Budapest's Finest in the spring 2016

} B ’O }EA borok városa B udapest Szecessziós } T N 120 Spring } C }TCAFe Budapest 2015 Budapest Festival } A H } Mindenszentek B

2015.

2016. Vol. 3.

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HUF 1 490 EUR 5

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Élôfej

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Budapest’s Finest

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Photo © Ádám Urbán

Photo © Szilvia Csibi

Introduction

Dear Guest,

Spring’s celebration of culture

Nature awakens and the city blooms. With spring’s arrival, Budapest’s gates open wide to international and domestic tourists alike. The outstanding cultural events this spring will certainly further enhance the capital’s excellent reputation, with recent surveys placing Budapest among Europe’s “most romantic cities”.

We are pleased to note that, as a result of the many positive reviews left on the world’s largest travel portal TripAdvisor, our capital was designated as a favourite destination in 2015. According to our data, 3,300,000 international tourists visited last year, spending 8 million nights in Budapest’s hotels and guest houses.

Thanks to its striking architecture harking back to a stately past, exploring Budapest is an excellent way to recharge the batteries. Tourists can also become acquainted with another facet of this metropolis by relaxing on the romantic terraces of Budapest’s cafés and restaurants. We invite you to sample the cultural delights of the Budapest Spring Festival and to taste culinary specialities, all the while immersing yourself in the bustle of the city through its unique assortment of flavours, fragrances and music.

Take your pick from the recommendations in our magazine, and let Budapest into your heart this spring!

Each year there is a special time when we celebrate culture and spring together. This year will see the Budapest Spring Festival invigorate the city with its exciting programmes for the 36th time. One of the capital’s most impressive arts series will once again be organised around several exciting themes. As he is a towering figure in both Hungarian and world music history, it is increasingly a traditional part of the festival to include the works of Franz Liszt, as well as his contemporaries and the works he inspired. In addition, we are celebrating the 135th anniversary of Béla Bartók’s birth in 2016, and several of the Budapest Spring Festival’s programmes are tied to this occasion. In regards to its international perspective, the programme will focus on China, with performances by the nation’s most significant artistic groups. Spring’s diversity greets us through the events on offer, with large-scale classical music and pop concerts, and arts fans can also look forward to jazz and world music events, several opera productions, and dance, theatre, visual arts and open-air programmes. I trust that everyone will find something to their liking.

Csaba Káel Müpa Budapest – Chief Executive Officer

Teodóra Bán Director of Budapest Festival and Tourism Centre

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CONTENT

2016|Spring

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Budapest Spring Festival

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Emôke Baráth

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In the footsteps of Liszt

An abundance of choice } 4 Sharing the wonder of music } 6 “Each role came at the best time!” interview with Emôke Baráth } 8 Erik Satie 150 } 12 Progressive techno } 14 Igudesman & Joo } 16 Chinese Turandot in the Erkel Theatre } 17 Aleko’s message } 18 “Húzd rá cigány!” } 20 In the footsteps of Liszt } 22 Essential Selection } 25 Cuisine & Confessions } 26 The Silk Road } 28 Picasso in the National Gallery } 32

City Guide } 34 Walking in Budapest with Liszt } 36 The renovated Zeneakadémia } 38 The Nagykörút turns 120 } 41 A gourmet gathering in Budapest } 44 Hotel Boscolo Budapest } 48 A world of auctions in Budapest } 50 Blogger’s Corner } 54 Tennis courts in Budapest } 58 Interview with Steve Guo } 61 Programme Corner } 62

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The Nagykörút turns 120

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

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MARGARET ISLAND

OPEN-AIR STAGE 2016

More than Theater: Experience!

June - July - August

The Year of Romance

STARS AND SUPERPRODUCTIONS IN THE HEARTH OF BUDAPEST Romantic Classics - OPENING CONCERT - 10 June Stacey Kent (USA) jazz concert - 12 June G. Verdi: Traviata opera premiere - 24 and 26 June Shakespeare's Globe: The Two Gentleman of Verona comedy - 1 Ju ulyy Stanley Jordan (USA) feat. Alegre Corrêa & tHUNder Duo - 3 Julyy A. L. Webber: Evita musical premiere - 8 and 10 July Romantic ballet melodies and dances - 15 July Opera gala: 3 Tenors On The Island world premiere concert - 22 Jully G. Verdi: Otello opera premiere - 29 and 31 July Monte Carlo Bale�: Romeo and Juliet classical ballet - 5 August Revue-circus - 12 and 13 August Virtuosos gala concert - 20 August The performances begins at 8 PM. Browse our following programs:

eng.szabadter.hu Tel: +36/1 301-0147 E-mail: iroda@szabadter.hu | budapestsummerfestival@gmail.com /bnyfesztival

/szabadter

/budapest_summer_festival

We reserve the right to change the program .

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FREE APP

Budapesti Nyári Fesztivál

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Photo © Bálint Hrotkó

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An

abundance of choice!

If we take a glance at the European events calendar, we will see there is no shortage of festivals. Across Europe there is a wide selection of programmes dedicated to music, theatre, sport, gastronomy, the arts, and technological innovations.

These events attract international visitors, captivate locals, and among the new and established festivals include those that are only a weekend affair or extend over several weeks.

A programme with a rich tradition such as the Budapest Spring Festival has time-honoured elements.

Its programmes utilise and integrate the Hungarian capital’s significant cultural institutions.

Festival events are held across the city, inviting guests to free and spectacular events beneath the open sky.

The key to success is artistic diversity: famous celebrity performers, up-and-coming internationally acclaimed Hungarian talents, special groups, new circus representatives, and the virtuosos of musical humour will all perform at the Budapest Spring Festival.

The festival will shine a light on the tension between the traditional and modern in seemingly every genre: exhibits, concerts, and opera and theatre productions.

It will parade the imperishable values of Hungarian art, but will remain open to other cultures as well, which is how in 2016 Chinese guest performers and designers will take centre stage.

} A parade to welcome spring The Budapest Spring Festival has grown each year, now launching with joyful dancers and musicians parading through the city’s heart.

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Budapest Spring Festival

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Sharing the

wonder of music T ext : Stefan Englert, CEO

of the

B udapest F estival O rchestra

There is a very special relation between the Budapest Festival Orchestra and the Budapest Spring Festival. When the orchestra was invited to perform at the Festival on March 22, 1985 at the Liszt Academy it was in its baby phase and no-one could foresee the success story of the last 36 years. Playing at one of the most prestigious European Music Festival’s was a great honor for the Budapest Festival Orchestra and the beginning of a very intimate affair over 25 years with some 55 concerts.

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Budapest Spring Festival

Photo © Tamás Lesko

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Returning after a break of five years is a bit like meeting the first love again, remembering the shared experiences and adventures and being reminded on a distinctive period in the life of the orchestra.

But it is more than a reminiscence; it is also turning back to a very special audience which supports the Budapest Spring Festival over years and which we aim to share the magic of music with.

Photo © bfz.hu

The programme we present in the opening concert of the Festival under the baton of David Robertson with the outstanding violist Kim Kashkashian on April 8 provides a bouquet of the variety of musical styles and showcases the rich tradition of the Hungarian musical heritage.

