Budapest's Finest 2016 autumn

The house }} NC

2016. Vol. 3.

HUF 1 490 EUR 5

of the } nation }

eighbourhoods revived an water bring peace?

Homage to Bartรณk Nostalgic rail rides

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Introduction

DEAR READER, In your hands you hold an unconventional tourist magazine, which offers countless useful and interesting sightseeing tips alongside a plethora of fascinating facts about our centuries-old capital city.

Budapest’s history dates back to the time of the Celts and the city was considered the citadel of Hungarian renaissance humanism by the 15th century. The metropolis’s past and present are organically connected, something that continues to leave an impression on the daily life of the city. The autumn issue of Budapest’s Finest therefore seeks to introduce our capital’s rich architectural heritage in the context of Budapest’s unique history, while also previewing upcoming events and future developments.

One of Europe’s most beautiful buildings, the Hungarian Parliament designed by Imre Steindl is steeped in symbolism and continues to actively shape events in the present day. Our national treasure has adorned the banks of the Danube for 112 years and the river, and water in particular, plays an important role in the everyday life of the city as a connecting and strength-giving force. Although ecological balance and industrial development are often at odds, our primary consideration must always be the protection of this common treasure.

Since water is an especially important issue for our capital, the city will host the Budapest Water Summit 2016 this November. Resolving problems associated with water has become the greatest challenge of the 21st century. The purpose of the conference is to promote cooperation and peace

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with a view to solving global problems. The summit’s patron will be János Áder, the President of the Republic of Hungary.

This year, the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has chosen the theme of accessible tourism for its World Tourism Day under the motto “Tourism for All - promoting universal accessibility”. In honour of World Tourism Day, on 27 September the Budapest Festival and Tourism Center, together with the Hungarian Tourism Agency, will host a day-long open house event for both professionals and city residents beginning in the City Hall’s grand hall.

Our publication likes to emphasise not only our natural but also our spiritual treasures.

Hungaricums (things that are quintessentially Hungarian) are currently enjoying a renaissance – we need look no further than Zwack Unicum with its 230-year history. The liqueur has been conquering the world ever since the Habsburg emperor tasted this bitter digestive prepared by the court doctor for the first time in 1790.

Turning to culture and the arts, autumn in Budapest would be unimaginable without the CAFe Budapest Contemporary Arts Festival, which will be held from 7 to 23 October this year. Whether it is the autumn colours or world-class artists, performances or exhibitions that draw you to Budapest, unforgettable experiences are sure to await you this season.

Teodóra Bán Director of Budapest Festival and Tourism Center

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CONTENTS

2016|Autumn

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A monumental Parliament

The house of the nation } 4 A monumental Parliament } 6 Take one with you! } 13

Extra muros } 14 Neighbourhoods revived } 16

Water is our treasure } 24 Can water be the source of peace? } 26 Ornaments of the city } 31

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Start of the season } 36

Water towers of Budapest

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Start of the season

A musical oeuvre visualised } 38 Bartók on the stage } 39 Letting the genie out of the bottle } 41 A festive performance: ...'56 – '16... } 42 Steve Reich '80 } 44 World-famous jazz formations at CAFe Budapest } 46 History lessons about freedom } 48

City Guide } 50 A cultural hub in the rust belt } 52 Zwack Unicum } 54 Nostalgic rail rides } 58 Kimchi, K-Pop and classical music from South Korea } 61 Programme corner } 63

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Nostalgic rail rides To see the location on the map, simply scan the QR code with your smartphone.

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Esküvô Pesten

Photo © István Práczky

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Városliget

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The house of the nation

Hungarian parliamentarism, keeping pace with other European countries, crystallised in the first half of the 15th century. From Sopron to Szabolcs, Besztercebánya to Szeged or Nagyszombat to the Rákos meadows (today’s City Park) the Hungarian National Assembly congregated in many places over the previous centuries. From the 18th century, the meetings were held near Vienna in Pozsony (today Bratislava), while in 1848 during the revolution the representatives met in the Reformed Church in Debrecen.

From 1865 the House of Representatives was temporarily located in the building where the Italian Institute is today, with the assembly room now used as a concert hall. With the 1,000-year anniversary of the conquest of the Carpathian Basin approaching, Hungary needed a new and magnificent parliament building. Still under construction in 1896, the building hosted its first parliamentary session 120 years ago.

} Parliament illuminated at night as seen from Kossuth Square

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The square surrounding the parliament building was completely renovated in 2015, with a new visitor centre opening at the square’s northern end, in addition to two free underground museums.

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The house of the Nation

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A monumental

parliament T ext : Gyula Balogh

Photo © István Práczky

The National Assembly sat for the first time in the under-construction Parliament building in 1896, which upon completion became one of Budapest’s most representative, monumental and ornate buildings. The neo-gothic structure designed by Imre Steindl contains interior spaces that are worth exploring, as is the renovated Kossuth Square that surrounds the building.

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The house of the Nation before it housed the crown, and a new visitor centre was opened recently at the building’s northern end. The building also houses a library, which relocated from the old house of representatives in 1902. This library was only open to parliamentarians until 1952, but since then it has been accessible to everyone over the age of 18. Official events also play a very important role, and the building also hosts festivities, meetings between heads of state, and the Speaker of the House invites children every Christmas.

The Hungarian Holy Crown with the sceptre, coronation sword and globus cruciger.

ues, while its interior contains 152. The combined length of the staircases is 20 kilometres. The red velour carpets that cover the hallways and steps total 3,466 metres in length, and could cover the entire length of Andrássy Avenue. The explanation for the surprising numbers is that the sizes were symbolic of wealth, and those who built the Parliament wished to express this. Let us not forget the building's function, however, its grand scale was also necessary to accommodate the large number of representatives in the National Assembly. The Parliament building also contains the Holy Crown, the sceptre, the globus cruciger and the coronation sword.

Parliament was a popular tourist destination even

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Photo © Balázs Csízik / Mittecomm

Photo © budapestinfo.hu

For many buildings, the figures they are associated with reveal much about them, and the same holds true for the Parliament, Hungary’s greatest public building. The Parliament is 265 metres long and 123 metres wide. At its highest point, the building is 96 metres tall. The Parliament’s area, including its courtyards, is 17,745 square metres, with a volume of 473,000 cubic metres. Roman numerals were used to designate the 27 entrances, and 29 stairwells and 13 lifts allow guests to travel between the floors. The building’s façade features 90 stat-

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The house of the Nation Photo © budapestinfo.hu

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} Imre Steindl, the man with a plan for Parliament

Photo © István Práczky

Imre Steindl (1839-1902) was born into a middle-class family of Austro-German background. His father was a jeweller and goldsmith in downtown Budapest. Steindl completed his studies in Pest and Vienna, and was a teaching assistant when he learned masonry. He won the tender to design the New City Hall, and received a position as a lecturer at the Technical University. Steindl aided in the renovation works of Vajdahunyad Castle, and also the reconstruction of the Saint Elisabeth Cathedral in Košice. He considered Vilmos Zsolnay and glass artist Miksa Róth among his friends. The tender for the parliament building included 19 works.

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Steindl’s won, but there was much debate and controversy surrounding it as rumour had it that the tender was just for show and that Steindl’s plan was selected in advance. Following the building’s construction, although Steindl received some criticism, he also received much praise, including a statue, making Steindl a significant figure in Hungarian cultural history.

The stairs leading up to the main entrance are guarded on either side by a bronze lion. The decorative lights surrounding the building were also planned by Steindl. The particularly ornate wrought-iron gate that secures the main entrance was fashioned by Gyula Jungfer – also based on drawings by Steindl.

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The house of the Nation Photo © budapestinfo.hu

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The building’s façade deserves its own section. The most decorated portion faces the Danube, which is 265 metres in length and symmetrical. Perhaps the most stunning feature is the long row of loggias on either side. The façades of the northern and southern wings are also distinct, containing the entrances for the upper and lower houses respectively. The southern wing contains the Nándorfehérvár Hall, which is where the current prime minister has his office. The government’s meetings are held in the Munkácsy Hall.

At 32 metres in length and more than 20 metres high, the grand stairwell is itself quite a sight, even if it is rarely used. The ceiling above it is decorated

The decorations on the ceiling of the cupola room (left) and the hall of the National Assembly’s Upper House (above).

Parliament’s façade from the Danube.

Photo © István Práczky

Not only are the exterior walls decorated, but the walls for the internal courtyards also feature de-

tailed ornamentation. Opulent decorations are found throughout, and the dome can be viewed as a giant ornament in itself. Stone towers stand on either side of the dome on the Danube façade, with smaller towers located on the bases for the eight-sided towers. Metal flag-holding statues decorate these smaller towers. More than a hundred gargoyles reinforce the building’s gothic appearance, and the façade includes numerous statues and coats of arms, with 360 of the latter.

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The house of the Nation

Photo © Alfredo Sarria / panoramio.com

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Parliament’s grand staircase

Photo © Attila Siskovits

with paintings by Károly Lotz, while the main decoration for the Delegation Hall is Andor Dudits’s painting Kardvágás. Visitors can view the Holy Crown in the Cupola Room beneath a chandelier containing 250 lights. It is worth walking around the parlours and galleries, as well as the sitting rooms for the lower and upper houses, and the Vadász Hall with its many paintings. Guided tours are scheduled throughout the day in multiple languages for domestic and international visitors alike.

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Carved statues in a hall of the parliament building.

And one more detail: the construction costs for the Parliament building cost 37,183,000 crowns. In 2010 a real estate portal tried to appraise the Parliament’s value, arriving at the sum of 160 billion forints (approximately =C 500 million). The intangible value was twice as much, although it must be noted that there can be no way of verifying these fanciful figures.

(The text is an excerpt from the book A Nevezetes Magyar Országház és a Tér Ahol Áll by András Török and Tamás Wachsler)

parlament.hu

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The house of the Nation

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Photo © István Práczky

The 1956 Memorial Committee’s anniversary logo.

The statue of martyred Prime Minister Imre Nagy, symbolically on a bridge and looking towards parliament.

} Codes of Freedom

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and letterheads offer an authentic picture of the revolutionary symbols that arose during those days and their evolution in 1848 and 1956. Everyday items were decorated with the national colours, ribbons and banners, and of course the coats of arms from various historical periods and their changing representations.

What is of special interested is the Kossuth coat of arms that received an important role in October 1956 at the protest before the National Theatre in Szeged. The picture originally depicted Stalin, onto which was painted the coat of arms to represent the revolution. This was only discovered when the artefact was being restored, when a panel on the right side was opened, revealing the left side of Stalin’s head. The exhibition also features two rare items: an original revolutionary tricolour from 1956, together with the Rákosi coat of arms cut from its centre, as well as a flag with the Kossuth coat of arms from the same period. The number of authentic revolutionary tricolours remaining is barely more than a dozen, and this will be the first time the two in the exhibition will be displayed. Another new item to be displayed is a military helmet with a badge from 1956. The exhibition will run through 4 November.

Photo © Fortepan.hu

Residents of Pest marching with the national flag on the Grand Boulevard

Photo © Balázs Csízik / Mittecomm

The National Assembly Museum’s exhibition The Thousand Years of Hungarian Legislation has its own entrance. It is free of charge to visitors and can be accessed via the visitor centre without standing in line. The exhibition was expanded with new artefacts: an original revolutionary tricolour from 1956 and a Polish flag with a hole cut out of the middle. The latter was a gift from the workers’ council of the Capital City Taxi Company on 3 November 1956 to the Polish youth who brought an aid package to Hungary from the Krakow Medical University’s Revolutionary Student Association.

On the 1956 Revolution’s 60th anniversary, the Museum of Ethnography located across Kossuth Square will host an exhibition entitled Codes of Freedom - Signs and Symbols in the Spirit of Liberty. The exhibit was planned together with the National Assembly Museum.

The exhibition analyses the selection of the symbols used during the events of 1956 and the message that they contained. It uses artefacts and documents stemming from a variety of sources (historical, ethnographic, military and civilian, everyday and representative) to present the symbols attached to ideas. It illustrates the symbols through which the societal circles and groups that held similar views and struggled for national or political autonomy expressed their desire for freedom.

Gyula Kedves of the National Assembly Museum and one of the exhibition’s curators revealed that the exhibit primarily wishes to raise attention to the power of symbolism, as well as the parallels between the symbols of 1848 and 1956. The 1956 Revolution used the symbolism of the 1848 Revolution and War of Independence, he added. This sphere contains within it respect for the coat of arms, and the cults of Lajos Kossuth, Sándor Petôfi and Saint Stephen. In 1956, during the time of the revolution, simple force was used to reject alien symbols, such as the symbols of the worker’s movement and the red star, in place of older symbols.

