Free admission.

The concert is influenced by the romantic tradition of pianists and composers passionately improvising, alongside revising notorious operas and songs. The pieces played will range from Bach to Liszt, and expand through the improvisations of György Cziffra and János Balázs, showcasing the 200-year tradition of the performer becoming the companion of the creative artist. This is how János Balázs would like to call attention to the life of this art form in classical music, as well as pay tribute to the memory of György Cziffra.

Free entry. Booking: tom@schottmusiclondon.com

Co-organizers: Schott Music and Sheva Collection

Programme

Thanks to its remarkable ancient monuments and artefacts, the Archeological Museum of Teanum Sidicinum awaits its visitors with a timeless and singular ambience in a picturesque setting north of Naples. The institution also provides a venue for concerts, and today’s artists are just as inspired by the marvellous surroundings as Liszt was in his time. The Liszt- and Artisjus Award-winning pianist, Balázs Fülei, has compiled a fitting programme from his astonishingly broad repertoire. While Purcell’s keyboard suite from the 17th century evokes long-gone times, Beethoven’s “evergreen” Moonlight Sonata draws our attention to art’s sacredness and eternal value. A movement from Ravel’s piano suite, Miroirs, Une barque sur l’océan (in English “A Boat on the Ocean”) articulates on the piano keys the immense power of the seas embracing the Italian peninsula. Then, one of the most shining jewels of Romantic musical lyricism follows: Chopin’s gentle and bittersweet ballad, which takes us to the peak of the evening. His journey to Italy made such a profound impact on Liszt that years later, he felt compelled to complete the second volume of his Années de pèlerinage with three coherent pieces under the title Venezia e Napoli. The very essence of Italian music is woven into its movements.
(Joint event by the György Cziffra Memorial Year and the Summer Concert Caserta)

Program leírás

Performers: József Lendvay and Elemér Balázs Jr.

Admission to the concert is free of charge but bound to preliminary registration at the email address uki-s@uki-s.de .
(Joint concert of the György Cziffra Memorial Year and the Liszt Institute of the Hungarian Cultural Centre, Stuttgart)

Live music history, or in other words: how do a contemporary, a long-dead master, or a genre inspire a composer? Two artists will answer these questions, who, as children of musical families, form part of the great machinery. Ferenc Liszt had been an active pianist for over ten years when in 1932, he first heard Niccolò Paganini play in Paris. This experience completely transformed his attitude towards music. The first two pieces on the programme commemorate this encounter. Apart from two compositions in his youth, César Franck never again wrote for this instrumental setup, the violin and the piano, let alone the genre of the chamber sonata. With his Sonata in A major completed in 1886, he created a masterpiece; however, at a single stroke and with a doubtle twist: “This is not a sonata, but is damned beautiful anyhow!” were the word that Ernest Reyer, the work’s first critique. And indeed, Franck’s unique solutions in the form are quite different from those of usual sonatas. As the conclusion of the concert, the audience can enjoy Rachmaninov’s homage to Bach, which can also be interpreted as a style practice. Yet, it reflects profound insight and interest.

Program leírás

Admission to the concert is free of charge but bound to preliminary registration
Registration: https://forms.gle/6MMLkZHfgguJuWiJ9

(Joint event of the György Cziffra Memorial Year and the Liszt Institute Brussels)

The joint concert ‘Hommage à Cziffra’ of the Liszt Institute in Brussels and the György Cziffra Memorial Year isn’t only the musical legacy of a piano virtuoso but also pays tribute to the commitment to talent support. This time, the master and his student will take to the stage, forming a unique pair. With her 13 years, Viktória Kádár is a student of the School of Exceptional Young Talents of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music. Her artistic personality demands respect as a soloist as well as a chamber music partner next to her Kossuth-Award-winning teacher. Together, they will be playing Schubert’s popular piece for four hands and János Balázs’ transcription of the Rákóczi March. Viktória Kádár’s virtuosity, sensitivity and playfulness show in János Balázs’ own programme, and in her master’s hands, the ethos of Romanticism and Cziffra’s legacy soar on, as he will be performing his own arrangements of Puccini, Liszt and Strauss’ melodies.

Programme

One of the most extreme stops of Liszt’s years-long journey of virtuoso recitals was the capital of the Ottoman Empire, Istanbul. He arrived in the seat of Sultan Abdulmejid I on 8 June 1847, where he stayed with the businessman and piano manufacturer Alexandre Kommendiger. During the five weeks of his stay, he gave six concerts – two of them in the Sultan’s palace. The sovereign rewarded Liszt with the diamond-studded Order of Nichan-Iftikhar. The composer remained in contact with the Sultan’s court and Istanbul’s music scene until the end of his life. The core of his concerts included opera paraphrases, transcriptions from Schubert and Schumann’s works, for instance, the melodies of The Puritans, Norma, Lucia of Lammermoor or Liszt’s re-arrangement of Erlkönig. János Balázs will evoke the ambience of these unparalleled nights at the concert of the György Cziffra Memorial Year and the Hungarian Cultural Centre in Istanbul, enriching the programme of the Beyoglu Kültür Yolu Festival of the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, featuring over 300 events and 2000 performers

The soloist of the evening is the Hungarian pianist, János Balázs, renowned for his extraordinary technique and profound lyricism. He is well-known to the audiences of the Barbican Centre in London, the Konzerthaus in Vienna, Bozar in Brussels, the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory or the Palau de Musica in Barcelona. He regularly collaborates with such performers as Vadim Repin, Mischa Maisky, Pinchas Steinberg, Tamás Vásáry, Stéphane Denève or Jose Cura.