8 April 2016, 7:30 pm Müpa Budapest, Béla Bartók National Concert Hall www.btf.hu

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Internationally, music is regarded as the most glittering facet of a unique and rich culture. It blended the manifold influences Hungary received as a Central European country on the crossroads. It was transformed to a characteristic and unique musical language which is loved by people in the world. Whenever the Budapest Festival Orchestra presents it such as it will at Carnegie Hall this February, audiences are raving and participating in the rich culture of a country which contribut-

ed like only a few others to the European musical tradition.

It is part of the identity of the Budapest Festival Orchestra to act as an ambassador of this tradition not only by performing Hungarian music but also by presenting a very special way of music making which is rooted in Central Europe and connects people beyond differences through a universal language. It is bridging differences and shows how enriching they are for those who encounters.

According to my view, the Budapest Spring Festival and the Budapest Festival Orchestra are sharing this mission. Since the Festival was founded in 1980 it presented the richness of the musical canon to its home audience and the guest from all over the world. To keep being a successful Festival it needs to maneuver in the polarity of tradition and openness cross for new influences and a changing environment. Like in the musical history and practice where successful composers and performers are rooted in the rich heritage but reinterpreted it by contextualizing it to their environment. The Budapest Festival Orchestra is delighted to be part of this process.

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Budapest Spring Festival

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Photo © Ádám Urbán

“Each role came at the best time!”

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“Emôke Baráth is the embodiment of sensuality,” a critic for Le Figaro wrote about the young chanteuse.

She won more than Paris’s Golden Apple for singing the title role in Cavalli’s Elena, for the performance in the summer of 2013 brought her international fame, so that she is now known from Washington to Vienna and Valencia.

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Budapest Spring Festival

What have been the outstanding milestones of your career?

I must mention my first place finish at the 2011 International Singing Competition for Baroque Opera in Innsbruck. That was when I met Alan Curtis, who sat on the jury, and who helped get me to a recording studio three months later, and eventually onto the stage of the Theater an der Wien. This led to the second important experience: performing the title role in Cavalli’s Elena at the 2013 Aix-en-Provence Festival. Another important role in 2013 was as Nannetta in the Hungarian State Opera’s staging of Verdi’s Falstaff, which has remained one of my favourite productions. I can thank Emmanuelle Haïm for my most recent significant experience. With her conducting, I sang the part of Romilda in Xerse, another opera

by Cavalli. It is a role that is quite dramatic for a Baroque work, and it finally allowed me to reveal the real me.

available. The majority of my repertoire is Baroque works, but it does include later composers, and I keep adding more. In the past year, I began a maturing process, so my voice is changing too. I am expanding my list of roles in harmony with this.

As a free agent, do you not desire to belong to an opera company?

It’s not a part of my personality to be a member of any company.

I could not accept that my professional life would depend on the decisions of others, which is the case in companies. As a free agent, I decide how many performances I give and what roles I take on, as well as when and how long I rest. I could have joined the Zürich Opera House or the Theater an der Wien’s studio, but I was concerned that I would be given roles that I would not enjoy or that would come too early. It was quite daring on my part to select the uncertain path at 25, but it was worth it.

What will be your most important artistic experiences in the near future?

Many lovely roles await me: In Handel’s Alcina I will sing Morgana alongside Sonya Yoncheva and Philippe Jaroussky, and in March I will perform with Jordi Savall for the first time. In the Hungarian State Opera I will sing the title role in The FairyQueen, and the first soprano solo from Mozart’s Great Mass in C minor at the Verbier Festival. The key events in the following seasons will be the title role in Cavalli’s L’Ipermestra at the Glyndebourne Festival, conducted by William Christie and directed

by Graham Vick.

Photo © Attila Nagy

Who made the greatest impression on you, and why?

I attended many master classes during my years at the Liszt Academy of Music, so I worked with Barbara Bonney and Deborah York (who guided me towards Baroque music). My teacher Júlia Pászthy patiently assisted in my development. I first had the opportunity to work with György Vashegyi in my second year, who then regularly invited me to perform solo. Each year he gave me more and increasingly difficult tasks. I owe him a lot.

The people who have the greatest effect on me are those who humbly turn to music: they are always prepared, yet remain modest.

Among Hungarian singers, there is one that I consider especially important: Klára Kolonits, who in addition to inspiring me with her artistry, occasionally works with me on my roles.

Photo © Fortepan

Emôke Baráth will perform twice at this year’s Budapest Spring Festival: as Ilia in Mozart’s Idomeneo and in the title role of Cesti’s Orontea. Máté Mesterházi recently spoke to Baráth, one of today’s most internationally successful singers.

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Do you feel that Hungarian musical life uses your talents appropriately?

My upcoming season is already filled with international performances, which naturally pleases me, but by the time I’m approached here at home, unfortunately I’m usually unEmôke Baráth performing the role of Despina from Mozart’s Così fan tutte on the stage of the Hungarian State Opera.

(She is joined by Mária Celeng and Gabriella Balga.)

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What role or part would you really like to sing that has not found you, or if it did, you felt it was too early?

There are many roles that I would love to sing. It would be quite timely, but I have not had the opportunity to sing Pamina from The Magic Flute, although I’m certain that it will find me soon. Everything depends on how my voice changes in the coming years. So far each role came at the best time, so I’m not worried…

These days talent and hard work are not enough, you must also be beautiful and photogenic. You meet these requirements, which has no doubt given you an advantage. How do you stay in shape?

A woman can never let herself go since we must continuously be at our best. I exercise regularly (ideally five times a week) and I also have a strict diet. I rarely ever drink, and always try to get enough sleep. This last one is the most difficult.

How do you relax? What are your hobbies?

These days I do not have too much spare time, but when I do, I relax actively. If I have a little bit more free time, I travel as I love discovering new places. If I’m in a series of performances, then I head straight to the museum or explore the city on my free days. I’m constantly learning languages, French currently, and I’m also interested in psychology and self-awareness.

Your boyfriend, the American baritone Tobias Greenhalgh, is young, handsome and similarly successful. Do you feel the shared profession is an advantage or disadvantage in your relationship?

I don’t consider it a problem that my partner is a singer. In fact, it’s great that we can discuss everything and give each other advice. It’s a reassuring feeling to have someone by my side who will listen, give objective opinions and – because he wants what’s best for me – tells me the truth.

Photo © Pascal Victor /ArtcomArt

In the company of Maria Flores in Francesco Cavalli’s opera Elena.

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How do you think your life will be in ten years?

I never dare to predict the future, but what is certain is that, in addition to my career, I would also like a family. I don’t know to what stages my career will take me, but I do know that I will always give it my best. One day I would like to teach, but that’s in the distant future. I still need to gather much more experience and knowledge first.

Photo © Zsofia Raffay

10 April 2016, 6 pm, Müpa Budapest 17-18 April 2016, 7 pm Liszt Academy of Music, Solti Hall btf.hu

} Unstoppable momentum

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Emôke Baráth began her musical education studying the piano and harp at Budapest’s Liszt Academy of Music. She also studied at the Luigi Cherubini Conservatory in Florence for a year with Professor Leonardo De Lisi.

In 2011, Baráth won the First Prize and the Award of the Public at the Second International Singing Competition for Baroque Opera in Innsbruck, and consequently performed the title role in L’incoronazione di Poppea at the festival the following year. The same year, she won the Grand Prix of the Verbier Festival Academy, and was also awarded the prestigious Junior Prima Prize in Hungary. The international music profession was quick to take notice, and she received invitations to perform at festivals and concert centres such as the Theater an der Wien, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and the Opéra Royal de Versailles.