According to Kedves, the exhibition shows these relationships and parallels to give an entirely new perspective on revolution. The symbols of unity were the flag and the cockade, as well as the national militia that arose on both occasions. Posters, newspapers

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The house of the Nation

Photo © urlaubsguru.de

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The Austrian Parliament building is 13 years “older” than Budapest’s and was built in ten years according to the plans of Theophil Hansen. The Danish architect, after touring the cities of Italy, also visited Athens. As a result of his research and reconstruction work performed there, he designed the national assembly building in Vienna in a Hellenistic style. Moving to Vienna in 1846, he joined Ludwig Förster’s studio, with whom he designed the plan for the Ringstraße (Vienna’s Ring Road) that turns 150 this year. The parliament’s façade faces the Ringstraße, with a fountain before it featuring a 5-metre-tall statue of Pallas Athena, the goddess of wisdom. Hansen planned the elegant interior as well, although the undecorated National Council Chamber with 192 seats is a product of the 1950s following damage in World War II. Hansen’s other works are the famous Musikverein, the Fine Arts University, as well as the Arsenal and Stock Exchange buildings.

} The Palace of Westminster

Palace that stands today was erected. The first Royal Palace was built here in the 11th century, which since the 13th century has hosted the Parliament of England and the Royal Courts of Justice. The fire of 1834 caused significant damage to the structure, and the tender for the palace’s reconstruction selected the Gothic Revival plan by the architect Charles Barry. The remnants of the Old Palace, with the exception of the separate Jewel Tower, were incorporated into the much larger new palace, which contains 1,100 rooms arranged symmetrically around an inner courtyard in two rows. The New Palace is 3.24 hectares in size and is 265.8 metres in length along the river, where the main façade was built, which in part was built on land reclaimed from the Thames. Construction began in 1840 and took 30 years.

The House of Commons was struck by a bomb during World War II. The Palace’s clock tower, owing to its famous bell Big Ben, is one of London and the United Kingdom’s most iconic symbols. The Palace has been a Grade I listed building since 1970 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987.

Photo © pcwallart.com

Photo © Flickr

The parliament building of the United Kingdom is located on the northern bank of the Thames, where the House of Lords and the House of Commons sit. The Old Palace built in the Middle Ages burnt down in 1834, and on its site the New

Photo © TTstudio

} Classical grandeur in Vienna

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Vademecum

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Take one with you!

Tourists love to take souvenirs home from their travels, and books are one of the best types, since they do not take up much space, cannot be broken and last a long time.

Let us recommend four books offered by Libri from the wide selection of foreign language books released by Hungarian publishers.

Zsófia Mautner:

Budapest Bites

Tamás Bereznay:

Hungarian Dessert Book

Hungary’s best-known gastroblogger has taken up the challenge of writing an English-language cookbook to introduce modern Hungarian gastronomy to the wider world. Budapest Bites presents contemporary Hungarian cuisine and provides a historical overview of influences from Transylvanian Jewish and Turkish cuisines. The author uses a new approach to discuss Hungarian dishes and shares the secrets of local specialities. For those interested in Hungarian culture and gastronomy, or those who would like to try the recipes, this wonderfully illustrated book is an excellent guide.

An authentic, English-language cookbook on Hungarian desserts, many of which have become increasingly popular in international gastronomy circles. Totalling 176 pages, the Hungarian Dessert Book features 75 illustrated gourmet recipes, of which a fifth are dedicated to warm desserts. Tamás Bereznay also made sure to use ingredients that are typical of Hungarian gastronomy, but are easy to source throughout Europe. Those interested in discovering the fabulous gourmet sweets a Hungarian chef can prepare from poppy seeds, walnuts or curd cheese should look no further and pick up a copy of the Hungarian Dessert Book at once.

Mónika Kádár: Erika Bartos:

Budapest in Drawings Readers who select this book will have something special in their hands. Erika Bartos, a successful children’s author, also earned a degree in architecture with distinction from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. This book is addressed to a slightly older audience, focusing on historical architecture and Budapest’s amazing buildings.

Budapest is justifiably called one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and this book reveals the richness of Budapest’s architecture through architectural drawings, and through them it takes the reader on a journey around this captivating city.

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Fine Restaurants 2016 This year has been wondrous, and this joy permeates this year’s edition of Fine Restaurants as well. The book has a section on delicacies and also introduces the intelligent, talented and successful people whom we can thank for preparing them.

The book also features modern twists on the most famous and popular Hungarian sweets, and reveals the best breakfast locations and bakeries that the author has sampled. Readers can become acquainted with the new up and coming talents of Hungarian gastronomy, who despite their young age have won Michelin stars or placed highly in the Bocuse d’Or competition.

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Photo © Balázs Csízik / Mittecomm

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Extra muros

Extra muros – outside of the city walls. This phrase is understood by most Europeans, if not for linguistic reasons, then because during the Middle Ages European cities grew more or less similarly across the continent.

As the city developed, it expanded beyond defensive systems erected around the fortress, the lord’s palace and the church, or outside the walls. The same occurred in old Pest in several steps as palaces and public and cultural institutions were constructed outside the old city bordered by the Small Boulevard.

In 1873 Budapest was formed by the unification of Pest, Buda and Óbuda, and the city quickly grew beyond the Grand Boulevard at the turn of the 20th century.

This momentum continues to this day, the results of which are worth discovering.

} The National Theatre’s terrace

The area in front of the National Theatre looks onto the Millennium City Center.

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Extra muros

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Neighbourhoods revived

Innovation and tradition in two of Pest's historical districts T ext : András Oláh

For most cities, the historical centre and its immediate surroundings are the primary draw for international visitors.

Among Budapest’s central districts, both Józsefváros and Ferencváros (Districts VIII and IX) are also rich in cultural and historical significance. Owing to the constant innovations of the present, these two districts offer vibrant areas and exciting possibilities for those wishing to study, absorb culture, relax or invest.

Following the expulsion of the Ottoman Turks in 1686, the village of Pest began to rapidly expand alongside the roads leading to it from the east and south. The area between the two roads known today as the Rákoczi and Üllôi Roads took up the name of Emperor Joseph II, while the area between Üllôi Road and the Danube was named for the occasion of Emperor Francis I ascending to the throne.

The bastions of higher education

The two highly diverse areas of the city saw an increase in development following the Grand Compromise of 1867 that resulted in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, as well as the unification of Pest, Buda and Óbuda to form Budapest in 1873. In the latter half of the 19th century, notable aristocrats and wealthy bourgeoisie built palaces and mansions near the former House of Representatives (today the Institute of Italian Culture).

Owing to the proximity of the former National Theatre, the Theatre School (today the University of Theatre and Film Arts) was founded here, while the Budapest University of Jewish Studies was established in Seiber Sándor Street in 1877 as one of the oldest Jewish universities in continuous operation.

At the end of the 19th century, the Jesuits founded their centre at the end of Mária Street, while a hundred years later multiple departments of the Pázmány Péter Catholic University and Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church in Hungary moved in around Mikszáth Kálmán Square. The Reformed Church of Pest, established in 1797, had its centre on the District IX side of Kálvin Square. The Dunamellék Diocese has its most important institutions in Ráday, Lónyay and Kinizsi Streets.

Photo © Krisztián Bódis

The Great Market Hall of Budapest is the city’s pantry.

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Extra muros

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Outside the Grand Boulevard built in the 1890s, the façades of the two districts also changed. The development of the rail network to support industrialisation saw the construction of a factory complex for the Royal Hungarian National Railways and the Ganz Company next to the Józsefváros Railway Station built in 1867. The two companies unified in the 20th century and were among the most important establishments for vehicle construction for a century and a half.

In Ferencváros, the mills built on Soroksári Road from the 1860s manufactured products exported throughout the entire monarchy, and the Public Abattoir (1872) and the Pork Abattoir (1902) were considered the most modern meat processing plants of the era. The two institutions were aided by the southern railway bridge and the Ferencváros Railway Station, which to this day sees 90% of Hungary’s rail traffic pass through it. A spur from the railway station ran alongside the Danube all the way to Fôvám Square to serve the mills and abattoirs,

Photo © István Práczky

The pantry of the monarchy

The former Gizella steam mill was as well as the Main converted into residential lofts.

Customs House (which today houses Corvinus University) and the public warehouses located behind it. For the turn of the century, the central markets were also modernised, with the first of the covered market halls erected at Ferencváros’s Fôvám Square, and the second at Józsefváros’s Rákoczi Square in 1897. For the further development of the public road network at this time, the Small Boulevard-extend-

Photo © Balázs Csízik / Mittecomm

One of Ferencváros’s emblematic sites is the pork and beef public abattoir, the entrance to which features these statues.

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Extra muros

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Photo © István Práczky

The Erkel Theatre at II. János Pál Pápa Square.

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This statue at Corvine Lane is in memory of the youths who participated in the revolution (left). The Hungarian Radio building was one of the flashpoints of the revolution that began on 23 October (below).

such as the Peoples’ Theatre in 1875 at today’s Blaha Lujza Square, which from 1907 to its demolition in 1964 was home to the National Theatre, as well as the People’s Opera built on today’s II. János Pál Pápa Square, which today operates under the name of the Erkel Theatre as the second venue of the Hungarian State Opera. At this time sport was the primary leisure activity in Ferencváros. The Ferencvárosi Torna Club (Ferencváros Sport Club) was founded in 1899 and includes Hungary’s most popular and successful football club.

Revolutionary hotbed

World War I and the Great Depression slowed these developments, while the Siege of Budapest in World War II left widespread destruction. A decade later, during the 1956 Revolution, the two districts also suffered major damage around the Hungarian Radio building and the communist party’s Photo © Fortepan.hu

Photo © István Práczky

ing Franz Joseph Bridge (completed in 1896 and today known as the Szabadság Bridge) and the Grand Boulevard-extending Miklós Horthy Bridge (completed in 1937 and today the Petôfi Bridge) were built, onto which Budapest’s tram network was added.

To entertain the masses of people flooding into the capital and settling there, new institutions opened

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Extra muros

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Photo © István Práczky

The Trafo contemporary arts centre functions in this former electrical hub.

Budapest headquarters at today’s II. János Pál Pápa Square.

Additionally, one of the most important sites of the revolution was at the intersection of Üllôi Road and the Grand Boulevard, where groups from Corvin Lane and Tûzoltó Street clashed with Soviet tanks. The two districts’ urban development during the decades of socialism was limited to fixing damage and building in empty lots, although the Attila József housing estate built in outer Ferencváros can be considered a major development. In the 1970s the metros began to run beneath Rákóczi and Üllôi Roads, thereby replacing the trams.

The area only began to really develop again in the decades following system change. The block-rehabilitation project launched at this time in central Ferencváros revitalised the buildings outside the Grand Boulevard. This development also renewed buildings that were still recoverable, while decaying single-floor buildings were replaced by new, individually designed housing blocks that would blend with their surroundings, as well as loft apartments built into former mills. These investments significantly improved the living standards of those in the area, and in addition to reducing traffic, there was also a focus on increasing green spaces, which is why the Kerekerdô Park was created, as well as the Salkaházi Sára and Tûzliliom parks on empty lots.

The art of development

Photo © István Práczky

The area’s cultural landscape also broadened with the opening of the Trafó House of Contemporary Arts in 1998 inside a former transformer building, as well as the Holocaust Memorial Center built around the Páva Street synagogue in 2004. Hundreds of buildings were renovated and the number of poor-quality flats was reduced from 61% to 16%.

The project is still ongoing, with a further 40 buildings to be reconstructed.

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The Páva Street Synagogue is part of the Holocaust Memorial Center.

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Photo © Balázs Csizik / Mittecomm

Extra muros

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Photo © Balázs Csizik / Mittecomm

Müpa Budapest opened in 2005 and was originally named the Palace of Arts.

At the Pest end of Rákóczi Bridge by the Danube, the National Theatre’s new building was completed in 2002, while the Ludwig Museum for international contemporary visual arts and one of the Photo © bmc.hu

The developments launched in Ferencváros feature iconic 21st century cultural institutions located in the former rust belt. The picture below is of the Budapest Music Center.