The concert is held within the framework of the Beyoglu Kültür Yolu (Beyoglu Way of Culture) Festival organised by the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
(Joint concert of the György Cziffra Memorial Year and the Liszt Institute – Hungarian Cultural Centre and the Hungarian Embassy in Ankara)

It is no exaggeration to claim that the very elite of the Hungarian classical music scene will present themselves at this concert within the framework of the Cziffra Festival. The audience can welcome the festival’s founder and artistic director, a recipient of numerous Hungarian and international awards, János Balázs, as the night’s soloist. He can wash away the distance between the musician and his audience with his fascinating technical skills and extraordinarily refined performance. One of today’s most successful Hungarian conductors, a favourite with prestigious international, especially British, orchestras thanks to his leadership attitude, spellbinding stylistic insight and musicianship, Gábor Takács Nagy, will lead the chamber music ensemble of the festival, enlisting young musical talents.

The brilliant performers will be playing works subject to the pride of Hungarian music history: Liszt’s Piano Concerto in E-flat major and Bartók’s Divertimento (meant to be performed in Germany and Switzerland) matched the European music trends of their times; yet with their ingenuity, they also challenged their boundaries. The piano concerto Hungarian Fantasy and Bartók’s Romanian Folk Dances represent another universe: they are pieces written by masters faithful to their home country and roots: masterpieces elevating Hungarian traditional folk music into the highest spheres and revealing it to the world.

The concert is given by the Chamber Music Ensemble of the Cziffra Festival, the honorary name of the orchestra taken as a tribute played to the emblematic pianist during the Cziffra Memorial Year. Outside the festival, the ensemble’s name is Animae Musicae Chamber Orchestra.

Programme

As to their artistic characters, Ádám Banda and Ádám Balogh are closely related: they are both sensitive, inspired musicians devoting themselves completely and utterly to music. Their playing is sophisticated, elegant, yet powerful and captivating. Such a partnership is rare, especially between the representatives of two different generations. The audience can anticipate a unique harmony while enjoying some emblematic melodies of the violin-piano repertoire. The programme’s core consists of some pivotal masterpieces of the first half of the 20th century, a period particularly rich in various styles: Bartók’s Rhapsody, an excerpt from Der Rosenkavalier and a transcription of Stravinsky’s Firebird. In the meantime, we can look back on their immediate predecessors, Brahms and Chopin’s Romanticism. We’ll evoke Chopin with the rarely heard transcript of a Nocturne written by Nathan Milstein in 1935. Also, we can take a brief glimpse at the cornerstone of music, Bach’s oeuvre, through the great German master chorale transcription. Finally, you can relish the Devil’s Trill Sonata, a genuine pillar in the violin repertoire.

The concert is part of the Cziffra100 event series, takes place in the joint organisation of Chopin PianoFest Pristhina and the Cziffra Festival Budapest.

Programme

Performers: János Balázs (piano), Lajos Sárközy (violin), Nicole Henter (flute), Denys Dragan (piano)

(A joint event organised by the György Cziffra Memorial Year and the Cziffra Stiftung)

Moderation: Elisabeth Heresch

The Vienna-based Cziffra Stiftung has been preserving the artistic legacy of György Cziffra since 1997, has been working tirelessly to make the legendary’s pianist’s unique perspectives and champions young talents linked with the Stiftung by providing them with opportunities to excel. At this jubilee concert, such performers will celebrate the Stiftung’s anniversary who represent Cziffra’s ethos both as musicians and public figures, from and beyond Hungary. Naturally, their selection is based on Cziffra’s transcriptions as well as compositions readily played also by the piano virtuoso himself: The “high Romantic” universe of Liszt, Weber, Saint-Saëns and Brahms takes shape through burnished and lighter dances, opera excerpts and a texture of national motifs.

The concert is part of the Cziffra100 event series, takes place in the joint organisation of the Cziffra Stiftung Vienna and the Cziffra Festival Budapest.
The 100th anniversary of the birth of the world-famous Hungarian pianist György Cziffra is officially celebrated in Hungary as part of a Memorial Year, and has also been included by UNESCO in the list of anniversaries. The programmes of Cziffra100 are organised under the artistic leadership of pianist János Balázs, in a unique professional partnership with a number of institutions, orchestras and partners in Hungary as well as in the most significant cities of the music world. The Cziffra Memorial Year is supported by the Prime Minister’s Office, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, with the help of the Bethlen Gábor Fund.