In 2013, Baráth sang the title role in Elena by Cavalli at the Aix-en-Provence Festival. Of this performance, Baráth said, “In her earthly existence she must embody beauty, although beauty is an absolutely subjective category (…) I did not have to overthink the figure, I just simply channelled my inner child.” She also performed important roles in several Baroque works at the Theater an der Wien (Melissa in Amadigi di Gaula, Alceste in Arianna in Creta and Almirena in Rinaldo, all by Handel).

With respect to the studio, Baráth released her first CD with Il Complesso Barocco and Alan Curtis in 2012, singing the role of Sesto in Handel’s Giulio Cesare. She participated in the recording of Jean-Philippe Rameau’s Les fêtes de Polymnie with the Purcell Choir and Orfeo Orchestra Budapest, conducted by György Vashegyi, a recording that won the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik and was awarded the Diamant de l’Opéra by the French Opéra Magazine. According to Opéra Magazine, the singers’ achievements are in full harmony: they emphasise the nobility and fullness of Véronique Gens’s voice, Aurélia Legay’s energy, and Emôke Baráth’s elegance. Classique News named Baráth the “jewel” of the cast, whose “bright and at once tender voice has an unstoppable momentum.” In January 2015, she recorded the role of Ormindo in Handel’s Partenope with Il Pomo d’Oro conducted by Riccardo Minasi and toured with Karina Gauvin and Philippe Jaroussky in early 2016.

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Photo © Andrea Felvégi

“His drive for success was totally absent”

Erik Satie 150 Half a dozen velvet suits that have never been worn, a hundred handkerchiefs, numerous hats and walking sticks were his inheritance.

“With his pince-nez, umbrella, and galoshes he looked a perfect schoolmaster”, Igor Stravinsky wrote of his friend and colleague Erik Satie.

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“Satie was a unique personality, which comes across to a great extent in his works. He made himself independent of tradition, the so-called ‘mainstream’, and late romantics, while his drive for success was totally absent. His pieces are individual, tonal and timeless, frequently still-like (similarly to Chekhov) and frequently contain humour,” the pianist couple Edit Klukon and Dezsô Ránki stressed. “We were quite pleased when we received an invitation to participate in a concert dedicated to

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Socrate in 2003, which we perform frequently. This was originally written for voice and piano or a chamber orchestra (based on Plato’s dialogues), but Cage felt that the music was so beautiful on its own that it succeeds without words as well. Edit, and later our son Fülöp played one of his unique solo pieces, the 2nd Prélude du Nazaréen. This work was transcribed to two pianos

by Barnabás Dukay in 2013, and is frequently performed in this format in our concerts, sometimes even opening the show.

We have an intimate relationship with Satie’s music. The melodies and harmonies vibrate deep strings within us, and we hope not only in us.

Following the Dukay transcription, in our programmes we play a selection of our favourite piano duets, and the two-piano Socrate after the interval. The latter has been recorded together with Liszt’s Via Crucis. The pairing may seem unusual at first, but a number Erik Satie by Alfred Frueh, of things tie the two 1916 works together.”

Satie’s music is frequently used in films, since it can instantly produce colours and images without transposition. Irony and self-irony pour forth from his book Écrits. “When they claimed that his works ‘lacked form’ in the traditional sense, he titled a work Trois morceaux en forme de poire (Three Pieces in the Shape of a Pear), which actually has seven pieces. The emphasis and rhythm of the French language and Gregorian melodic phrase plays a significant role in his music. We can find the seeds for it in Liszt’s later works. Satie’s friendship with Debussy resulted in their mutually influencing each other.”

the 150th anniversary of Erik Satie’s birth.

It is quite conceivable that a programme purely dedicated to Satie’s works has never been held in Hungary before. We first performed Satie at the Lockenhaus Festival in 1987, playing his En habit de cheval and Trois morceaux en forme de poire piano duets. We perform the latter with some regularity, and learned John Cage’s piano duet transcription of the three-part Erik Satie (El Bohemio, Poet of Montmartre)

by Ramón Casas, 1891.

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15 April 2016, 7:30 pm Vigadó Concert Hall btf.hu

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Progressive techno with a symphonic twist

Mills made a name for himself with his DJ mixes in the 1980s under the name of The Wizard, becoming one of the outstanding figures of the fledging techno genre in Detroit.

Together with producer Mike Banks, he founded the techno collective Underground Resistance, which with its ski masks and military attire gave techno a revolutionary and political message. Although Mills soon left the group, his desire to blend the genre with new content to create exciting new textures (in addition to his popular club sets) remained with him.

Mills has stretched the boundaries of electronic music in collaboration with symphony orchestras for more than a decade. “Electronic Music certainly isn’t lacking in depth or spatial boundaries, but what I think is interesting is the aspect of how the acoustic instruments are being played alongside the Electronic textures creates a very unique combination. When sync’d perfectly, its something quite special.” the DJ-producer said of his work. The result was Blue Potential, his first crossover project in 2005. Its performance in the scenic surroundings of the aqueduct in Pont du Gard in southern France with the collaboration of Alain Altinoglu and the Montpelier Philharmonic Orchestra was preceded by a long wait on Mills’s part. “My thought was that if we could be

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successful in demonstrating that each genre can engage one another without any compromise, then people might see the possibilities.”

The material was released on CD and DVD and was an unequivocal success among Jeff Mills’s fans, and even his most ardent critics acknowledged that the pairing of the minimalist electronic dance music with symphonic sound has a place in the world. The experience prompted Mills to continue his experimentation. “In the decade since 2005, I’ve had many concerts in which I’ve worked to perfect the structure of these type of shows.”

That was how in 2012 he created Light from the Outside World, a further evolution of Blue Potential from seven years earlier, which will be performed for the first time in Hungary as part of the Budapest Spring Festival. The concept of the work aims to present the enormous amount of energy pulsing inside the Sun, the star closest to us, which gives life and permeates all aspects of human development in both a physical and spiritual sense.

During the concert, the composer’s classic techno anthems will also be heard, such as Amazon, Sonic Destroyer and The Bells, but his original compositions written for symphony orchestra will also be among them. “In Dance Music, I tend not to compose is such an intricate way. Instead, I try to focus on the atmosphere that the music

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American DJ and producer Jeff Mills will perform his hugely successful project Light from the Outside World together with the Danubia Orchestra Óbuda in the Millenáris Teátrum on 22 April. The legendary techno pioneer will unite the worlds of concert halls and dance floors during his 90-minute symphonic set.

Photo © Mark Allen 2012

PESTI VIGADÓ

might create. With Classical, I’m much more conscious about the movement of the individual sounds.” Mills says, sharing his thoughts on the workshop secrets of music composition, although he adds that he finds more similarities than differences in the diverse styles.

Mills has mixing decks on the stage during the symphonic concerts, from where he actively participates. These are special moments for him. “[In a concert, I] use the sounds more strategically.

In Dance, times moves differently and I have many other aspects to address in addition to mixing tracks together.” Light from the Outside World was first performed in 2012 in the Salle Pleyel in Paris with the interpretation of the Orchestre national d’Île-de-France, and has since seen numerous sold-out performances in all corners of the world, from the Casa da Musicá in Porto, the Melbourne Festival, and recently in London’s Barbican. At the Millenáris, the Danubia Orchestra Óbuda will interpret Mills’s pieces under the direction of Christophe Mangou, who was also the conductor of its world premiere.

gUIDED TOURS Vigadó is looking forward to your visit! Explore the breathtaking inner spaces and the history of this beautiful building, which is classified as one of Budapest's historic monuments. The unparalleled panoramic view from the building is likewise a must-to-see for tourists. Our guided tours are offered in Hungarian, English, German, French, Russian, Ukrainian and Spanish. Tours are available by prior appointment for groups consisting of at least 15 persons.