The Millennium City Centre complex built on the former site of the freight railway station by the Danube was realised primarily through private funds, and houses both residential complexes and offices constructed over the past ten years.

country’s most modern concert halls inside Müpa Budapest opened in 2005. The rejuvenation of the area is still yet to be completed, as a private hospital with 130 beds will open in 2017, followed in 2019 by a conference centre capable of hosting 8,000.

The industrial area in outer Ferencváros is set aside to be developed as a part of Hungary’s bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics, and the Budapest Park concert venue hosts international acts on its open-air stage every summer.

The developments in Ferencváros have not bypassed the district’s inner area either. Ráday Street, which begins at Kálvin Square, has had limited vehicle access since the late 1990s, hosting a rich assortment of restaurants that are popular with both locals and tourists alike. The former public warehouse that was transformed into the Bálna Budapest building is an impressive public space, which also hosts events during the Budapest Spring Festival and the CAFe Budapest Contemporary Arts Festival.

Across Közraktár Street, a residential building has been converted into a concert hall, becoming the Budapest Music Center, which also houses the Opus Jazz Club that provides the most exciting contemporary artists the opportunity to get noticed, and it is also where the world-famous Hungarian composer Péter Eötvös holds his master classes and workshops. The urban develop-

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Extra muros The former public warehouse buildings were reused to build a contemporary cultural centre.

Photo © István Práczky

The new National Theatre and the evergreen labyrinth.

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has become popular with tourists, as has Müpa Budapest, designed by Gábor Zoboki and completed in 2006.

Waiting to be discovered

Over the past 10-15 years, Józsefváros has also seen rehabilitation works with different character-

Corvinus University’s new building complex was constructed next to Bálna Budapest (above) and the Budapest Music Center (left).

Photo © István Práczky

ments in this area of the city have been praised by numerous Hungarian and international critical and trade organisations, with the Ferencváros block rehabilitation project twice winning the FIABCI prize (in 1998 and 2016), known as the Academy Award of real estate development. Likewise the Great Market Hall, renovated in 1997,

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Extra muros

Photo © Balázs Csizik / Mittecomm

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The new Corvin Promenade begins at the Grand Boulevard with the street that wraps around the Corvin Movie Theatre.

has received widespread international praise, winning the FIABCI Prize in 2011, and has shown that with the passing of the financial crisis the building in of the empty lots has begun. In a few years’ time, new public function office buildings will be erected, thereby completing the Corvin Promenade. Further out along Üllôi Road we will find ourselves at the former home of Hungary’s officer cadets training institute, the Ludovica Academy built in 1836, which recently became home to the National University of Public Service. In addition to the expansion of the campus, the renovation of nearby Orczy Park and an already built dormitory, plans exist to build a special military science and military officer training centre, as well as a disaster management training

Photo © Balázs Csizik / Mittecomm

The new residential complexes on either side of the Corvin Promenade.

istics across the various parts of the district. More than two dozen public buildings were renovated during the past five years in the Palace Quarter as a part of the Downtown of Europe programme, while street sections were pedestrianised to reduce traffic, and cultural programs were launched involving local civilian organisations. At the intersection of József Boulevard with Üllôi Road, one of the largest real estate developments of the past hundred years was named after the Corvin Movie Theatre built in the 1930s. Modern residential complexes were built in place of the decaying and low-quality one- or two-story buildings to provide much higher standards of living and to create a new and highly desirable area of the city with its own pedestrian promenade. The project

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Photo: Budapestinfo.hu

The renovated Ludovica Military Academy building now houses the National University of Public Service.

Photo: Budapestinfo.hu

Crossing Baross Street north via Kálvária Square, we arrive at the Magdolna Quarter, where the social city rehabilitation project that has garnered international attention will enter its third phase after ten years. An important part of the project is to involve the residents who have serious social challenges into the development, thereby providing them with the opportunity for happiness.

The examples we have listed reveal how diverse and vibrant these two inner Budapest districts are with their rich history.

We could not even mention all that we wanted to in this short overview, for it omitted the soon-to-be renovated Museum of Applied Arts, which is an art nouveau masterpiece, the ELTE Botanical Garden, Budapest’s first, and the award-winning metro station at Fôvám Square. This rich architectural and cultural heritage is ready for you to discover it.

Photo: Budapestinfo.hu

centre along with a sport centre. The latter, along with the rejuvenated park, will be open to the public, and the development will likely improve the standard of living for those in the area.

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Water

is our treasure Budapest frequently hosts international scientific conferences. Last autumn, the World Science Forum was organised in Budapest and was attended by scientists who feel a responsibility for the Earth’s future, as well as influential individuals interested in social issues. The Budapest Water Summit 2016 has also invited high-ranking guests. More than a hundred speakers, moderators and reporters received invitations for the world summit’s three days, with heads of government and state, ministers, scientists and notable figures from the financial and business worlds expressing their intent to attend. Water is a treasure for all of humanity, yet even so every day we can read worrying news about water shortages and quality. Additionally, an exhibition and photo competition will complement the programme.

As we will reveal in this issue, water is not only a source of inspiration for music and the visual arts, but for architecture as well.

} The Danubius Fountain in Erzsébet Square in central Budapest

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This magnificent fountain designed by Miklós Ybl originally stood in Kálvin Square in District IX, but was damaged in World War II. The rebuilt fountain is surrounded by luxury hotels today.

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Can water be

the source of peace?

T ext : József Gyüre

Photo © France Info

Instead of being the cause of global conflicts and risks, water could instead be the source of peace and development. This is the aim of the Budapest Water Summit 2016, which will be organised between 28-30 November in the Hungarian capital. The world will also pay close attention to the event due to its potential impact on international climate policy.

Water Connects

The year’s most important diplomatic event in Hungary will be the Budapest Water Summit held at the end of November. In 2013, more than 1,400 guests arrived from over 105 countries to the Hungarian capital for the summit that year. More than 30 ministerial delegations, international organisations, representatives of NGOs as well as leading figures from the science and business worlds

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attended the event, where Hungarian President János Áder was joined by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in delivering the opening address.

Consensus-building reference point

The Budapest Water Summit 2016 will be the first global conference that will examine the results and possible shortcomings of the Sustainable Development Framework adopted

The Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center is launching a competition on account of the Budapest Water Summit 2016 together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, along with the Ministry of Human Capacities for domestic and international entrants. The competition will feature photography and video categories for works created after 2000. Entries can be a series of photographs featuring a minimum of three or maximum of six pictures, or a video that is no more than 90 seconds in length. In relation to the Budapest Water Summit 2016, the Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center would like to present water’s variety as inspiration for all those who are prepared to share their photography or video works with a wider audience.

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Water is our treasure Photo © vargosz.hu

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UN Secretary General Ban Kimoon and Hungarian President János Áder at the Budapest Water Summit 2013.

last September in terms of water development policy goals, and the summit can also contribute to establishing the most important activities for the next 15 years. The 2013 Budapest event and its closing statement, the Budapest Statement 2013, have become an important consensus-building reference point in climate policy, and hopefully the same will happen again.

The objective of the Budapest Water Summit 2016 is to promote water as the source of cooperation, peace and development in all countries that have a stake in sustainable development, instead of being the cause of global risks and further conflicts in the 21st century. The event will enjoy the patronage of Presdent Áder, and will be held in Hungary from 28-30 November together with the World Water Council.

Hungary's important role

In 2012, Áder announced at the Rio 2012 Sustainable Development Conference that Hungary would take an important role with respect to water. As Áder said at the time: “Water is the source of life. Yet, what we see is that we are not confronting ourselves with the true weight of the issue. This problem is not knocking on tomorrow’s door; it has already become part of our lives today. According to UN surveys, more than one billion people today live on Earth without access to safe drinking water. Ten thousand children under the age of five are killed every day by diseases stemming from contaminated water. We Hungarians are ready to contribute our share to this work and to share with others the experiences of our developed water management culture. The facts present an alarming picture.

Over the past five decades, humanity has consumed more resources than it did during its entire existence before that. Since the end of the 1980s, the ecological footprint of humanity has exceeded the biological capacities of Planet Earth. Do we have

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} Step by step – the most important milestones in international water policy 1977. Mar de Plata The first international water conference 1992. Dublin The International Conference on Water and the Environment attended by 113 countries 1992. Rio de Janeiro The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development adopted Agenda 21, the global action programme for the 21st century, an important document on the freshwater supply.

1997. Marrakech The first World Water Forum by the World Water Council. Henceforth the event was organised every three years.

2002. Johannesburg The Plan of Implementation was adopted by the World Summit on Sustainable Development to ensure access to clean drinking water.

2012. Rio de Janeiro At the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, Hungarian President János Áder announced that Hungary would host an international water conference in 2013, because Hungary plans to play an important role in this area.

2013. Budapest The 2013 Budapest Water Summit contributed significantly to the adoption of a standalone and comprehensive sustainable development goal on water.

2015. Paris The UN’s Climate Agreement was adopted in the French capital. There is growing recognition of the fact that climate change impact will mostly be felt on the water cycle. Some 75 per cent of national climate plans submitted by 186 countries ahead of the conference contained water adaptation elements.

2016. Budapest The Budapest Water Summit 2016

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Photo © Hans de Lijser

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Collecting drinking water is an arduous task every day in the shanty towns of India and South America.

Photo © Kuni Takahashi

} New scientific forums

time to wait? If we don’t do something about it, the situation will deteriorate further. We have to protect our water resources. We have to protect waters around us that breathe life.”

At the Budapest Water Summit 2013, Áder reminded world decision-makers that humanity is in the 21st hour, and everyone has to take responsibility to secure water for future generations. The president has since taken every opportunity and used every forum to raise awareness about the dangers of climate change and its consequences.

Photo © Amit Dave / Reuters

Surface water springs are drying up in dramatic proportions on the Indian subcontinent.

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He even raised the issue of water in a private audience with Pope Francis in Vatican

A In Hungary, water-related research is greatly emphasised and considered of essential importance. The National Water Sciences Programme currently being prepared by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences is expected to establish a coordinating group this year within the framework of the Academy’s Centre for Ecological Research. The group’s responsibility will be to develop the coordination of the water sciences programme, as well as to integrate domestic water research workshops into an active network. Long-term plans include the launch of a new institution based on this group, in addition to the Balaton Limnological Institute and the Danube Research Institute.

Today in Hungary, numerous workshops, departments and institutions perform research on surface, subsurface and atmospheric water. Since environmental challenges mean that a single area of expertise is insufficient to provide answers or solutions, the integration of these water science institutions is essential. It goes without saying that water does not know state boundaries, therefore international diplomatic relations are necessary for water-related research and problem-solving.

Attendees to the Budapest Water Summit 2016 will be presented with “a courageous policy declaration plan, which is not restricted by the cautiousness of inter-governmental diplomacy”, András Szöllôsi-Nagy, who is the former rector of UNESCO’s International Hydrological Programme, recently declared. The document was prepared on 22-23 July at the Academy of Sciences’ Balaton Limnological Institute by the world summit’s editorial committee. The declaration draft discusses, among others, the necessity for sustainable water management and issues surrounding infrastructure, institutional systems and expert training that have been neglected over the previous 30 years. According to Szöllôsi-Nagy, “If we wish to solve the problem of water access and waste water treatment in Africa, then we need to increase the number of experts working with water by 300%. This is not limited to researchers with doctoral degrees, but includes skilled workers as well.” Water is not only a technical or political issue, but an ethical one, Szöllôsi-Nagy added, who is also a member of the steering committee for the World Water Council.

The future of water management was also the focus of the Sustainable Water Future Programme conference hosted by the Institute of Advanced Studies Kôszeg this July, at which notable international experts spoke, among them Charles Vörösmarty, a professor at the City University of New York, as well as the Dutch climate researcher Pavel Kabat.

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} Budapest’s water is excellent

For example, let us consider that in a litre of drinking water a laboratory finds 100ng of ibuprofen, which is a common pain reliever that can be purchased without a prescription. One tablet purchased in the store contains 400mg of ibuprofen. If in 1 litre of the hypothetically contaminated water they find 100ng of this medication, then to reach the same level as found in one capsule you would need 4 million litres of water, which is equivalent to 20 million cups. That is how much of the water we would need to drink to consume the equivalent of one pill.

Photo © Tamás Kovács / MTVA

Photo © Gábor Janovich

The Budapest Waterworks operates a water network that is more than 5,000 kilometres in length. Since the water network is not a sterile medium, it is important that the necessary minimum amount of disinfectant be added to it.

This is what prevents the formation of harmful microbiological substances in the network, and is how infectious diseases are prevented from spreading. The cleansing process is performed via chlorine gas, which is the most effective when it comes to cleaning such large water networks.

