The only eighteen-year-old Canadian artist called the “Calgary Piano Prodigy” in his hometown, shines like a comet among young classical music talents. He has demonstrated his talent at the world’s most prestigious international piano competitions, winning the Rubinstein Competition in Tel Aviv, the Geneva International Piano Competition and the Hilton Head Competition in the United States.

Chen’s name is also well-known in Hungary: he was the winner and special prize-winner of the Franz Liszt International Piano Competition held in Budapest in 2021. He also won a special prize for the best rendering of a transcription by Cziffra at the competition held together with the György Cziffra Memorial Year.

(A joint concert of the Cziffra Festival and the Liszt Academy)

Supporter: Prime Minister’s Office, Bethlen Gábor Fund Zrt.

Featured sponsor: MVM

Gábor Farkas’ solo evening will take place on the stage of Eötvös10 following the opening of the exhibition “What is in the Cziffra File?”. The world-famous Hungarian Liszt Award-winning Gábor Farkas is one of the most outstanding pianists of his generation. He is a widely recognised interpreter of the Romantic repertoire, a winner of several international piano competitions and a permanent guest of the world’s most significant music festivals and concert halls.

Gábor Farkas’ solo evening will take place on the stage of Eötvös10 following the opening of the exhibition “What is in the Cziffra File?”. For this occasion, he has chosen works that recall the most beautiful and beloved works from György Cziffra’s repertoire. This time travel will kick off with compositions by Schubert, Chopin and Liszt.

Sponsor: Prime Minister’s Office, Bethlen Gábor Alapkezelő Zrt.
Featured sponsor: MVM

This evening, besides enjoying György Cziffra’s legacy, we can also gain insight into the most critical moments and events of his life. The performance recounts and recalls the pivotal encounters that brought about and enhanced Cziffra’s musical fulfilment and his constant flame of faith in music and people. In addition to our own choices, also our encounters and our relationships with others determine our lives. These incessantly shape our personality and guide us towards our destiny. The path of a man who could not be prevented from fulfilling his destiny and mission – to give, to bring joy and create tranquillity for others – even by the most tumultuous and excruciating events in European history.

The young Junior Prima Award-winning artist Petra Gubik will join János Balázs in presenting Cziffra’s life. After the success of the TV music programme and winning the title of the most versatile performer in Hungary, Petra Gubik will now take to the stage at the Festival, where prose and music, classical and pop music melodies meet in a loving embrace.

(A joint concert of the Cziffra Festival and MOMkult)

Sponsor: Prime Minister's Office, Bethlen Gábor Alapkezelő Zrt.

Featured sponsor: MVM

Programme: Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No 1 in F-sharp minor, op. 1, Rachmaninov: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, op. 43. *** Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No 2 in C minor, op. 18

In tribute to the 150th anniversary of his birth, the Cziffra Festival pays homage to one of the most significant Russian Romantic composers, Sergey Rachmaninov. János Balázs’ gigantic enterprise is unique in the world, as only a few pianists have ever performed all of Rachmaninov’s piano concertos. His partners in this endeavour will be András Keller and Concerto Budapest. This gigantic undertaking, which has been in the international limelight, can also be considered the Mount Everest of pianists. It can be heard at the Cziffra Festival in two parts: on 10 and 25 February at the Liszt Academy.

Rachmaninov’s piano concertos are simultaneously characterised by exuberant emotionality and brilliant virtuosity, but he was also a master of colourful orchestration. These works are considered to be among the most challenging ones written for the piano since performers have to meet serious technical requirements to achieve the desired standard. At the same time, the audience can fully immerse in the beauty of the music.

The composer completed his Piano Concerto No. 1 at eighteen, while No. 4 was finished in 1926 after leaving the Soviet Union. Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini is the fifth and final piece composed for piano and orchestra, which is based on Paganini’s famous 24 Capricies.

Host: Szilvia Becze

Season tickets for the concerts Rachmaninov Essence 1 and 2 can be purchased at https://www.jegy.hu/seasonticket/buy/542/10

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

Supporter: Prime Minister’s Office, Bethlen Gábor Fund Zrt.
Featured sponsor: MVM

Programme

Adam Balogh is a classical pianist born in Hungary. Actively pursuing a career as a soloist and chamber musician, he is one of his generation’s promising talents.

Adam Balogh made his orchestral debut at the age of 13 with the Budapest Festival Orschestra under the baton of Ivan Fischer. Since then, he has performed with many important orchestras in his home country, including the National Philharmonic, Concerto Budapest, the Pannon Philharmonic, the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra. He gained further recoginition recently by winning the second prize of the Bartók World Competition, and the fifth prize of the Sydney International Piano Competition. He is also a prizewinner of Honens International Piano Competition.

He is a recipient of the Junior Prima Award and the Cziffra Festival’s Talent Award, as well as the Junior Tüke Award, given to outstanding young citizens of his home city, Pécs.

Joint concert of the Cziffra Stiftung

Támogató: Cultural Found of Hungary

Programme

Since her childhood, pianist Mónika Ruth Vida has been dedicated to the love of music. Her dream and ambition are to convey the joy and healing power of music to everybody. Despite her young age, she has already given concerts in most European countries and she has also toured Africa, the USA and several Asian countries. After gaining success on the Hungarian and international music scenes, she was as young as merely 14 years old when she won her first international competition in Serbia, which was soon followed by her debut in China at the Shanghai World Expo. As a multiple contest-winner, she received her latest first prize at the 5th Coimbra World Piano Meeting, and she has also received an award by the Italian Parliament in acknowledgment of her outstanding musical performances.

She graduated with honours from Franz Liszt Academy of Music in 2016 and in 2020. Her first great-scale concert series entitled “Neither Memories, Nor Magic” also premiered in Pesti Vigadó in September 2019. The year 2020 could not pass without rapt excitement for her: in recognition of her outstanding achievements in musical arts Mónika Ruth Vida received Hungary’s Junior Prima Award. But the greatest challenge so far awaiting Mónika Ruth Vida presents itself in 2021: she is the only Hungarian contestant to have received invitation to take part in the live rounds of the 18th Chopin Piano Competition.

Joint concert of the Cziffra Stiftung

Supporter: Cultural Found of Hungary

Programme

The Indian Summer in Levoča Festival (in Slovak: Levočské babie leto)  is a leading international annual musical celebration based in the historic east Slovakian town of Levoča, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Through the Festival, Levoča, the ancient capital of the county of Spiš, restores the region’s centuries-old tradition as a crossroads of arts and culture.

Gergely Devich  (cello) /  Ádám Balogh (piano) (Hungary)

Hommage to Cziffra

Zoltan Kodály – Sonata for cello solo
Claude Debussy – Sonata for Cello and Piano
Johannes Brahms – Four Ballades op. 10
Astor Piazzola – Grand Tango

Indian Summer in Levoca Festival

Performers:

Rousse Philharmonic Orchestra, János Balázs,
conductor: Dimitar Kosev, Miranda Liu – violin, Ilya Kondratiev – piano
and the best students of the master class

Supporter: National Cultural Found of Hungary

Private event, organised by Orient Institute and Liszt Institute Istanbul.

Supporter: NKA