Individual visitors are also welcome to take part in any of the scheduled guided tours offered from April.

Information: turizmus@vigado.hu | +36 (1) 328-3325

22 April 2016, 8pm & 11pm Millenáris Teátrum btf.hu

ART IS IN CENTRE OPEN EVE RY DAY 10.00–19.00 1051 BUDAPEST, VIGADÓ TÉR 2. | WWW.VIGADO.HU

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Our shared passion:

Photo © Julia Wesely

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Mahler and Monty Python Orthodox music fans may be left shaking their heads as to how these two can fit together, but notable names such as Emanuel Ax, Joshua Bell, Janine Jansen, Gidon Kremer, Mischa Maisky, Viktoria Mullova, Julian Rachlin, the New York Philharmonic, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra have all shared the stage with Igudesman & Joo’s comedy production.

The great masters of musical parody will finally visit Budapest this spring.

The violinist Aleksey Igudesman and pianist Hyung-ki Joo met as teenagers at the Yehudi Menuhin School in Stoke d’Abernon in Surrey, where the pair discovered that they were both fans of the works of Mahler and Monty Python. Not only did their friendship last, their frequent correspondence only made it stronger. Igudesman completed his instrumental and compositional studies at the Vienna Conservatory as a student of Boris Kuschnir, while Joo debuted as a pianist at the Barbican, conducted by Menuhin and accompanied by the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra.

Their soloist and compositional careers have always included parody, which continues to feature to this day. Igudesman composes film scores, and performed on the Academy Award-nominated score for the film Sherlock Holmes. Joo has collaborated with chamber orchestras and famous symphony orchestras, such as the London Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, as well as performing with Billy Joel.

The two highly trained and diverse musicians (both have also produced films) performed their comedy programme Little Nightmare Music for the first time in 2004. This was followed by an expanded

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version featuring an orchestra entitled Big Nightmare Music. These days they tour the world with half a dozen programmes, including their educational 8 To 88 show. On New Year’s Day in 2011, they performed a charity programme in the Vienna Konzerthaus featuring 100 string instruments. Their YouTube videos have registered over 40 million views.

Musical parodies are quite popular in Great Britain, so the duo followed the examples of Victor Borge and Dudley Moore for their first programme. They have taken the stage with John Malkovich, and collaborated with Sir Roger Moore to benefit UNICEF. According to Roger Moore, Little Nightmare Music is a misnomer – seeing Igudesman & Joo is not the stuff of nightmares, but of sweet dreams. “It’s very musical, endearing and funny,” Terry Jones of Monty Python said of the programme.

He’s someone who would know.

8 April 2016, 8 pm Millenáris Teátrum btf.hu

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U nique and unrivalled Photo © btf.hu

These two words are frequently used to describe Turandot, one of Puccini’s most popular operas, and are almost certain to appear in critical observations regarding the composer’s oeuvre. The work, which premiered 90 years ago on 25 April 1926, will be performed in an incomparable production during the Budapest Spring Festival.

The China National Peking Opera Company, consisting of more than 200 vocalists and musicians, will deliver two guest performances in the Erkel Theatre on the evenings of 19-20 April. Artists from Beijing will perform not only the solo roles, but also the chorus performances. The group was discovered by Tamás Bátor, Müpa Budapest’s Director of Co-production during a guest performance in Shanghai. “Wang Huquan’s direction is traditional in style and exceptionally spectacular. Lianqing’s set and Zhao Yan’s costumes offer an arresting pageant, evoking the traditional world of the plot’s era,” Bátor recounted.

The opera’s composition and unfinished status, or rather the sad story of its completion, have been turned into romantic novels and films. What is certain is that at the premiere in Milan, the worldfamous conductor Toscanini laid down his baton in the middle of Act 3 after the last notes composed by Puccini were played, for the composer had died two years earlier from throat cancer. The famous Hungarian operetta composer Ferenc Lehár was in the audience: “The tears tumbled like a rain shower,” he recalled. The second performance featured the version completed by Franco Alfano, and this tradition has spread worldwide.

The company from Beijing will perform the piece in Italian, led by the renowned music director-conductor Yu Feng. “I understood every word of the libretto well, and this proves the amount of ambition they had when they learned the piece,” Bátor said. “If

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the same artists perform the roles as when I heard it in Shanghai, then I can promise the audience that they will hear wonderful voices and participate in a superb musical experience. The China National Peking Opera Company is relatively young, and for the time being operates in the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, a fantastic example of contemporary architecture.

I heard they will soon have their own building, which is only right as the repertoire that they are purposefully building is worthy of even better surroundings. They are currently performing Ponchielli’s La Gioconda, Puccini’s Tosca, and are preparing for the premiere of Carmen, previously performing Tannhäuser and Nabucco, with Plácido Domingo invited for the latter. But they also regularly collaborate with other European and American celebrity singers and exceptional conductors. In addition to Italian, German and French operas, they also perform works by contemporary Chinese composers, and naturally of course traditional Chinese operas.

In summary, the audience will truly enjoy a unique and I believe unrivalled experience.”

19-20 April 2016, 7 pm Erkel Theatre btf.hu

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Budapest Spring Festival

Aleko’s

message

Photo © László Kenéz

The National Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir’s festival concert will feature a special semi-staged performance of Rachmaninoff’s opera.

Zoltán Kocsis revealed why he decided to include the piece in the programme.

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Budapest Spring Festival Photo © Library of Congress

“I’ve wanted to revive Rachmaninoff’s three operas from apparent death for a long time. Not only Aleko, but The Miserly Knight and Francesca da Rimini too. I do not deny that each performance has its problems, particularly if we project their conflicts onto the present, and onto today’s society. These pieces can be especially awkward for Roma and Jews. For example, The Miserly Knight features a Jewish character who encourages the protagonist to commit patricide. Aleko in turn explores the topic of living together with and alongside Gypsies, a highly sensitive topic today. In this case, the story is set in Russian Bessarabia.

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How can we appreciate Pushkin’s short story The Gypsies in verse, to what extent can it be considered the precursor to Prosper Mérimée’s novella Carmen, and how were those who wrote the libretto for Bizet’s work inspired? I think Aleko holds a message for people today as well. The opera’s protagonist is a Russian, who earlier abandoned his family and joined the Roma. In this regard the protagonist can be considered an archetype not only for Carmen, but Janáˇcek’s The Diary of One Who Disappeared too, for that piece has a similar story: someone falls so much in love with a Gypsy girl that they give up everything to join the nomadic ethnic group.

This is how the monogamous Russian man finds himself in opposition to Zemfira, who according to her family and people’s custom is not monogamous. In the end, Aleko kills her along with her younger lover.

A twist in the story is that, although the Roma banish Aleko and no longer allow him to wander with them, they do not kill him. They respond to murder with mercy. This is an important motif, and, I’m not sure if I can say it publicly, especially today, but the culture of killing and the culture of death, I believe, is something quite different with the Roma, as it is in the cultures of those people, who, shall we say say, place a priority on being monogamous owing to their European culture.