Photo © István Práczky

Photo © István Práczky

When compared internationally, the Budapest Waterworks provides the city and its surroundings with excellent quality water. Their laboratories take 11,000 water samples each year, and the results show that the drinking water in Budapest meets Hungarian and European Union standards.

The Budapest Waterworks also performs accredited examinations of drinking water, subsurface water, as well as artificial baths for external partners upon request. What these tests have revealed is that the mineral content of the water is of medium level in the majority of the city. The harder the mineral content of water, the better its taste, although in all honesty, it also means it is less effective for cleaning.

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Inland flood waters overrun wells after rains in Allahabad.

of 2015 to 2030 and the Paris Climate Agreement within the UN 21st Climate Conference in terms of water management including the institutional framework reforms as necessary.

Water industry solutions

City. More recently, when he spoke in parliament, he urged the Hungarian government to be among the first to ratify the Paris Agreement. In early 2016, the president received an invitation from the UN Secretary General and the President of the World Bank to participate in the work of a High-level Panel on Water consisting of 10 states and their heads of government. Since the founding of the UN, this is the first time that the Hungarian state or its president has received an invitation to participate in a body committed to the resolution of a global problem.

Health and sustainable water management

The Budapest Water Summit 2016 will be attended by, inter alia, experts, professionals and officials from UN specialized agencies of water, sanitation and sustainable water management, other relevant Hungarian and international organisations, governments as well as business and academic communities, who can contribute to the implementation of the global Sustainable Development Goals related to water. The Budapest Water Summit 2016 will serve as a strategic platform to link political decision-makers closer to technology development, financing and public perceptions A further objective of the event is to give momentum to the practical implementation of sustainable development goals adopted for the period

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Photo Š James Grellier

Photo Š Jitendra Prakash / Reuters

As an integral part of the event, the summit will host an exhibition entitled Sustainable Water Industry Solutions, where exhibitors will showcase the latest water industry and related technologies. A similar exhibition was held at the Budapest Water Summit 2013, providing a significant business boost to the exhibiting companies.

A desalinisation plant in Barcelona that works via reverse osmosis.

Similarly to the previous Budapest Water Summit, the organisers will again invite UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, as well as the president of Mauritius, the prime ministers of Bangladesh and Jordan, and the former prime minister of South Korea. Preparations for the closing statement were begun in the summer by an international body of experts on water. Those who cannot attend can follow the events live online. The final version of the statement will be adopted on 30 November at the closing plenary meeting.

budapestwatersummit.hu Budapest Water Summit 2016

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The cities ornaments Water towers in Budapest T ext : Györgyi Orbán

Photo © István Práczky

Water covers more than 70% of the Earth’s surface and is a topic in both the arts and sciences. Water is a living substance, which draws people in like a magnet for both leisure and relaxation just as it does for discoveries and adventures.

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Photo © budapestinfo.hu

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Towers by famous architects

Hungary was already building with reinforced concrete by the 1880s, and some of these structures were water towers. Following the 1900 Paris World Fair, the Technical University professor Szilárd Zielinski (1860-1924) took on an important role in spreading this technology. Following the turn of the century, water towers were erected one after the other, including those on Margaret Island (1911) and Sváb Hill (1912).

The Margaret Island water tower is one of Budapest’s most beautiful examples of industrial listed architecture, splendidly fitting in with its natural surroundings. The refined and elegant forms and daring structural solutions celebrate the architectural work of the engineer Zielinski and architect Vilmos Rezsô. Margaret Island became a public park in 1908, and this park, with an area of 96.5 hectares, required a significant amount of water, so a pump house, network and the water tower were built. The tower functioned for 50 years, after which the reinforced concrete walls of its reservoir were opened. The tower has an octagonal plan and symmetrical structure, with a height of 55 metres, formerly holding 600 cubic metres of water. The structure was renovated in 2013 and today its rooms host exhibitions and various programmes that are part of the Budapest Summer Festival. By following the art nouveau spiral staircase, we can reach the lookout room with its eight balconies that provide a 360-degree panorama of Buda and Pest, as well as the bridges that span the Danube. The building, together with the Margaret Island Open-air Stage next door, offers tourists exceptional cultural attractions.

Szilárd Zielinski’s two magnificent towers: the Margaret Island water tower on page 31, and the Svábhegyi water tower above.

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The rivers and seas have provided humans not only with sustenance for millennia, but also functioned as highways to connect peoples and cultures. For humanity, regions rich in water always served as ideal places to settle. Such were the basins around the Tigris, Euphrates and Jordan rivers, just as Egypt’s wealth owes itself to the floods of the Nile.

The banks of the Danube, Europe’s second longest river, have also proven to be a desirable location for people to live. Inhabitants of the region quickly learned how to preserve and distribute their water onward by building reservoirs. These reservoirs are unbelievably simple. They differ in size and shape, but they all have a common characteristic: each is a simple container filled with water, located at an appropriate elevation.

The Sváb Hill water tower located on Eötvös Road in District XII is also an example of industrial architecture that has been listed, standing 30 metres tall with a capacity of 200 cubic metres.

The tower was built in 1912 according to plans

by Zielinski, and operates to this day, remaining an essential part of the infrastructure, and guaranteeing drinking water for the residents of the Buda Hills. The tank is filled by the pump house on Diána Road, with the pressure control equipment at the tower’s base pumping the water to the János Hill lookout tower.

Urban ornaments

The Árpád Road water tower in Újpest was built in a historicist style in 1912 using reinforced concrete and stands 57 metres tall with a capacity of 1,500 cubic metres, although it has not operated since 2003. Nonetheless, it remains a symbol of Budapest’s District IV and the area of Újpest

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Photo © Creative Commons

Photo © budapestinfo.hu

Water is our treasure

where it is located. Gyôzô Mihailich and Ödön Dümmerling designed the building, with the engineers wishing to make it a gem for the city.

The fascist Arrow-Cross planned to demolish it in 1944, but the resistance in Újpest prevented this.

A plaque commemorating their bravery is located on the tower’s side.

Photo © László Bárdos

At the Népliget, alongside Üllôi Road, a water tower was planned by Mihály Kajlinger in 1892 to supply the Tisztviselôtelep area with water, which is 35 metres tall, but has not operated since

the 1950s. The listed structure, which is covered with bricks, is stumpy and resembles a fortress that has three different levels. The cylindrical water tank is supported by six columns, with a terrace above ground level that features balustrades. The two-story pump house is located at the tower’s southern side.

The Újpest water tower is one of the district’s most distinctive structures.

Among the modern structures, the striped water tower in Csepel in southern Budapest is the country’s tallest, and the tower received its name from the alternating red and white bands on its column.

Built in 1984, it is more than 70 metres tall and can store 3,000 tonnes of water. Inside, the reinforced concrete monstrosity is like something from Star Wars, but the terrace at the top offers stunning views of the capital.

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Photo © budapestinfo.hu

Photo © budapestinfo.hu

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In the downtown area, among the buildings surrounded by József Boulevard, Rákoczi Road, Csokonai Street and Népszínház Street stands the water tower built in 1895 according to the plans of József Kauser. The 47-metre-tall structure, which has a light brick façade and was designed in the neo-renaissance style, was the water tower for the former National Theatre, which was unnecessar-

A Martian space station exists in the Budapest Zoo and Botanical Garden, inside the water tower located in the mountain. The artificial cliff contains a water tower that would have supplied the Zoo and Botanical Garden with water, but, by the time it was completed in 1912, the zoo had been connected to the water network. Renovated in Photo © István Práczky

Repurposed and reused

Photo © István Práczky

Following the demolition of the National Theatre, the water tower was left without a purpose, and today it functions as an office.

ily demolished in 1965 during the construction of metro line 2. The water tank, made from riveted iron plates, held water for the theatre’s fire sprinkler system and the stage’s hydraulic system. The pipes connecting the two buildings ran in a tunnel beneath the Grand Boulevard at the National Hotel, through which theatre employees also travelled. The tunnel, like the theatre, was demolished, although some claim that it still exists.

The spiral staircase inside the tower leads to the tank, but today a lift can also transport visitors to the top, which currently functions as a meeting room, and which offers excellent views of the city.

The cliff at the Budapest Zoo hides the structure of a former water tower, which today serves as a presentation room for educational programmes.

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Photo © budapestinfo.hu

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2008, the structure of the 34-metre-tall cliff was designed by the engineer Gyula Végh, while its surface was designed by the sculptor Gyula Benke.

A few of Budapest’s industrial listed buildings that have lost their original purpose have been transformed into residential buildings, thereby preserving them.

(Throughout Europe, there are fewer than 30 former water towers functioning as residences.)

Photo © budapestinfo.hu

Photo © budapestinfo.hu

At the turn of the 20th century, a 27-metre-tall reinforced concrete water tower was built to supply Mátyásföld’s upscale villa quarter in József Mészáros Street, and was in use from 1914. Its operations ceased, however, in the 1960s. A tender

was launched in 1996 for its use, which was won by the architect Éva Répai. Rebuilt through her own means, the structure became a residence and architectural office in 2002.

The Ferencváros water tower was converted into an apartment and offers a unique living experience.

In District IX in the middle of the MÁV housing estate at Gyáli Road, a 22metre-tall water tower was built in 1895, which supplied the estate with water until the 1980s. In the early 1990s, there were plans to demolish it, but it ended up in private ownership, and since 1996 has become a listed building. The former head pilot for the defunct Hungarian airline Malév purchased it, but it has since changed ownership and is once again for sale. The water tower in District XXIII in Soroksár in Péter Park is also privately owned.

viztorony.blog.hu

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Start of

the season Homage to Bartók

From the theatres to the concert halls, to the galleries and museums, everything reopens its doors. Festivals and premieres follow one another in every genre. The most significant event this autumn in the Hungarian capital will be the CAFe Budapest Contemporary Arts Festival, which will feature programmes in seemingly every part of the city. This year the festival will focus on Béla Bartók’s oeuvre. His works for the stage, chamber pieces and symphonic compositions will all feature in the programme.

Notable contemporary artists and performers will also be celebrated at the festival, such as the composers Steve Reich and Krzysztof Penderecki, the jazz pianist Tibor Márkus, and the painter Ignác Kokas. Penderecki’s visit, in addition to celebrating the centuries of cultural links between Poland and Hungary, is to commemorate Poland’s role in the 1956 Revolution.

Additionally, the new Bartók for Europe traveling festival will launch in Munich this year based on a Hungarian initiative.

} The #Bartók exhibition in the Ludwig Museum The Miraculous Mandarin, 2005.

A visual plan from Müpa Budapest’s opening performance.

Director: Géza M. Tóth Production designer: Mariann Prakter

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A musical oeuvre visualised

# Bartók – inspiration & identity For the 135th anniversary of Bartók’s birth, the Ludwig Museum is putting together an exhibition displaying works representing the Bartókian ideal using the devices of contemporary art, referring to or based on Bartók’s oeuvre.

The opening of the exhibition will be the first event of the CAFe Budapest Contemporary Arts Festival.

Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

In the eyes of the international musical profession, Béla Bartók’s musical heritage is as European as it is Hungarian and as Hungarian as it is European. In recognition of this, the visual arts cannot be ignored when discussing the composer's work.

Bartók’s spirit can still inspire today: the artists approached to submit works for the exhibition were asked to use elements from his oeuvre to take up conceptual positions at the border between art and science and thereby create new works without any regard to a specific genre, but with special attention paid to light and sound installations.

A fundamental question for the organisers was the extent to which Bartók is present in the past 50 years of visual art in Hungary. It became abundantly apparent that the works prepared for the 100th anniversary of the artist’s birth, although fittingly marking the event at the time, are no longer relevant today. It is quite clear that today’s curators want something completely different, due in part to the significant time – an entire gener- Béla Bartók (centre) with Walter Gropius and Paul Klee in Dessau. ation's worth – that has since passed. The other reason is that the language of visual arts is completely different today. Previously, 30, 50 or 100 years ago, an artist wishing to show their respect for a composer would have painted a portrait or illustration as an homage, but that is no longer the case.

