Program leírás

featuring: Sárközy Lajos Jr Ensemble, János Balázs (Piano)

Boundless emotion, freedom and superhuman technique: these are the characteristics of György Cziffra’s piano playing, which will be celebrated at the Museum of Imola. The Emilia Romagna Festival will commemorate two days from 10 to 11 July to this unique figure among world-famous pianists, who was born 100 years ago. Award-winning Hungarian pianist János Balázs will present Cziffra’s legacy: a rarely heard improvisational face of classical music. An exhibition will showcase the Hollywood movie-like life of György Cziffra, the virtuoso pianist who started in the bars of Budapest and became a world renowned superstar. A series of concerts recall his superhuman improvisational skills, with guest appearances by distinguished Hungarian musicians, in the spirit of “freedom of music”.

The mini-festival in Imola on 10 and 11 July will give a complete picture about Cziffra. Visitors will be able to get a complete picture of the master: two concerts, an exhibition, a discussion will recall Cziffra’s work. The mini-festival is the brainchild of Hungarian pianist János Balázs, who has been taking care of Cziffra’s immortality for nearly a decade: for the sixth year running, he has organised an international festival in Budapest and has created an international series of events to mark the centenary, which will now come to Imola in July.

The concert will recall improvisation on the stage. Though the concert programme is classical, the Ensemble will also include a special instrument of traditional gipsy music, the ‘cimbalom’. ‘The audience can have a once in a lifetime experience to see an acclaimed concert pianist János Balázs improvising together with this band and also in his solo programme.

Programme

featuring: László Borbély (piano), Orsolya Janszó (opera singer)

Boundless emotion, freedom and superhuman technique: these are the characteristics of György Cziffra’s piano playing, which will be celebrated at the Museum of Imola. The Emilia Romagna Festival will commemorate two days from 10 to 11 July to this unique figure among world-famous pianists, who was born 100 years ago. Award-winning Hungarian pianist János Balázs will present Cziffra’s legacy: a rarely heard improvisational face of classical music. An exhibition will showcase the Hollywood movie-like life of György Cziffra, the virtuoso pianist who started in the bars of Budapest and became a world renowned superstar. A series of concerts recall his superhuman improvisational skills, with guest appearances by distinguished Hungarian musicians, in the spirit of “freedom of music”.

The mini-festival in Imola on 10 and 11 July will give a complete picture about Cziffra. Visitors will be able to get a complete picture of the master: two concerts, an exhibition, a discussion will recall Cziffra’s work. The mini-festival is the brainchild of Hungarian pianist János Balázs, who has been taking care of Cziffra’s immortality for nearly a decade: for the sixth year running, he has organised an international festival in Budapest and has created an international series of events to mark the centenary, which will now come to Imola in July.

Cziffra was also a teacher and a supporter of emerging talents, so as the memorial year: one of the concerts will also showcase the shooting stars of the Hungarian concert scene, mentored by János Balázs. The chamber music concert will consist remarkable pieces from the romanticism and also from the 20th century. About the artists: Gergely Devich (cello) represented Hungary on the Eurovision Young Musician Contest winning 3rd place, singer Orsolya Janszó is mentored as a featured artist in the National Talent Programme and László Borbély (piano) despite his young age is professor of the prestigious Franz Liszt Academy of Music.

The second concert will recall improvisation on the stage. Though the concert programme is classical, the Ensemble will also include a special instrument of traditional gipsy music, the ‘cimbalom’. ‘The audience can have a once in a lifetime experience to see an acclaimed concert pianist János Balázs improvising together with this band and also in his solo programme.

(Joint programme of the György Cziffra Memorial Year and the Emilia Romagna Festival)

Program leírás

Music of the Central European region
Featuring: János Balázs, North Bohemia Philharmonic Teplice, conductor: Wojciech Rodek

(Joint concert of the George Cziffra Memorial Year and the Czech Touches of Music Festival)

Program leírás

Program

Performers: Várnagy Andrea, Farkas Lili (piano)

Joint concert of the Hungarian Academy in Rome and Cziffra Memorial Year.

Andrea Várnagy (piano), Lili Farkas

Concert organised by the György Cziffra Memorial Year and the György Cziffra Nagytétény Community Theatre.

PRESENTED BY

Concert organised by the György Cziffra Memorial Year and the Liszt Academy.

SUPPORTER:

Ministry of Human Capacities of Hungary, Bethlen Gábor Alapkezelő Ltd.

György  Cziffra’s centenary celebrated with a world-famous orchestra and a world-premiere in Budapest and Paris

On the 100th birthday of one of the most outstanding 20th-century Hungarian piano performers, György Cziffra, his memory will be evoked in the Bartók Béla Concert Hall of Müpa in Budapest on 5 November, then on 7 November, in the concert hall of the Auditorium de Radio France in Paris, as the special event of the Cziffra100 Memorial Year.   For the festive gala concerts, Peter Eötvös composed an entirely new piece titled Cziffra Psodia, a piano concerto, which will be premiered by János Balázs as a soloist, accompanied by the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France under the baton of the brilliant Finnish conductor, Mikko Franck.

In the second half of the 1950s, György Cziffra adopted France as his new home and established an intense relationship with the local music scene. Péter Eötvös dedicated his new composition Cziffra Psodia to the acclaimed Hungarian pianist, János Balázs, who will also perform one of Cziffra’s most memorable repertoire pieces, Ferenc Liszt’s compellingly elegant Hungarian Rhapsody. The cimbalom also plays a crucial role in Eötvös’ concerto, this time played by one the greatest virtuosos of this characteristically Hungarian instrument, Miklós Lukács. The conductor of the night’s programme – also featuring César Franck’s Symphony in D minor – will be Mikko Franck, one of the most outstanding representatives of the worldwide acknowledged Finnish conducting tradition following in the footsteps of Jorma  Panula.

The internationally acclaimed contemporary Hungarian composer, Peter Eötvös, encountered György Cziffra when he was only a child. In 1950, the pianist had been sentenced to forced labour due to his failed emmigration attempt; the physical efforts had exerted in a stone-carving factory and at construction sites caused lasting damage to his hands. Peter Eötvös’s mother, a former fellow-student at the Liszt Academy, was one of those people who supported the pianist after his release in 1953. Cziffra began playing in coffee bars in Budapest, where the future composer, still as a boy, had the chance to listen to him. As Peter Eötvös recalls, Cziffra’s performance was absolutely captivating even despite the poor state of his hands. The two families kept in touch even when the pianist left Hungary. Through his piano concerto, Cziffra Psodia, Eötvös intended to outline the highlights and hardships of the legendary pianist’s life and work with the tools of music.

The Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France was established between the two world wars in 1937, and in recent decades, they have been led by such conductors as Gilbert Amy, Marek Janowski and Myung-Whun Chung. The current musical director of the orchestra is Mikko Franck, born in 1979, one of the most outstanding students of the Finnish conducting school linked to the famous professor of the Sibelius Academy, Jorma Panula. The Finnish maestro was appointed to head the orchestra in 2015.

The pianist János Balázs has devoted himself to the memory of György Cziffra right from the start of his career. In fact, in his home country, Hungary, he is behind the foundation of the Cziffra Festival in 2016, which doesn’t only host classical music concerts but also presents several other genres and art-forms to the audience with the kind participation of renowned artists. The festival also considers it its mission to empower young talents through masterclasses and its prestigious awards.