This is the type of message I discovered in the work: when a marriage cools, the partners grow distant, and one must consider that the other person will one day say they don’t need the other anymore, because they desire someone else. Jealousy, I believe, will only cease in people once the desire for possession is no longer a determining factor. Possessing another person is on one hand a huge responsibility, and on the other, a serious limitation on freedom. This is what I feel Pushkin’s poem is about.”

12 April 2016, 7:30 pm Müpa Budapest Béla Bartók National Concert Hall btf.hu

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“Húzd rá cigány!”

An exhibition of “Gypsy Music” in the House of Hungarians

Bikessy - Heimbucher - copperplate (1816)

T ext : Gyula Balogh

An exhibition entitled “Gypsy music” from Liszt to Hungaricum will open in the House of Hungarians at Szentháromság Square in the Buda Castle on 9 April.

The exhibition on the history of Hungarian Gypsy music will run until 30 June.

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Budapest Spring Festival Gypsy musicians are essential figures in Hungarian national culture. This will be demonstrated by the visually and aurally stunning collection assembled by the curators of the Museum of Ethnography. The chronology starts with the formation of Hungarian Gypsy bands in the latter half of the 18th century and follows the history of Gypsy music in Hungary to the present day and the designation of the Budapest Gypsy Symphony Orchestra as a “Hungaricum” (something quintessentially Hungarian).

The curator Péter Szuhay emphasised that when the exhibition was assembled, the idea was not to present traditional Gypsy folk music, but the popular music that was largely written during the early 19th century Reform Era, for which sources exist dating back to the 18th century.

who played the music, which heavily influenced the development of the verbunkos and csárdás Hungarian national dances.

The exhibition also looks at the significance Gypsy music enjoyed during the Bach period of passive resistance. As we will discover, it was primarily an expression of grief and sadness.

The exhibition confronts Liszt’s theory with the views and research of folk music collectors.

Another topic that will be explored are the reflections of Gypsy musicians on Europe, which influenced the formation of large Gypsy bands such as Rajkó and the Budapest Gypsy Symphony Orchestra. We will learn how this music appeared in film, as well as in operas and operettas. Contemporary artefacts will be on display, a separate stand will feature the instruments used

by Gypsy bands from the late 18th century, while the instruments used by 11-13 member bands in cafés and hotels will also be on show.

We can also familiarise ourselves with how Gypsy musicians were depicted in paintings and various folk objects. Naturally, music will accompany the items on display, with Liszt’s rhapsodies complemented by the work of Gypsy musicians. The exhibition has been designed to be easily transportable should it elicit an appropriate amount of international interest.

9 April – 30 June 2016 House of Hungarians btf.hu Photo © 100tagu.hu

In addition to contemporary depictions, one of the most important resources is Franz Liszt’s book A czigányokról és a czigány zenérôl Magyarországon (On the Gypsies and Gypsy Music in Hungary) published in 1861, or, more precisely, its section dedicated to Gypsy music. The exhibition attempts to shed more light on this important vein of Hungarian culture. For instance, it will contain an imaginary meeting in the great beyond of important historical figures such as Liszt, Miklós Barabás, Károly Lotz, Sándor Petôfi and Mihály Vörösmarty (to mention just a few names), and one of the topics of their meeting is “Gypsy” or “Hungarian” music and dance, as well as their thoughts on the Gypsies and their representation. The exhibition will also present the diversity of Gypsy music, and the role it played in village festivities and hussar recruitments. At these events it was frequently the local Gypsies

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“Preparing

for a grand production” T ext : András Oláh

Photo © Zsófia Pályi

IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF

LISZT

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Budapest Spring Festival Nuages gris and Resignazione, which may be increasing in popularity, but are still not as famous as one of his operatic paraphrases.”

The selection will celebrate the emblematic Hungarian Rhapsodies, with the concert featuring Rhapsodies 12 and 13. József Balog intends for there to be a connecting link between the various works. “I like it if there is some relationship between the works either via themes or tonalities. For certain works parallel tonalities will be found in the following piece, but in a different character, so this exploration of tonality also offers a framework for the concert.”

Following a break, the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ádám Medveczky will accompany the concertos in Balog and Farkas’s programmes. The first concert will feature Totentanz and Hungarian Fantasy, and Farkas will perform Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major and Piano Concerto No. 2 in A major in the afternoon.

It is quite rare for a pianist to follow two solo piano pieces with two concertos.

Photo © István Práczky

Photo © Franz Hanfstaengl (1858)

The Budapest Spring Festival will focus on the works of Franz Liszt, as organisers place special emphasis on presenting the composer’s diverse oeuvre on the 130th anniversary of his death.

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“I feel that the selection’s quality underscores the size of the production we are preparing” Balog added .He considers his greatest inspiration to be Liszt’s genius, which was ahead of its time. “He was an innovator equivalent to Beethoven, if not even more so. His later works laid the foundation for 20th century music, containing nearly all of the various trends in classical music. Avant-garde, Bartók and Hollywood film scores are all inconceivable without Liszt.”

The day’s first concert will be performed by the pianist József Balog, who first suggested the concert series, and who over the last 15 years has become known for performing the most difficult romantic pieces. Balog has successfully performed at numerous Hungarian and international competitions, regularly playing in Europe and the United States, and is always happy to take on major challenges.

Two years ago he recorded Liszt’s 12 Transcendental Études, and has since performed them condensed into a single evening’s concert. Along with Gábor Farkas, the soloist for the second concert, the two pianists strove to show as many shades of Liszt’s work as possible. “Our aim was not merely to select pieces from his virtuoso years, but also to provide samples from each period”, József Balog said. “There will be popular works, such as the Funerailles, but also later compositions, such as

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Photo © Csilla Katona

The Liszt Academy of Music is to host a day-long concert series on 10 April entitled In the Footsteps of Liszt. Solo piano performances and famous concertos will offer us insight into the composer’s oeuvre, with improvisations based on Liszt’s themes to close out the programme in the evening.

} Gábor Farkas

Gábor Farkas is a Liszt Prize-winning pianist born into a family of musicians. He began learning the piano at the age of five and graduated from the Liszt Academy of Music, where he now teaches. He has won several major competitions over the years. In addition to Hungary’s famous concert halls, he has performed in Vienna, Berlin, Stuttgart, Florence, Paris, London, Helsinki, Beijing, Weimar and Bayreuth. Balog performed with the National Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Zoltán Kocsis during the opening programme for the 2011 Liszt Year, and has also performed with Adam Fischer and Tamás Vásáry. Balog’s stated objective is to remain true to the notation, playing the music only as it was written down, thereby presenting to the audience only what the composers themselves envisaged and wished to express.

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IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF

LISZT

Homages recast in jazz T ext : András Oláh } P hoto : László Dobó

The jazz pianist and composer Kálmán Oláh will perform improvisations inspired

by Liszt’s famous works, as well as original compositions, as part of the evening performance of the In the Footsteps of Liszt concert series.

One of the most outstanding figures of his generation, Oláh has showcased his improvisational skills in Hungary and around the world as a solo performer over the past 25 years, with his main band Trio Midnight or in other formations. Kálmán Oláh also has a strong relationship with classical music, which has strongly influenced his compositional work.