The exhibition will primarily consist of works created after 2005, but it will also include paintings that are older, but of excellent quality, such as László Lakner’s oil painting from 1974 entitled Bartók Béla vasúti igazolványa (Béla Bartók's Railway Certificate), which is on loan from the Ludwig Foundation of Aachen. The work is conceptual and hyper realistic. The painting says as much about the freedom of travel as it does about the idea of identity in the European spirit. This theme transcend-

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ed Bartók’s activities and works, with his oeuvre expressing an honest desire for peoples to come together. Bartók discovered the modal lines found in Hungarian folk music while gathering material from Bulgarian, Turkish and even North African music. He experienced that the people of various cultures meet and influence one another. As he said, this does not detract from their own identity, and Bartók expressed his belief in this idea when nationalism was at its peak in Hungary.

What can be surmised from Gábor Bachman and Yasar Meral’s covers is that if Bartók were to present his works today, these are the ones he would select.

We know the relationship the composer had with visuals in his own era, since renowned artists who understood his personality, such as Anna Lesznai, prepared the illustrations for his scores.

Lakner’s image is more than a tribute, and the curators believe the same of Tamás Konok’s works, in which the equally important rhythm found in music and the visual arts reveals itself. The compositional system developed by the other contemporary artist, Dóra Maurer, is also related to Bartók’s by assembling frequencies that depict objects with minimal changes.

Naturally, the exhibition will also concern itself with works for the stage, such as Géza M. Tóth’s amazing animation of Bartók’s ballet The Miraculous Mandarin. The artist follows an exceptional but wonderful direction, interpreting Bartók’s works from today’s perspective. He identifies and reveals in Bartók’s pieces that which makes them eternal.

Young visual artists were also asked to create works inspired

by Bartók. For Anna Peternák and her partners, collaborating with composers from her age group is almost a daily occurrence at the Hermina Galéria, a workshop for young artists.

This time, the topic was Bartók’s legacy.

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Bartók on the stage T ext : András Oláh

The CAFe Budapest Contemporary Arts Festival pays tribute to the oeuvre of Béla Bartók, born 135 years ago, with new productions of Bluebeard’s Castle and The Miraculous Mandarin. The opening performance by excellent Hungarian artists at Müpa Budapest on 7 October will be repeated at the China Shanghai International Art Festival a few days later.

Béla Bartók’s work plays a central role in the renewed CAFe Budapest programme year after year. One of the most renowned of all Hungarian composers, Bartók was productive during the early 20th century in a progressive artistic community with a spirit that the festival wishes to preserve today, while also having the aim of bringing artists and patrons of the arts together.

The secretive and lonely Bluebeard, who held his wives captive, was made famous by the 17th century author Charles Perrault in his story La Barbe Bleue, which has seen many interpretations over the years. Csaba Káel, who is directing the performance, was inspired by the psychological approach closest to that employed by the composer.

“We will try to introduce in Bartók’s spirit how the changing quality of the relationships between a man and wom-

Andrea Szántó performing the role of Judit.

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Photo © Lilikoi Photography

Photo © www.andreaszanto.com

In addition to an exhibition entitled #Bartók at the neighbouring Ludwig Museum, the National Concert Hall named after Bartók will host two excellent performances wishing to express the composer’s still relevant beliefs. The pieces, although quite different in terms of genre and theme, nonetheless explore the

topics of love, death and requited and unrequited love, be they expressed through music, song or dance.

Gábor Bretz

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Homage to Bartók Photo © Szilvia Csibi / mupa.hu

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Photo © mupa.hu

an can obstruct and follow each other, while we arrive to the duke’s heart through the imaginations of Judit Kékszakáll.” The director, who is also Müpa’s CEO, mentioned that the work is also a transitional piece between opera and concert pieces, which will fit wonderfully among the series of opera performances that are partially staged in or adapted to the concert hall. The role of Bluebeard will be sung by the popular Hungarian singer Gábor Bretz, who has performed throughout Europe and the United States with the New York Philharmonic and the BBC Symphony Orchestra in

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similar productions, while Judit will be sung by Andrea Szántó, who has worked at the National Theatre Mannheim for more than a decade and regularly performs this role.

The second half of the performance will see a staging of The Miraculous Mandarin on the set of Bluebeard’s Castle with fresh choreography by Balázs Vincze and the 55-year-old Ballet Pécs.

One of Bartók’s most popular works, the story is of an amorous Chinese man who overcomes attempts on his life by tramps in his pursuit of the woman he loves. According to the director, Csaba Káel the work is quite a challenge for the choreographer, and Bartók also characterises every character in detail through his music.

The director-choreographer, who as a dancer has also performed as one of the tramps, is primarily interested in the unknown character and motivation of the Mandarin, who will be performed by Péter Koncz, who is an exceptional dancer and stands at 198 centimetres tall. Both performances will feature excellent interpretations of Bartók’s work aided by the internationally acclaimed conductor Zoltán Kocsis, who will lead the Hungarian National Philharmonic through the performances.

Éva Szendrényi’s set design.

The photo was taken during a test installation.

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Letting the genie out of the bottle

A new travelling festival for Europe From 25-29 September in Munich’s renowned Gasteig cultural centre and the Allerheiligen-Hofkirche, five concerts of Bartók’s work will be performed by four orchestras. In addition to Bartók’s works, the concerts will feature pieces

by Debussy, Liszt, Beethoven, Ligeti, Kurtág, Haydn, Kodály and Veress.

Photo © Gabor Fejer

Bearing the name Bartók for Europe, a new festival will launch in late September in Munich evoking the spirit of the Hungarian genius based on an initiative launched from Budapest. The unparalleled event is the brainchild of the violinist András Keller, founder of the Keller Quartet and musical director of Concerto Budapest

In the autumn of 2016, Concerto Budapest will be raising the international profile of both Bartók and the ensemble's namesake city. The orchestra will perform the opening concert featuring three major classical works. Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 in C major will be followed by Dénes Várjon’s performance of Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in A major. This will be followed by Bartók’s only opera, Bluebeard’s Castle, with Petra Lang in the role of Judit and Gidon Saks as Bluebeard.

“I deliberately chose the name Bartók for Europe as he was able to create a national musical language that was at once universal. As I see it, the idea of Europe is currently losing its meaning, but I believe that it can be recreated with the assistance of significant individuals, and it is in our interest to do so. Béla Bartók is one of the 20th century’s most exceptional individuals and composers. By making him the focus, we Hungarians can offer Europe the moral values that I believe are missing most today,” András Keller opined. Bartók’s work was far ahead of his time and contained within it a desire for humans to become acquainted and experience various cultures. His oeuvre, beyond the enjoyment of the musical experience, is a kind of compass for the entire continent, and the world. “26 September will be the anniversary of Bartók’s death, and I would like to organise our festival in a different member state of the European Union each September.

If they throw it back at me that the Brits are planning to leave the community, even though the Vladimir Jurowski-led London Philharmonic Orchestra will perform the festival’s second concert, I would say that in my opinion British citizens voted the way they did because they felt that national interests were not sufficiently harmonised with those of the Union. In other words, if common economic and political interests are not aligned to common spiritual ideals, such as peoples’ coming together in Bartók’s spirit, then Europe will

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András Keller

not possess the cohesive power to bind it together.

The absence of this will lead to collapse. Britain will remain just as much part of Europe as we were before we entered the Union. We are proud that one of the finest orchestras in the world, the London Philharmonic, is a permanent partner of the Bartók for Europe festival, and that it considers it important to spread Bartók’s spirit throughout Europe!”

This year, in addition to The Miraculous Mandarin, the orchestra will perform works by Beethoven and Debussy, Bartók’s two favourite composers.

The following day, chamber ensembles will perform and András Keller will stand on the podium together with such world-renowned Hungarian contemporaries as Miklós Perényi and Csaba Klenyán. The Münchener Kammerorchester will perform works by Sándor Veress, a Hungarian-Swiss composer who is not yet well known, as well as works by Haydn, Mozart and of course Bartók. The closing concert will feature the Munich Philharmonic as “hosts”. The conductor Pablo HerasCasado has selected a purely Hungarian programme, but Ligeti’s Romanian Concerto and Bartók’s Concerto will represent the festival’s European theme, while Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 3, widely considered a spiritual will, will be interpreted by Javier Perianes.

“I imagined a festival that is European in every sense of the word. The festival will take Bartókian ideals to a different part of Europe each year.

We wish to take Bartók’s musical heritage to Warsaw in 2017, London in 2018, and then Paris and Brussels. People might consider me an idealist, but that’s fine, for progress and new paths can only be found through continuity with tradition. This year, all I have done is release the genie from the bottle, since we could not realise quite a few of our plans due to financial and time constraints. I would like young musicians to be an active part of the programme, to play together with the orchestras, and for fundamental works, such as Bartók’s six string quartet pieces, to be performed by different quartets, for example. We want to be able to say that we have successfully honoured his incomparable legacy.”

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A festive performance: ...’56-’16...

Anniversary total art production T ext : Ágnes Karcsay

This event featuring a series of montages opens with an unusual performance art sequence before transforming into a theatre show that lays the groundwork for a contemporary dance episode. This is followed by another section in the style of performance art before the audience finally emerges into an opera production.

Director-choreographer Krisztian Gergye strived to create a truly emotional experience. For him, the most important idea was to combine the various genres of art to bring about a stage production that provides the audience (regardless of their age) the experience of the revolution and the oppression of the communist regime, even if they did not witness it themselves or if their memories have faded.

Erzsébet Vojnich

Péter Zombola

Photos © BFTK archive

Krisztián Gergye

The set’s central element will be the national flag, the geometric shape of the coat of arms torn from the tricolour, and the hole, which will serve as a metaphor for the emptiness caused by the unfulfilled revolution. The artist Erzsébet Vojnich created a series of paintings inspired by photographs of the revolution and the period that followed, with enlarged versions erected on the stage.

Inspired by the events of 1956, the composer Péter Zombola wrote the music for the piece. In addition to the etudes composed for the string quartet, the fourth movement of Heiner Müller’s Hamletmachine is also transformed into an opera.

(Müller was an important dramatist in the latter half of the 20th century, and wrote his work while translating Shakespeare’s Hamlet.) This section will feature the world-famous mezzo-soprano Viktória Vizin, the Accord Quartet, as well as the composer himself on piano.

Fragments of text from Péter Nádas and Tibor Hajas will be used to speak of the revolutionary days and the revolution’s defeat by Barna Kelemen and Eszter Bánfalvi. In addition to the actors, additional performers, the director-choreographer, as well as Anita Barabás, Gáspár Téri and Tamás Rétfalvi will also take the stage, adding to the performance with movement theatre and contemporary dance.​

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An independent exhibition of Vojnich’s work will be timed to coincide with the Budapest premiere, as will a publication consisting of interviews and photos, which will provide readers the opportunity to immerse themselves into the revolution and the period afterwards, as well as to discover how the performance was created. ​ For visitors to the exhibi tion and readers of the book, further adventures await if they download the production’s smartphone app and read the codes next to the paintings and graphics, which will take them on a virtual journey. The production, which is debuting at the CAFe Budapest Contemporary Arts Festival, will also be staged in late October in New York, with smaller etudes performed later for audiences in New York and Washington.

18 October 2016, Castle Garden Bazaar November 2016, New York, Washington

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Start of the season Photo © Dániel Dömölky

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Steve Reich '80 ' '

Two generations of

repetitive music

Photo © Thor Brødreskift

T ext : András Oláh

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Steve Reich, considered one of the greatest living American composers, will celebrate his 80th birthday on 3 October. Barely two weeks later, Hungary’s most acclaimed interpreters of his work, the Amadinda Percussion Group and the UMZE Chamber Ensemble will perform at the Liszt Academy of Music, showcasing works that have never before been performed in Hungary in honour of the composer’s oeuvre.

A few days before the concert on 16 October, Nic Bärtsch, a European who composes in this American-launched genre will perform his latest works together with his band.

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Reich, who is considered among the pioneers of minimalist music, has inspired the music world for half a century, irrespective of whether the artists are classical or pop-oriented. Familiarity with his oeuvre in Hungary was spread by the percussionist and conductor Zoltán Rács, who, after completing his studies at the Liszt Academy of Music, founded the Amadinda Percussion Group. The band, which has a history spanning over 30 years, quickly became one of the most important acts in their genre.

One of their aims is to popularise the percussion genre, and to introduce works by composers who are popular abroad. They were able to establish a close relationship with Reich, who has Hungarian roots through his paternal grandmother. The composer, who was granted an honorary professorship at the Music Academy in 2006, has performed with Amadinda on multiple occasions.

In 2009, the group was able to hold the premiere for Reich’s Mallet Quartet, which was in part composed for the group’s 25th anniversary and which will also be performed at this jubilee concert. The UMZE Chamber Ensemble formed in 1997 and led by Zoltán Rácz will assist in interpreting Reich’s works.

