cziffra Festival.

The program opens with a performance of Weber’s Grand Duo concertante, followed by two paraphrases of operatic works. The themes from Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus are heard in Cziffra’s arrangement, while the melodies from Rigoletto appear through the clarinetist-composer Luigi Bassi’s interpretation. The harmonious collaboration between piano and clarinet is also evident in the duo by the lesser-known but noteworthy composer of his time, Friedrich Burgmüller. A taste of Brahms’ Hungarian Dances serves as a fitting introduction to Liszt’s Etude based on Paganini’s famous No. 24 Caprice. The finale promises an exciting turn, as the two artists will showcase contemporary composer Mike Garson’s jazz variations.

Supporters: Prime Minister’s Office, Bethlen Gábor Foundation, the Hungarian Heritage Foundation, and the Petőfi Cultural Agency.

Featuring: János Balázs, András Keller, Benedict Klöckner, Concerto Budapest

“The banalities must be eradicated, and some unplayable parts must be made playable,” wrote the world-famous pianist and conductor Nikolai Rubinstein about Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor. Despite Rubinstein’s harsh critique, Tchaikovsky refused to make any changes and simply removed the dedication to Rubinstein. Today, this concerto is considered one of the most famous and beloved works in the world. At this concert, it will be performed by János Balázs, accompanied by Concerto Budapest.

The orchestra will also present Francesca da Rimini, a symphonic fantasy depicting a secret love affair and its tragic end—a piece originally premiered by the very conductor who had criticized the piano concerto so harshly.

A true rarity on the program is Tchaikovsky’s Piano Trio in A minor, his only composition for piano, violin, and cello. A composer who preferred grand symphonic textures, Tchaikovsky turned to chamber music only toward the end of his life. Even then, he expressed doubts in his letters about whether the piano suited such an ensemble. Yet, the idea of the trio lingered in his mind, and ultimately, the death of his friend and fellow composer Nikolai Rubinstein gave him the impetus to complete it. In this performance, János Balázs will be joined by András Keller and Benedict Klöckner.

(A joint concert by the Cziffra Festival and Concerto Budapest)

Supported by: The Prime Minister’s Office, Bethlen Gábor Fund Management

When Fazil Say articulates his artistic credo, it is as if we heard György Cziffra himself: there is only good and bad music, regardless of genre constraints. It is not surprising that since 2008, Fazil Say has been acting as an ambassador for intercultural dialogue at the request of the European Union. He is regularly invited by the New York Philharmonic, the Israel Philharmonic, the Baltimore Philharmonic, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic and, the BBC Philharmonic, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and the French National Orchestra, and he has performed at Carnegie Hall and many prestigious festivals. He enraptures audiences all over the world with his stunningly unique performance, full of surprises – and of course, also with his ingenious transcriptions or his own compositions, for he is an active player in the cultural scene not only as a pianist but also as a composer and jazz musician. In his concert at the Liszt Academy, he will show us some of the most important of his thousand faces: his Mozart interpretations  (sometimes spiced with jazz) are legendary, the great French impressionist composers speak with idyllic freedom through his fingers, and he pours the essence of his credo into notes also through his own works.

Supporters: Prime Minister’s Office, Bethlen Gábor Fund

Martha Argerich and Mischa Maisky are the brightest stars of the classical music scene, and they will be remembered by many generations to come. Their fans recognise their music by just a single note or phrase they play. The legendary relationship between the two world-famous virtuosos goes back half a century. Their characteristic vision and Romantic mindset are the never-ebbing spring of their joint music-making. Their fiery, energetic, always unique and uncompromising performances make these two artists singular. Every time they go on stage together marks a special day – and this is not the first time in the history of the Cziffra Festival to happen. This time, they will bring the great classic composers of the cello-piano repertoire to Müpa: for example, Beethoven’s most mature work in this genre, whose closing fugue is considered the forerunner of his later fantastic works. Schubert’s Sonata in A minor was written for a contemporary invention, the six-string Arpeggione, also called the “string guitar”. Although the aim of this composition was only to experiment with the instrument, after the arpeggione’s disappearance, it became one of the most beloved pieces of the cello repertoire. Grieg probably did not foresee the great success of his sonata either: He composed it during a tough time when he had to fight with himself for every single note he wrote. His struggle was ripened into the highest art in this composition.

Supporters: Prime Minister’s Office, Bethlen Gábor Fund

Russian pianist Nikolai Lugansky is a returning guest in Budapest. This time, the audience of the Cziffra Festival can hear his solo performance at the Liszt Academy. The performer will be evoking the world of 19th-century salons while cherry-picking from Mendelssohn’s piano series Songs without Words, which created a new genre in its time. He will also bring to us two of Chopin’s compositions, which are the backbone of his usual repertoire: One of Chopin’s first-published nocturnes – Op. 27 in D-flat major– which is a striking example of the permeability of vocal and piano music and stands for new aesthetics, as well as Chopin’s Ballad in F minor, Op. 52. The two Wagner Paraphrases featured during the evening reinforce the validity of the dialogue between genres. The piece inspired by the last act of the Nibelung Tetralogy was composed by Lugansky himself, and he will perform Liszt’s well-known version of Isolde’s love death from Tristan and Isolde.

Supporters: Prime Minister’s Office, Bethlen Gábor Fund