He has shown this through the piano on several occasions by revealing the many additional layers that can be found via improvisation in the works of Bach, Bartók and Stravinsky. It is no coincidence, therefore, that Oláh will perform in the closing concert held in honour of the 130th anniversary of Franz Liszt’s passing.

Free improvisation will be featured in the programme’s first half, which will include motifs from such famous compositions as Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major or the Hungarian Rhapsodies. What is quite interesting is how the jazz paraphrases coloured with classical music elements can still be considered reverential to Liszt’s work, for Liszt himself was famously given to spontaneity, creating exciting improvisations from other composers’ works. The solo, as well as the duet improvisations with cimbalom player Miklós Lukács will be followed by Liszt’s Consolations featuring the clarinettist Csaba Klenyán, with whom Oláh increasingly regularly performs free improvisations, in addition to performances of classical works and his own compositions.

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“Classical, folk and jazz musicians all improvise differently, since their musical mother tongue is different. Csaba and I speak two different languages, but the two still meet somehow, since we know the other side, and interesting discussions are born from these meetings”, Oláh observed, who finds inspiration from these collaborations.

Oláh will perform his own work written for the occasion in the concert’s second half, which takes the theme from Liszt’s Faust Symphony as its foundation. The work, written for a woodwind quintet and piano, is entirely modern. “It was not important to reproduce Liszt’s style”, Oláh opined. “The elements of jazz are usually difficult to understand in a jazz environment, but Liszt’s themes and motifs can easily be adapted to any situation. Csaba Klenyán and I will perform Consolations in its original form, but we’ll also present improvisations where I only borrow three notes from a piece. There are different ways of doing things, but the point is that when we evoke the motif, we add our own musical world, thereby expressing our reverence for Liszt’s art.”

10 April 2016, 11 am, 3 pm & 7:30 pm Liszt Academy of Music btf.hu

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Essential

selection A total of 50 cultural locations will participate in highlighting the Hungarian capital’s vibrant visual arts scene as part of the programme for the BudapestArtWeek held between 19-24 April. Studio visits, gallery tours and guided museum lectures will offer a glimpse into Budapest’s colourful arts scene for local and international guests alike.

From London to Berlin and Vienna to Singapore and Sydney, similar successful programmes have been hosted for years in the world’s cultural centres. The idea was to bring local artistic directions, artists and works to a wide audience within the framework of a community experience.

Through her Open Studios Afternoon programme series launched in 2012, artistic manager Linda Bérczi, the director of BudapestArtWeek, realised that art-oriented people frequently do not have enough time or energy to visit an exhibition opening after a long day at work.

Conversely, they are happy to participate in thematic events with expert guides over a longer period of time, during which they can meet visual artists, participate in gallery lectures, ask questions and receive assistance in understanding the works.

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BudapestArtWeek is a professional mission, and the organisers plan to use their deep understanding of Hungarian artistic life to ensure that visitors, both locals and those visiting from further afield for the Budapest Spring Festival, will enjoy the exciting programmes during the week. The individual museums and exhibition halls will offer various lectures, museum educational programmes and workshops as a part of BudapestArtWeek, while the private galleries will be accessible via weekend walks.

On Sunday, the last day of the programme, numerous studios will open their doors to visitors, where guests can personally meet the artists in their creative environments.

This new initiative can contribute to raising the profile of Hungarian visual art domestically and internationally, which is no small task in itself. The exceptional representatives of Hungary’s arts scene have no reason to be bashful internationally, for their work more than stands its ground, both in Budapest and anywhere else.

Photos © bpartweek.hu

The initiative, which, in addition to the most prestigious museums and exhibition halls will also include studio houses and private galleries, aims to present an essential selection of current arts programmes, focusing on quality and providing expert guidance.

19-24 April 2016 btf.hu bpartweek.hu

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The delights of the

Canadian kitchen circus On 9 and 10 April, and as part of the Budapest Spring Festival in Müpa Budapest’s Festival Theatre, Montreal’s contemporary circus troupe Les 7 Doigts de la Main will perform Cuisine & Confessions, a production that combines elements of music, dance and acrobatics.

life situations, and their two performances of Cuisine & Confessions at the Müpa will be no different. Life revolves around the kitchen, and everything here in some way involves nourishment, be it a discussion over a cup of tea, the ritual of the family Sunday lunch, or a condemned man’s last meal.

Founded in 2002 by seven friends and colleagues, the troupe is now considered to be among the most outstanding groups in contemporary circus. Even when they started out, they already had 20 years of experience in circus and related performing arts.

The name is a pun on a French idiom referring to the number of fingers on a hand.

During the show, the members of Les 7 Doigts de la Main tell stories from various eras and cultures based on their own personal experiences. A flavour, a scent or a touch may revive a long-buried or forgotten memory, while the kitchen is what ties the various monologues together. With its acrobatic dance elements, catchy music and theatrical tools that are at times comedic and jarring, along with the juggling of kitchen objects, the troupe ensures the audience is never left out. It is certain that all who attend will leave the production with some delicious treats, recipes and the memory of an unforgettable performance.

Photo © Alexandre Galliez

Over almost 15 years the Canadian troupe’s dozen or more productions has gained it a significant international reputation. When creating their performances, they enjoy starting out with simple

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Budapesti Tavaszi Fesztivál

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Chinese Trends Fashion day in the Hungarian National Museum Finest_Spring_2016_02_22_DE.indd 28

Photos © btf.hu

THE SILK

ROAD

China has had a major impact on western fashion and the aesthetics of interior design for centuries.

The western world has repeatedly been enchanted by enigmatic eastern objects and paintings, which have inspired such fashion icons as Yves SaintLaurent, Paul Poiret and Balenciaga.

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The clothing worn by Chinese women is exceptionally diverse, from the newest collections created by the largest fashion houses to innovative local brands with meticulous attention to detail, as well as hand-sewn outfits and styles typical of subcultures. The programme for the Budapest Spring Festival’s fashion day was organised with this diversity in mind. The public will discover Chinese fashion from the reimagining of traditional dress to the latest designs of today, complemented by the Chinese-inspired work of Hungarian fashion designer Katti Zoób. The work of three prominent Chinese designers will be showcased to the public within the framework of the fashion show.

XiaoYun Lin The young designer of Chinese descent creates a unique and innovative world with her Szaju Design brand. Her 2016 spring-summer collection was inspired by the forms of the 1960s. Lin’s central theme is youth and joy, and these feelings are brought out by her unique cavalcade of colour and materials. Natural materials also receive emphasis in addition to her use of those that are bold and bright. Lin’s unique handmade decorations add an extra nuance to current trends in Chinese luxury and extravagance.

Youjia Jin The Chinese-born, London-based fashion designer received her MA in Womenswear in 2014 from the London College of Fashion. As a result of studying fine art for many years, she enjoys creating original and unique designs that nonetheless incorporate Chinese values. Jin believes it is crucial in the creative world to remain open to different influences and to try as much as possible to be versatile and non-restrictive.

Lulu Liu London This luxury womenswear brand was founded by the Chinese designer Lulu Liu. Her weaving technique is this brand’s most majestic characteristic. In China, weaving is present in everyday objects and is almost as common in traditional furniture as it is in clothing. Lulu Liu’s story is one of a burning passion for clothes and how they represent women’s roles in today’s society: quintessential femininity and independence.

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THE SILK

ROAD

Silk

is life itself T ext : Szonja Somogyi } P hotos : Zsolt Bezsenyi P aintings : Gábor Záborszky

As a fabric, silk is the keeper of eastern secrets, tradition and 21st century modernity, and everyday elegance.