UMZE’s repertoire consists of 20th century and contemporary composers’ works. The two bands will be complemented during the evening by the Kelemen Quartet formed by the violinist couple Barnabás Kelemen and Katalin Kokas for the performance of City Life composed in 1995. The five movement work reproduces the hustle and bustle of New York, with Reich including the metropolis’s streets into the fabric, which will be heard by a Hungarian audience for the first time. Likewise, the evening’s closing piece, Radio Rewrite from 2012, will feature on a concert programme for the first time in Hungary. The work

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was inspired by Radiohead’s songs "Jigsaw Falling into Place" and "Everything in Its Right Place". Steve Reich’s Quartet from 2013, written for two pianos and two vibraphones, will also be heard, and is led by a light and playful melody with alternating fast-slow-fast tenets and frequent key changes that typify the celebrated composer’s style.

Audiences at the CAFe Budapest Festival can discover a different style of repetitive music that is blended with jazz and funk during the concert by Nik Bärtsch’s Mobile formation at the Budapest Music Center on 11 October. The complex reflections found in Bärtsch’s music are characteristic of a musician who went on to study philosophy and linguistics following his graduation from the Musikhochschule Zürich.

In addition to his solo projects and funk quartet, Ronin (which has previously performed in Budapest), Bärtsch has recently placed an emphasis on Mobile, which has the characteristics of a chamber ensemble and with whom he released his album Continuum earlier this year. Beyond the concerts, the artist also performs hours-long or half-day musical rituals with his collaborator of many decades Kasper Rast on drums, Sha who performs on the bass clarinet and alto saxophone, and the percussionist Nicolas Stocker, who recently graduated from being a fan to a band member. In order to reinforce the sound of the chamber ensemble, a string quintet accompanies Mobile on their tours. The melodic, easily accessible songs on Bärtsch’s new album recall the groove music of the 1990s, but the new pieces also reveal influences from György Ligeti, with the album’s title a nod to one of Ligeti’s works from 1968.

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World-famous jazz formations at

CAFe Budapest T ext : András Oláh

Barely a week later, visitors to the Budapest Jazz Club will enjoy a vibrant celebration of the genre. Although Tibor Márkus will only celebrate his 60th birthday in December, his fellow musicians and friends will pay tribute to the Ferenc Erkel Prinze-winning composer and pianist during the CAFe Budapest Contemporary Arts Festival. In addition to his quarter-century of teaching, and his publications and lectures that have popularised the genre, Márkus has also led the Equinox ensemble for two decades. The group added two singers and Miháy Borbély for the double album Mysterious Tales released last year, which will hold numerous surprises for guests at the performance on 13 October.

Photo © Marc Vanocur

Photo © Luko Balandžio

The Swede Oscar Simonsson, the Hungarian Tibor Márkus, the American Russell Ferrante, the French Yann Tiersen and the Japanese Hiromi all represent different genres on the piano, and all of them will provide top-notch performances as soloists or with backing bands at this year’s CAFe Budapest Festival.

The Koop Oscar Orchestra will perform in Budapest six years after the break-up of Koop, one of the most popular Swedish electronic nu jazz formations of the 2000s. Koop was a co-production between Oscar Simonsson and Markus Zingmark, who made their name around the world by digitally assembling samples to create melodic dance music. Following 15 years of collaboration, three LPs and the hit song “Koop Island Blues”, the formation unexpectedly disbanded in 2010. Recently, however, Oscar Simonsson re-emerged in collaboration with the young and talented Lithuanian singer Jazzu, performing under the name of Koop Oscar Orchestra, which uses live instruments and will perform new songs in addition to classic hits on 7 October on the A38 Boat.

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Start of the season Photo © Muga_Miyahara

The pianist Russell Ferrante is the last original member of Yellowjackets, which formed in the late 1970s in Los Angeles from the best session musicians to record Robben Ford’s solo album. Despite many line-up changes, the group has been going strong for nearly 40 years, continuing to play jazz fusion and R&B. Earlier this year, the two-time Grammy-winning band released their 21st album, Cohearance. In addition to Ferrante, the band’s other pillar has been saxophonist Bob Mintzer, while Will Kennedy has sat behind the drum kit since the 1990s. The group’s newest member representing the younger generation is the Australian bass guitarist Dane Alderson, who took over the position last year from Felix, Jaco Pastorius’s son. The group will perform at the Budapest Jazz Club on 14 October.

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Departing somewhat from the genre of jazz, Yann Tiersen, who composed the score to the hit film Amelie, will be the guest of the Müpa Budapest concert hall on 19 October. Those expecting a nostalgic concert consisting of film scores would be mistaken, however. The 46-year-old romantic and minimalist composer, who also draws inspiration from contemporary pop music, released his album Eusa earlier this year featuring melancholic songs inspired by a dangerous encounter with a cougar during a bicycle tour in California. This music reflects his new relationship with nature and life as a result. The performer, who is equally talented on violin and harmonica, will perform a solo piano concert using material from the album.

Returning to jazz, the concert hall at Müpa Budapest will on 21 October also host the album premiere of another world-famous virtuoso pianist and composer, the Japanese Hiromi, whose tenth album Spark is just as vivid and vibrant as the “spark” that inspired it. The diverse and sweeping, yet no less playful pianist also dips into rock music together with her Trio Project formed in 2011, in which Simon Phillips of Toto will play drums.

Anthony Jackson from New York’s jazz session scene will round out the group on the six-string bass guitar.

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History lessons about freedom

Poland and Hungary celebrate their ties In memory of the Hungarian Revolution and the Poznan Uprising that took place 60 years ago, Poland and Hungary have declared 2016 the Year of Solidarity. For the autumn cultural programmes, and among them the CAFe Budapest Contemporary Arts Festival, Poland will be a special guest.

The focus will be on the visual arts and music.

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Photo © Bruno Fidrych / www.brunofidrych.com

T ext : Györgyi Orbán

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Katarzyna Sitko, the director of the Polish Institute, revealed that two exhibitions will open for the launch of the Polish series in the Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art. The first will be The Wild West, A History of Wrocław’s Avant-Garde, which will show the many important artistic trends that launched in Wroclaw not only in fine art, but also in film, such as Andrzej Wajda’s Ashes and Diamonds from 1958, or Jerzy Grotowski’s work in the theatre. The second floor of the museum will host an exhibition entitled Young Poland about the lives of Polish youths today, revealing their thought processes through several genres of art (fine art, photography and music). In parallel to this, the Polish Institute’s Platan Gallery will host the works of five young contemporary visual artists.

Poland will be the special guest from 7-23 October at the traditional Art Market at the Millenáris, and five galleries from Warsaw will be present: Apteka Sztuki, Czułosc, Leto, Propaganda and Starter. The pianist Maciej Masecki, one of the most creative contemporary musicians, will perform a solo piano evening on 13 October in the Budapest Music Center, where he will reinterpret Mozart and Chopin's compositions.

The CAFe Budapest Festival in October will feature the work of Krzysztof Penderecki, the world-famous Polish composer and conductor. The 83-year-old artist wrote an oratorio for the occasion of the 1956 Revolution’s 60th anniversary. The composer’s work will be performed at the Liszt Academy of Music as a part of the Concerto Budapest and at Müpa Budapest during the National Philharmonic Orchestra’s performances. A meeting with Penderecki is planned for 17-18 October at the Budapest

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Music Center where a film about him will be screened. The Polish Institute will also exhibit a poster art exhibition of posters for Penderecki’s concerts.

The Polish Institute will also host a series of lectures and film screenings on 1956 called History Lessons About Freedom. They will organise a competition entitled Poznan – Budapest ’56 that will challenge young computer programmers to create a computer game in 48 hours. Polish designers will participate at the Design Week event, and they will also have an exhibition in the institute in late September. A book launch will also be organised together with Hungarian publishers to introduce Mikolaj Lozinski’s work Book published by Európa Kiadó and Joanna Bator’s Dark, Almost Night published by Magvetô.

Photo © Radoslaw Kazmierczak

The Year of Hungarian Culture in Poland will feature 150 programmes extending until the end of 2017. The Polish Institute in Budapest will organise countless events in the Hungarian capital, so that the Hungarian public can become even more acquainted with contemporary Polish culture and get an idea of the events taking place this year in Wroclaw, which is currently the European Capital of Culture.

The second weekend of November will again see a Polska Jazz event in collaboration with the bass guitarist and double bass player Wojtek Mazolewski, who had a successful engagement last year in Budapest and will also perform at the Szeged Jazz Days.

Mazolewski is the artist who reinterpreted jazz and made it accessible to a young audience.

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City Guide It was, is and will be. Introduced earlier in the magazine, districts VIII and IX once contained prosperous factories and to this day have industrial buildings (some of which now house cultural institutions) that evoke the achievements of civic Budapest.

Residential buildings that house contemporary art or culinary programmes can also found, as can sport arenas. New buildings that will receive humanities and sciences researchers will also be constructed in the near future.

Budapest constantly renews itself, with current city development plans mindful of the two districts’ past, present and future. We only need mention such examples as the history of the world-famous Zwack family or the railway workshop built in 1885 that will soon house a 21st century opera centre.

} The Budapest–Våc Railway Line turns 170

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A volunteer fire brigade band celebrates the anniversary in the Nyugati Railway Station.

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A cultural hub in the rust belt P hotos

and illustrations :

Hungarian State Opera

The starting pistol has fired: the construction of the Eiffel Art Studios, which will provide the background for all of the Hungarian State Opera and the Erkel Theatre’s activities, will be completed for the summer of 2017. In addition to its artistic benefits, the investment of 15 billion forints will also lay the groundwork for the long-awaited modernisation of the Ybl Palace on Andrássy Avenue.

Hungary’s largest theatre, the Hungarian State Opera House, rents five rehearsal places around Budapest. “In truth, none of them meet our requirements, for their sizes are not the same as the Ybl Palace or the Erkel Theatre’s stages, they do not have the right technology, prompt boxes, dressing rooms, they are acoustically modest, and some have columns in the middle of the stage areas,” Szilvester Ókovács, the General Director of the Hungarian State Opera reveals, adding, “Every Budapest and county theatre has one, but has the Hungarian State Opera ever had its own chamber theatre, where, on the one hand, it was able to perform a not-insignificant amount of chamber opera, and, on the other, show rarities that cannot be performed anywhere in the world in a series before an audience of one or two thousand, but are nonetheless of value?”

Eiffel and reality

The workshop occupying a space of 20 hectares is situated at the intersection of Kôbányai Road and Hungária Boulevard.

It was built 130 years ago for the Hungarian State Railways

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and was called the Eiffel Hall. Budapest’s largest listed building will be transformed into a space for rehearsals, manufacturing workshops, storage facilities and a chamber theatre for the Opera and the Erkel Theatre (located 4.7 and 2.5 kilometres away respectively).

“Legends must be respected,” Ókovács opines, acknowledging that the structure was actually planned by Gustave Eiffel’s frequent collaborator, the very modest Hungarian iron structure engineer János Feketeházy. Feketeházy’s other works are the roof structures of the Keleti Railway Station and the Opera, the Mária Valéria Bridge that spans the Danube into Slovakia, the bridges at Komárom, Szeged and Szolnok, and the Szabadság Bridge in Budapest, where his name was left off the plaque.

But on this occasion Feketeházy will be commemorated: “On the 175th anniversary of the birth of this fine gentleman from the Hungarian highlands, we will dedicate a memorial on 16 May 2017,” Ókovács added. “The Feketeházy glass hall will showcase the hundred-year history of the Hungarian railways’ main workshop. With capacity to repair 96 type-424 steam lo-

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comotives simultaneously, the hall provided 3,000 people with work. On this day in the future, we will welcome engineering students who wish to expand their knowledge or gain workshop experience. The Eiffel name, which is inseparable from the structure, will remain.”

The Eiffel hall and the two side halls that have since also become listed can store the Opera’s movable assets and production treasures, worth over 10 billion forints.

“My word is your bond that on 18 June 2017 we will perform a never before heard Mozart opera to open the Eiffel Art Studio’s theatre named after Miklós Bánffy, the Opera’s most important intendant. On 24 June, Donizetti’s opera Roberto Devereux will be performed in the Bánffy Theatre starring Edita Gruberova and projected into the three-hectare park that surrounds the building, a significant part of which will be open to the public,” Ókovács added.

What will the workshop contain?

Primarily it will be a rehearsal centre, where multiple productions can rehearse alongside each other in the separated, scaled rooms named after Bánffy and Sádor Hevesi, while the music hall named after Ferenc Fricsay can hold choir or orchestra rehearsals. There will also be a large ballet room named after Campilli and a stage named after Kálmán Nádasdy, not to mention offices and individual rehearsal rooms.

The Eiffel Art Studios will contain seven pre-existing and two new workshops with brand new machines and tools, with the new grand painting room to be named after the world-famous Gusztáv Oláh. A modern warehouse system will also be developed, as will teaching and practice spaces. The manufacturing workshops will aid in the practical training of the staff and artists, focussing on trades that are in shortage or knowledge that would otherwise disappear.

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The building named after Miklós Radnai will host the Opera’s international singing studio, as well as the Opera’s School of Music, where orchestra and choral artists can teach younger generations or practice their opera parts.

The site will also host a visitor centre, and a costume and prop rental service, for the institute has more than 400,000 valuable costumes. The atrium will contain a special restaurant with a teak railway dining car from Eiffel’s era. The workshop’s theatre can be converted into a 1,000 square metre events centre, and the three-hectare park will include a playground and fountain, while a Budapest Bicycle station is also planned. “A brown scar on the body of Budapest, or rather of Kôbánya, is finally healing,” Ókovács concluded.

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Zwack Unicum

History sealed in a bottle P hotos :

zwackunicum.hu

In addition to the internationally famous specialities of Hungarian gastronomy such as Tokaj wines, Szeged paprika and goulash soup, it is impossible to overlook the kind that are drunk in small but potent quantities.

A fruit spirit or herbal liquor may contain hundreds of years of tradition.

The seal of József Zwack, Importer to the Imperial and Royal Court, as seen on a bottle from the early 20th century.

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Dr. Zwack, das ist ein Unikum!

Available in approximately 30 countries around the world, the unique herbal liqueur Unicum made by the Zwack Company is shrouded in many secrets, which primarily surround the recipe closely guarded by the family for over two centuries. As the family says, those who try the spirit

in 2016 will taste the same flavours that Emperor Joseph II sampled in 1790, which is where the story began. According to family legend, Dr. Zwack, the doctor for the imperial court, offered a taste of the spirit he had prepared himself to Joseph II to aid his digestion. The emperor tasted the liquid and declared “Dr. Zwack, das ist ein Unikum!” thereby inadvertently naming the drink as well. József Zwack, a descendent of the doctor, founded his distillery in Pest in 1840.

But what is this secretive nectar upon which a whole business is founded? “Unicum is prepared from more than 40 types of herbs, which are sourced from five continents. A significant number are from the Carpathian Basin, but there are also ingredients from Morocco, China, India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Nigeria, America and Australia,” Sándor Zwack, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Zwack Unicum Plc., and the sixth generation of the family to oversee the company revealed to Budapest’s Finest. “I believe that it is unique in our country that only members of our family know the full Unicum recipe, and that there are herbs that to this day we measure out by hand.

In certain cases, this is performed by my mother.”

Unicum, which is 40% alcohol by volume, is the only herbal liqueur to be both macerated and

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distilled using herbs and spices. The measured ratio of these spices is complemented by a special mixture prepared by the family in Italy called “Unicum’s heart”, the ingredients of which are known only by them. Following this, the drink is aged for months in oak casks in the factory’s cellar, before being poured into the familiar round bottles. Unicum is prepared in the present according to the family recipe dating from 1790, and every effort is made to use the original technology.

“The recipe developed in the imperial court was the basis for this well-functioning and successful company. Since that time, we have had to become refugees and start everything anew, but the Unicum remained Unicum”, Sándor continued.

Conquering America and the World

József Zwack, who founded the Zwack factory, had as a fundamental principle that drinks should be prepared only from natural ingredients and not their essences. In the late 19th century during the era of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the company received the illustrious designation of Purveyor to the Imperial and Royal Court, and with its more than 200 products became one of the world’s most important liqueur and spirits manufacturers. József Zwack’s principles were continued by his nephew Lajos when he joined the company in 1886, and then by Lajos’s children János and Béla, who followed family tradition. Despite the clashing personalities and at times difficult relationship between the brothers (who were frequently not on speaking terms) they complemented each other and worked towards a common goal: to make the liquor factory flourish even more and to gain international recognition for the herbal bitter.

During the Great Depression in the late 1920s and early 1930s, to compensate for losses and fully utilise their manufacturing capacity, the company be-

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Viktor P famous poster f 1909.

gan to produce lightbulbs and tube lighting, which were also available on the domestic market. At the time neon advertisements for Unicum lit Budapest’s streets and squares.

Viktor Pachl’s world-famous Zwack Unicum poster from 1905-1909.

The factory museum contains memories spanning centuries.

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In 1933, the company signed a contract with the New Yorkbased Kraus Brothers & Company to distribute Unicum in the United States, as the Hungarian drink began to earn converts across the pond. The handmade and uniquely shaped characteristic bottles travelled around the world as the product had a vibrant and inventive advertising campaign, among them the iconic man in the sea, whose image has become part of Hungarian popular culture.

During and after the war – Not the real Unicum

By the end of World War II rubble was practically all that remained of the factory. The family began rebuilding at their two surviving locations in 1945, but the rebuilt factory was nationalised in 1948, without the family receiving any compensation.

János Zwack sent his son Péter ahead, who left the country to emigrate to the United States with the secret recipe in his coat pocket. He took an adventurous route of sneaking across the border by hiding beneath an oil drum. Béla and his wife decided to remain in Hungary and Béla became a supervisor in the nationalised factory where he oversaw the production of Unicum. Instead of revealing the secret recipe, Béla provided a fake one, consequently the state-run factory did not produce the real drink for decades. Béla and his wife were later exiled internally, like so many other “class enemies” at the time. They managed to emigrate to Italy in the mid-1950s, however, where soon after production of the real Unicum was launched.

After arriving in the United States, János Zwack discovered that the nationalised company was still exporting products (primarily Unicum) to the United States under the Zwack name, with assistance from their former partners the Kraus Brothers & Company. The lawsuit filed against the American company and the communist Hungarian government, to regain and protect the family’s trademarks for the Zwack and Unicum names was precedent setting. János did not live to see the successful

verdict, however, since he passed away in 1958 two weeks apart from his brother Béla.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Péter, who represented the fifth generation of the family, worked intensely so that the Zwack name would survive in the United States. With this in mind he signed an agreement with the Jim Beam Company, so that the company would produce gin, vodka and slivovitz under the Zwack name. Péter worked at large companies, had his own leather import company, and worked his way up the ladder rung by rung, learning the ins and outs of wine and liquor manufacturing and trading.

In addition to producing liqueur, he did not forget his Hungarian roots or the importance of social causes for the Zwack family. Together with Tibor Eckhardt, Péter was one of the organisers of the First Aid for Hungary Foundation in 1956, which had as its chairman former American President Herbert Hoover and Sargent Shriver, who was the brother-in-law of future President John F. Kennedy, as co-chairman. In one year they raised $120,000 to assist refugees from the 1956 Revolution.

Péter returned to Europe in 1970, moving to Italy to oversee the production and marketing of Zwack Unicum. He met his second wife Anne in Italy, and their children, Sándor and Izabella, are currently the directors of the Zwack Company.

Back in family hands

Péter Zwack returned to Budapest in 1987. Before long, production of Unicum according to the original recipe resumed.

Following the regime change, Péter briefly returned to the United States as the first Ambassador to the United States of the newly democratic Republic of Hungary. Returning to Hungary in 1991 and with privatisation underway, Péter Zwack und Consorten AG purchased the Budapest Liqueur Company, thereby becoming Hungary’s largest alcoholic drink manufacturer and vendor, possessing more than 40% of the

The Zwack factory’s showroom contains every product made by the company

www.se

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market. Between 1992 and 2008 Péter was the president of Zwack Unicum Plc., and in 2008 his son Sándor took over the company leadership as the Chairman of the Board of Directors, while his daughter Izabella also became a member of the Board of Directors. As the first honorary president of the company, Péter remained actively involved until he passed away in 2012.

The sixth generation

Sándor and his sister Izabella inherited the passion and commitment necessary to oversee the Zwack factory from their ancestors. Similarly to their father, they wandered the world, gaining immeasurable professional experience, and with fresh momentum and ideas they enhance the Zwack name.

The introduction of Unicum Plum, which is aged on plums in oak casks giving it a distinctive velvety taste, was a success and the product has become known around the world.

The Zwack factory produces three million litres of Unicum each year, as well as 16-18 million litres of liqueur, pálinka and other spirits. There is more to Unicum than a recipe that has been kept secret for centuries, for behind it is a committed family with a sense of purpose interested in tradition, the story of which has continued with every successful new

product. The family is also currently working on a new product, the details of which Sándor would not reveal.

The Zwack Unicum Museum and Visitor Centre provides visitors with a detailed account of the family’s history, their struggles throughout history, desire for life and their return home. “I understood that this is not just a story, but my past and future as well. I found my home, and the feeling of belonging. I am often asked where I come from?

These days my answer is: from here, from Budapest, from Tokaj, from Hungary,” Izabella Zwack says in a recording during the visitor centre tour.

(x)

Sándor and Izabella Zwack in the factory’s cellar.

1061 Budapest, Liszt Ferenc sqr 7

Reservation: +36 1 709 24 68 reservation@seasonsbistro.hu Open every day www.seasonsbistro.hu

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Nostalgic rides on rails T ext : Ágnes Karcsay

Photo © MTI Zoltán Máthé

Nostalgic railway rides are turning 30 this year in Hungary, and tourists arriving to Budapest have numerous opportunities to discover the atmosphere of riding the rails in the 19th and 20th centuries. Based on its size, the Hungarian Railway Museum is unique in Central Europe and houses a vintage fleet of locomotives and carriages. Those who wish to see these symbols of luxury from a bygone era in motion have a wealth of options available to them.

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The Hungarian Railway Museum

Schvéd said. The wealthy Belgian was inspired by the sleeping cars associated with George Pullman, and the luxury railway carriage he built named the Pioneer, which had plush seats which could be transformed into beds for the night, with guests attended to by sleeping car conductors.

Nagelmackers’s great dream, the Europe-crossing Orient Express, had its maiden voyage in June 1883, departing from Paris for Constantinople. The eastern “lightning luxury train” conquered Europe, but World War I suspended the route, with its later variants unable to hold a candle to the original.

Photo © Magyar Vasúttörténeti Park – MTI archives

Vehicles older than a hundred years are spread out over the museum’s area of more than 14 hectares, although many of them appear to be much younger. Norbert Schvéd is the director of MÁV Nosztalgia Kft., the company that oversees the museum and is responsible for the preservation and operation of the Hungarian State Railway’s nostalgia vehicles. According to Schvéd, the diesel, electric and steam locomotives in the park, as well as the passenger and freight cars have not only unique histories, but some have intangible value going into millions of euros.

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Opened in 2000, the park’s most popular attraction is the largest operating steam locomotive in Hungary, which was recently briefly returned to operation for the 170th anniversary of the launch of rail traffic in Hungary, steaming its way up to Vác.

The popular small railway cars that travel around the garden are towed by scale copies of classic locomotives. The most exciting carriage in the rolling stock is a wooden-framed, teak-panelled dining car built in 1912, which was made to be part of the original Orient Express. According to rail historians, it is the most authentic surviving example of its kind in the world.

The legendary Orient Express

The golden age of the Orient Express, which connected Western and Eastern Europe, extended from the 1880s to the start of World War I. With the laying of a track between Western Europe and Constantinople, the Belgian Georges Nagelmackers organised the first European sleeping and dining car company (CIWL) in 1872 based on the American model,

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Nostalgia for the former luxury train was revived by Agatha Christie’s crime novel Murder on the Orient Express¸ which was turned into a movie and a television miniseries. The first completely nostalgic Orient Express rolled through Hungary in 1982.

The Swiss-operated Venice Simplon-Orient-Express includes Budapest among its stops, from where services will depart this October to London and Paris, travelling two nights and one day, evoking the atmosphere of this form of luxury travel.

The journey is the destination

Tourists arriving in Budapest have many opportunities to experience riding on classic train carriages. MÁV Nosztalgia Kft. organises “steam cloud” excursions with it train pulled by a steam locomotive that travels to the Cuha Valley, the Danube Bend or Bratislava. The services that depart for Vienna and Prague in the winter months are exceptionally popular.