It is the embodiment of passion and tranquillity. This magical material will take a lead role in one of the unique programmes in the Budapest Spring Festival. Why? Because Chinese culture is one of the central themes of the festival and of Budapest’s spring tourist events.

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Budapest Spring Festival The Hungarian National Museum will host an exhibition within its historic walls on 23 April entitled The Silk Road, featuring creations by both new and internationally-renowned Chinese fashion designers, as well as the Katti Zoób Fashion House’s Chinese-inspired collection.

“Silk is like life,” Kati Zoób, one of the leading figures in Hungarian fashion and the soul of the Katti Zoób Fashion House asserts. “Without silk, there is no fashion industry, for this material knows every past secret and presents all the possibilities of the future,” she adds, continuing “It’s also used in Chinese therapy: those wishing to heal are wrapped in silk. In a relatively stimulus-free room, a calmness overcomes the unwell through this fine, soft, and somewhat slippery material, which seemingly flows off the human body. It relaxes the muscles and assists in releasing tension. This is the meditative relaxation represented by healing silk, and is in total contrast to the role it plays in fashion. There it is the tool and embodiment of excitement and emotion, glitter and wildness.”

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lifestyle. In other words, how future-proof this material is. What interests me about the work of the Chinese designers is what a young designer today thinks of silk. Do they think of it at all, does it add something new? The material is what binds us, but considering how multi-faceted silk is, our designs will be just as diverse, and our collections too,” Zoób explained.

Chinese fashion has a very strong innovative streak. Nearly every major city has a fashion university, and within that a separate department for silk. From the 1980s, the Chinese invited European textile and fashion designers to their institutions as teachers for courses and summer sessions. Later large numbers of teachers, fashion creators and consumers also received instruction during the regular term. Just as the Chinese are leaders in the development of technical materials used in sports or in manufacturing telecommunications products, China is increasingly knocking on Europe’s door in the field of fashion too, Zoób believes.

Silk is exceptionally long, fine and has flexible strands, and its weaving methods and patterns are the fruits of a culture thousands of years old. By itself it is a raw material, but it has as many variations as processing techniques exist. Winter coats can be made from it, duvets, sheets and pillows, as well as satin, organza, muslin, and everything needed to achieve the height of pomp. Unfortunately, owing to its cost, silk can never be an everyday material. But, according to Zoób, “a black georgette jacket or an elegant black georgette outfit never goes out of fashion, which is why it would be good if everyone could have at least one in their closet.”

“I’m a passionate enthusiast of eastern decorative arts, especially hand-crafted textile-decorating techniques. I’ve been to China many times and had the opportunity to collaborate with traditional fashion industry figures who know wonders that we can barely imagine.

This is a massive gift to a creator, to work with such a theme, in such a location and with such a constellation of great people. I can barely wait for the exhibition,” Zoób revealed.

Within the framework of the Budapest Spring Festival, the collection being presented to the public on 23 April will be a 21st-century everyday assortment, according to Zoób. “The collection is very wearable and versatile. If someone has a feel for it, they will see how artistic it is. It’s not up to the designer how the owner uses or wears the clothes. These creations can present a somewhat more Bohemian, yet elevated and more elegant world. Silk is so multi-faceted and has such a rich history, that anyone who understands it will be that much richer for it.”

Prior to Katti Zoób’s creations, the Chinese newcomer XiaoYun Lin, traditional designer Lulu Liu, and internationally acclaimed designer Youjia Jin will also present their work.

“What I will show is how I can insert traditional processing, such as silk jacquard or georgette into a contemporary mood or modern

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What is the secret to Katti Zoób’s Fashion House, which will close the fashion show? Constant learning and gaining experience appears to be the key. “I studied the various techniques for many years and learned to hear the ‚sound’ of a textile. If I were to start today, I would do it the same way: discovering from others as much as I can, so that I can develop my own voice. These days we work as if by instinct and don’t make a big fuss. Our aim is to ensure that our clothes do not have to be disposed of and can adapt to the following 5-10 seasons. Our goal is not to attach haughty and far-fetched concepts to our clothes, but simply to create joy.”

24 April 2016 Hungarian National Museum btf.hu

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Mystical sevens H N G

Picasso in the

ungarian

ational

allery

T ext : Györgyi Orbán

This is the first large exhibition of the works of Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) in Budapest in more than 20 years, and provides a survey of the artist’s work from his early period to the end of his life.

The Museum of Fine Arts, in collaboration with the Musée Picasso Paris, will present an exhibit entitled Picasso – Transfigurations, 1895-1972 from 21 April – 31 July, which will feature a rich selection of over 100 works by the Spanish artist in the Hungarian National Gallery’s Building A. The Musée Picasso Paris is located in the historical Marais quarter in the 3rd arrondissement, and occupies the Baroque Salé palace. The museum houses more than 5,000 works by one of the 20th century’s most influential artists.

tion to specific turning points, and will show a variety of genres and techniques in each block.

The collection will feature eight themes: Acrobats, Broken Mirror (The Cubist Adventure), Clowns and Dancers (The Line), Surrealist Metamorphoses (Discovery of the Figure), Monsters, Political Figures, Pastoral Idylls, and The Essence of Painting. Women receive a central role in Picasso’s paintings, since he was just as passionate about women as he was about painting. A new woman was his muse for each of his significant periods.

The art historian Ferenc Tóth, who is the exhibition’s co-creator, told BudaOf the more than 100 works exhibpest’s Finest that the exhibition’s conited, 60 will be paintings and graphtent will be unparalleled in terms of its ics, including the erotic depictions of richness and diversity. In addition to his later period, paper collages, statthe contribution by the museum in Parues and ceramics. His experiments is, works were loaned by the Pushkin Reading, 1932 by Pablo Picasso with light and light paintings, when Museum in Moscow, the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, and the Fondation Beyeler in Basel. All of this is com- he used a flashlight as a brush in a long exposure, are particplemented by works from the Museum of Fine Arts’ graphi- ularly spectacular. The documentary Guernica by the world facal collection, such as the aquarelle Mother and Child painted in mous director Alain Resnais (1922-2014) will be continuously 1905, and three paintings from the Ludwig Museum, among screened during the exhibition. This documentary about Picasthem Musketeer with Sword from the artist’s later years. The cu- so’s famous anti-war painting was filmed in 1950 and features rator noted that they sought to also assemble adapted materials the poetry of Paul Éluard. for Hungary, and one of the specialities will be a Picasso documentary dealing with the 1956 Hungarian Revolution found The catalogue assembled for the exhibition contains essays in the Paris museum’s archives. Picasso was in regular contact from French and Hungarian authorities on Picasso, including with leading Hungarian artists, among them Bertalan Pór and, studies by Katalin Bodor (the Museum of Fine Arts’ graphics according to the documentary, closely followed the events in collection curator) and Márton Orosz (light experiments) anBudapest. (This is documented in the catalogue assembled for alysing Picasso’s oeuvre from different angles. The publication the exhibition). will cover all of the works displayed, and will be the first to print the documents from the Parisian museum’s archive that pertain Since the exhibition’s main organiser is the Paris museum to Hungary. where most of the works will arrive from, the collection’s concept was devised by a French curator. The central theme will be the changes in the artistic approach to the depiction of human forms throughout Picasso’s works spanning 70 years.