The nostalgia trains feature carriages that are 50-60, or even 100-years-old. The Isonzo Express historical train offers a fiveday adventure through Austria and Slovenia to Italy and the

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southern front of World War I. “This is much more than an everyday train ride. The goal is not to simply travel from A to B, but for the journey to be the experience,” Schvéd emphasised.

Historians host lectures during the trip, heritage soldiers present historical weapons, and authentic soldier songs will be sung.

The passengers will receive guided tours of military cemeteries, memorial locations, museums and the trench systems.

Photo © MÁV KIG / Botond Soós

MÁV Nosztalgia Kft., in collaboration with the English company Golden Eagle Luxury Trains, is also launching a luxury service from Budapest to Teheran. The Golden Eagle Danube Express targets passengers who desire both luxury and adventure. The Deluxe sleeping cabins include showers, toilets and

beds that are low to the ground. Classic sleeping arrangements will be available through the salon cars that were built in the 1950s and were once part of the Hungarian government’s fleet. The 7,000 kilometre trip to Iran will also contain culi-

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nary pleasures. The buffet breakfast will feature salmon caviar, champagne and freshly baked bread among other delights, and lunch and dinner will have three, four and five-course meals.

The kitchen staff will use only fresh ingredients, which means that the menu will vary as the train travels, Schvéd added.

This “boutique hotel on the rails” will primarily draw Australian, British and North American passengers, who will also have the opportunity to taste craft beers and Hungarian wines, with selections from seemingly all of the larger wineries.

The bar carriage will also have a dancefloor, live piano, harp or jazz music. The Golden Eagle Danube Express will travel overnight, with the daytimes dedicated to various programmes such as sightseeing. The train is popular and booking six months in advance is recommended.

Great food, excellent wines and unforgettable moments

MÁV Nosztalgia Kft. operates 2-3 Candlelight Expresses annually, usually scheduled for Valentine’s Day, Women’s Day and St. Martin’s Day. The St. Martin’s Day Express on 11 November, which runs along the Danube on the Pest side up to Nagymaros and back, naturally features goose-based delicacies, such as goose leg with pumpkin potatoes au gratin and apple steamed cabbage or goose breast in a chestnut-wild mushroom ragout with potato cake. These gourmet dishes will be served with new wine. This romantic luxury journey back in time will feature separate staff for each dining car to serve the three course meals that can be ordered in advance. “This type of train is uncommon internationally, so many people visit to celebrate an anniversary,” Schvéd said, adding that guests can request live music, champagne and additional gifts.

www.mavnosztalgia.hu MÁV Nosztalgia

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Kimchi, K-Pop and classical music from South Korea T ext : Györgyi Orbán • P hotos : Korean Cultural Center

The Korean Cultural Center opened in Budapest in 2012 and invites anyone to learn the Korean language, as well as become familiar with the traditional Korean arts such as taekwondo, traditional dance, gastronomy, games, folk art and even modern pop culture. Jae Hwan Kim, the director of the Korean Cultural Center, underscores this in figures: two years ago they had 20,000 visitors, last year 33,000 came, while this year they expect 40,000 visitors, and they put a lot of work into increasing these numbers.

The centre will organise a Korean-Hungarian Classical Music Festival for the first time in Budapest between 13-22 September.

The festival will open in the Liszt Academy of Music’s Grand Hall with the Dohnányi Orchestra Budafok conducted by Gábor Werner in collaboration with soprano Yunah Lee and tenor Jaeheui Kwon. The programme will feature the works of Puccini, Lehár, Mascagni and Cilea. The following days will include performances by the violinist Barnabás Kelemen, the mezzo-soprano Andrea Meláth and the cellist Péter Somodari, who with their Korean friends will perform the works of Zoltán Kodály, Liszt, Schubert, Isang Yun and Stravinsky. The National Chorus of Korea will perform a concert for the first time in Budapest in the MOM Cultural Centre. The choir’s

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South Korea is a unique amalgam of ancient culture and the modern world. The capital Seoul is a metropolis of 10 million with skyscrapers, elegant clubs, shopping centres and one of the most modern infrastructures in the world.

Gyeongju is an exciting tourist and cultural attraction and was the country’s capital for millennia. Today, it is one of the largest open-air museums on the UNESCO World Heritage list, containing ancient temples, palaces, pagodas and burial sites.

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repertoire includes works by Palestrina, Korean psalms and Anton Bruckner. The prime example of the classical music relationship between the two nations is that Ahn Eak-tai, one of the most notable Korean composers, was a student of Kodály at the Academy of Music between 1938 and 1941, where he attracted the attention of both Béla Bartók and Ernst von Dohnányi.

Eak-tai also composed the national anthem for Korea. The Hungarian-Korean Society erected a statue in his honour in 2012 in the City Park. The Korean Franz Liszt Society has strong links to Hungarian classical music, and organises an annual artist exchange with the Liszt Academy. The Budapest Festival Orchestra conducted by Iván Fischer has also made several visits to Korea.

This autumn, the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Zoltán Kocsis will perform a concert together with the pianist Kun-Woo Paik, who attended New York’s Juilliard School and studied under Ilonka Kabos in London. The Berlin-based composer Unsuk Chin was a student of György Ligeti, and Szeged Contemporary Ballet Company director Tamás Juronics choreographed a piece to her music in 2014.

To this day, Korean parents typically hope their children will be admitted to historically famous artistic universities, which is why the Liszt Academy in Budapest has become a favourite destination in Korean classical music circles.

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In November, the cultural centre will host the 9th Korean Film Festival in Budapest and in other major Hungarian cities. Korean films are also included in Hungarian film festivals, such as the Titanic and the Budapest International Documentary Festivals, with the centre also hosting a film club. Meanwhile, K-Pop has won fans beyond its domestic market and western youth, even leapfrogging J-Pop in popularity in Southeast and East Asia.

The genre is increasingly popular in the United States and also has its fans in Hungary.

Opera and theatre follow modern trends, but the traditional pansori, which is a Korean genre of musical storytelling performed by a vocalist and drummer, also remains popular. A traditional dance group has operated at the Korean Cultural Centre for three years now and consists of Hungarians taught by a Korean master.

Those interested in Korean culinary delights should also pay a visit to the centre, where cooking courses instruct visitors on how to prepare dishes like kimchi, which is a traditional fermented Korean side dish made of vegetables with a variety of seasonings. A Korean flavours

international cooking show is held each year in Jeonju, which this year will also welcome a delegation from Hungary. Jeonju is known as the capital of Korean cuisine, and also has a creative culinary institute.

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Photo © Peter Schlappal

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Up and coming talents

A concert of Concerto Budapest Orchestra 30 September 2016 Liszt Academy of Music Three young musicians who have revealed their immense potential will perform on 30 September in Budapest’s famous and beautiful Liszt Academy of Music. Although they may not be established artists just yet, their level of talent suggests that they most certainly will be one day. Júlia Pusker (violin), Gergely Devich (cello) and Ádám Balogh (piano) will perform Beethoven’s Triple Concerto.

An archduke with two professional court musicians: according to tradition, Beethoven composed the Triple Concerto for this unique artistic line-up with the piano part intended for his majestic disciple, the Archduke Rudolph of Austria.

An International Music Competition in Budapest Liszt Ferenc International Piano Competition 2–11 september 2016

Liszt Academy of Music

Philharmonia Hungary will organise the Liszt Ferenc International Piano Competition between 2-11 September. This will be the 14th edition of the competition, which commemorates the 205th anniversary of Liszt’s birth and the 130th anniversary of Liszt’s death in 2016.

Foto © Andrea Felvégi / ECM Records

Ph oto © HBO

This can serve as an explanation for why the work demands more from the violinist and cellist than the pianist. The violin will be played by the talented Júlia Pusker, while the cello will be played by the 18-year-old Gergely Devich, who in additional to international competition successes has also received a Junior Prima prize.

The concert’s second half will consist of a performance of Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, conducted by András Keller.

An audience award will also be awarded among the prizes totalling =C 42,000. This esteemed international competition is widely known around the world, and as a founding member of the World Federation of International Music Competitions, it also collaborates with other European Liszt competitions (such as in Utrecht or Weimar).

The competition, which will be hosted by the Liszt Academy of Music, will comprise four rounds: preliminary, quarter finals, semi-finals and the final. What makes the material for the competition challenging is that entrants must learn all three Liszt competition works (Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major, Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2 in A major, Totentanz) that will be performed with the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. The competition, which enjoys the generous support of the Hungarian government, will have a jury of notable artists such as Michel Béroff (France), Péter Frankl, Leslie Howard (United Kingdom), Cyprien Katsaris (France/ Cyprus), Kálmán Dráfi, János Kovács, János Mácsai and Károly Mocsári, with Kun-Woo Paik (South Korea) presiding. György Kurtág will be the honorary president, while Zoltán Kocsis presided over the organising committee.

The Liszt Ferenc International Piano Competition will be accompanied by the Piano Carnival, which promises an exciting and unique programme that places the piano at its centre. Philharmonia Hungary and the District VI Council await visitors with free programmes between 2-4 September.

A quick preview: street pianos, a walk in Liszt’s footsteps, a piano exhibition, a pub quiz, matinees for children with the pianist József Balog and music teacher Tamás Lakner, an evening concert with the Virtuosos and a video installation.

For more information: zeneiversenyek.hu

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Cats will never grow old

Twin exhibitions in the Kunsthalle

The classic musical comes to Budapest 17-18 ovember 2016

A retrospective on the oeuvre of Jenô & Tibor Szervátiusz SYMA Csarnok

PROGRAMME

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Kunsthalle

The Kunsthalle (Mûcsarnok in Hungarian) on Heroes’ Square will host an exhibition entitled Szervátiusz: Two Sculptors, Two Generations featuring 130 works by the father and son combination of Jenô and Tibor Szervátiusz, who were born in Kolozsvár (today Cluj-Napoca in Romanian). This retrospective collection will run until 16 October.

© hdwallsource.com

Be they English or Hungarian cats, the whiskered strays of the stage have not aged in the slightest. The fantastic musical Cats by Andrew Lloyd Weber based on T. S. Eliot’s Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats continues to set performance records in both London and Budapest.

The magical performance of Cats by the famous director Trevor Nunn, choreographer Gillian Lynne and set and costume designer John Napier has been performed more than 9,000 times since the spring of 1981 in London alone.

The world tour of one of the longest-running and most successful shows on Broadway and in the West End has entranced audiences in more than 300 cities around the world. Budapest audiences can see the performance by the English artists in the Syma Events Centre from 17-19 November. The world famous performance has

Untill 16 October 2016

Photo © K.GY.

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been seen by more than 50 million, performed in more than 26 countries, and its text has been translated into 10 languages.

Some of the most famous stage actors launched their careers performing roles in Cats. Among them are Elaine Paige (Grizabella), Wayne Sleep (Mungojerrie), Bonnie Langford (Rumpleteazer), Sarah Brightman (Jemima) and Rosemarie Ford (Bombalurina and Grizabella). The traveling theatre company performed in London’s Palladium theatre in 2014, where the pop singer Nicole Scherzinger performed the role of Grizabella. The performance’s text will be available in Hungarian on monitors placed on either side of the stage to aid in enjoying this musical based on Eliot’s wonderful poems. Cats has stunned Budapest audiences since 1983. The production, which has been updated three times and seen by more than 1.6 million, will be performed nine times this October in the Madách Theatre

Jenô and Tibor Szervátiusz’s works have been displayed in numerous major cities in Hungary, although a truly significant and comprehensive presentation has not been assembled for decades. This exhibition promises to be more complex than all those that came before it. On one hand, it will present Tibor’s most recent works, on the other the works located in public galleries in Cluj and Budapest will be displayed together for the first time. Tibor will be on hand to open the exhibition on his 86th birthday. The Kunsthalle will present the statues by Jenô held in the collection of the Cluj-Napoca Museum of Art, just as they will Tibor’s monumental works, such as the main work, the massive statue of György Dózsa located in the National Gallery entitled On Fiery Throne, as well as the rarely seen four-metre-tall Christ of Kolozsvár. Another exhibition will run in parallel under the name of Branches: Jenô Szervátiusz and Tibor. The collection will carry the message that, even in our hyper-technologically permeated age, we are still fundamentally part of nature and the ecosystem. This exhibition, which will likewise run through mid-October, will feature works inspired by nature, life that lives on and in the ground, and the constant connection between humanity and its surroundings. mucsarnok.hu Publisher:

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Szabadság híd • Liberty Bridge Lánchíd • Chain Bridge

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