The collection will chronologically present the various stages of the artist’s representation of the human body, drawing atten-

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21 April – 31 July 2016 Hungarian National Gallery Buda Castle Building “A” btf.hu

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Hungarian culinary delights dished up

Budapest Spring Fair, 25 March - 24 April The festive Advent and Christmas Market at Vörösmarty Square will once again be replaced by the joyful Budapest Spring Fair. The cavalcade of cultural programmes between 25 March and 24 April will be organised by the Budapest Festival and Tourism Center..

of the family, and those who become hungry will be able to choose from a wide selection of culinary offerings.

This year everyday dishes and peasant cooking will be highlighted, with bread baking certain to be an exciting attraction.

The primary aim is to provide highquality entertainment consisting of cultural events, applied art presentations, folk music and folk dance shows to the residents of Budapest and visitors to the capital. In addition to cultural events, 72 artists and workshops will have the opportunity to introduce themselves. Visitors will be able to admire the workmanship of folk artists, craftsmen, designers, innovative handicraft makers and culinary delights by artisan food producers, all selected in advance by a professional jury. These products can of course be purchased on site.

Photos © István Práczky / BFTK

The Spring Fair will feature traditional products, in addition to folk art items in a modern, re-imagined format, as well as creations from various designers. A variety of events will await every member

Years of experience has revealed that the Spring Fair and the Christmas Market on Vörösmarty Square are among the most popular tourist attractions. Last year every guest was impressed by the installation depicting a spring garden, consequently it will be included once again, just as the blacksmith’s forge has become a popular part of the Christmas Market. The Budapest Festival and Tourism Centre, in partnership with the Hungarian Handicrafts Association, will organise Open Workshop presentations each weekend (Saturday and Sunday) from noon to 6 pm.

The events based on folk traditions will involve visitors and will change weekly: there will be opportunities to try felting, beading, glassblowing, or trying one’s hand at making jewellery, musical instruments or cheese. Adventurous guests can try the raku technique of pottery making. The smallest in the family can learn about folk crafts in the Craft Playhouse, with children’s activities beginning at 10 am and 11:30 am during the weekend.

Visitors can enjoy a variety of stage performances and concerts in the afternoons. Let us welcome the spring together at central Budapest’s most popular square!

Budapest Spring Fair 25 March – 24 April 2016 Budapest District V., Vörösmarty tér budapestinfo.hu/tavaszi-vasar

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Photo © István Práczky / BFTK

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City Guide Every capital is proud of its emblematic locations, and the observant tourist will always discover the buildings, museums, theatres, sport facilities and entertainment establishments that determine a given metropolis’s identity.

A friendly suggestion is still always appreciated, however, when a visitor strolls around with a map or smartphone in their hands.

The sights can be seen by walking around or by riding a sightseeing bus, but a guide is beneficial in regards to what lies behind the walls or where something special can be found, for those looking to scratch beneath the surface.

An image of the Danube reflecting the evening lights of the Chain Bridge with Buda Castle behind it is the symbol of Budapest on nearly every international tourism website.

Those are important parts of the city, but there is so much more. Take a look around the 120-year-old Grand Boulevard, in Theresa Town (District VI) or around Budapest’s parks.

} Café terrace Café life has a hundred-year-old tradition in downtown Pest, with terraces frequently located on the boulevards’ wide sidewalks.

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Photo © István Práczky / BFTK

Walking in Budapest with Franz Liszt

The Vigadó concert hall, the site of many successful concerts by Franz Liszt.

One of the 19th century’s most active travellers, Franz Liszt spent both brief and prolonged periods as a youth in Pest and Buda on 27 occasions, and later in unified Budapest as an adult. Some of the locations he visited disappeared in his lifetime, a good many are only remembered through memorial plaques, while others still cast the same shadows that the composer and piano virtuoso saw.

Budapest contains more than 100 locations where Liszt was known to have been, and this article will feature a sample of what the reader can find if they pick up the music historian Ágnes Watzatka’s book of the same name.

Liszt first arrived to Pest as a 12-year-old together with his father Adam Liszt, who was in the service of the Esterházy princes as a clerk. They visited the Franciscan church and monastery at today’s Ferenciek Square, as Adam Liszt had spent two years as a novitiate in the Franciscan friary near Pozsony (today Bratislava). Choosing the secular life, he nonetheless provided his son with Franciscan spirituality and named him after the order. The composer also later joined the Third Order of St. Francis. The nearby Inner City Church located at the Pest end of the Elisabeth Bridge also played an important role in Liszt’s life by hosting the Pest premiere of his Esztergom Mass.

Mátyás Engeszer, the church’s organist, hosted evenings and dinners in the clergy house next to the church frequently joined

by Liszt and the famous violinist Ede Reményi. The house was demolished to make way for the bridge.

On the bridgehead’s other side at Irányi Street 1, a fivestory art nouveau apartment house stands on the site of the

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former classicist building that stood at Hal Square 4. On its first floor a three room flat was rented for Liszt, which is where the National Hungarian Royal Academy of Music began its operations on 14 November 1875. Its successor, the Liszt Academy of Music, celebrates this day annually. At the concrete and glass monolith located at Deák Ferenc Street 1, a plaque indicates that the jewel of the Danube row, the Angol Királynô Hotel once stood there. When Liszt arrived to Pest in 1846 and took his room in the hotel, the National Theatre’s choir and orchestra serenaded him. In the restaurant, Gypsy violin virtuoso Józsi Farkas and his band performed for the master. Liszt returned the favour by arranging tickets for them to the concert at the Redoute: “Please grant entry to my lovely and excellent colleagues, the Gypsies.”

This palace of dance and music burned down in 1849, with the Vigadó concert hall built in its place. It opened in 1865, hosting Liszt as a guest in its first year. On 26 April 1869, it hosted

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The Capuchin church in Buda’s Fô Street.

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Photo © BFTK Photostock

The Church of Our Lady of Buda Castle, popularly known as the Matthias Church, is where Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph was crowned King of Hungary. Breaking with tradition, Liszt was asked to write a celebratory mass in place of the court conductor. The performance did not include Hungarian musicians, however, nor could Liszt conduct his own work.

A smaller choir and orchestra performed the piece, and two years later the first official performance of the Coronation Mass was held in the Vigadó Concert Hall. The memorial plaque at Úri Street 43 serves to remind us of the friendship between the former owner and the composer. The fact that Liszt wrote the Coronation Mass and not the court conductor was arranged by

The Old Academy of Music on the corner of Andrássy Avenue and Vörösmarty Street.

Photo © BFTK Photostock

the first recital of Liszt’s compositions, which saw performances of the Dante Symphony and the Coronation Mass with Liszt conducting. This was the first public and Liszt-conducted performance of the mass since the coronation in 1867. Another notable hotel was located nearby, Pest’s first five-story building, the Grand Hotel Hungária. Its grand room hosted many notable cultural events, and Liszt and the painter Mihály Munkácsy were both feted here. The building was ravaged by fire in 1945, but a hotel stands on the sight to this day as the Budapest Marriott Hotel, designed by the prestigious contemporary architect József Finta.

The Academy of Music quickly outgrew the apartment at Hal Square. The building on Sugár Road (today’s Andrássy Avenue) that was to soon house the academy was built in 1879.

The current music palace later opened on today’s Liszt Ferenc Square, with the former site known today as the Old Academy of Music. Today it is a memorial house and research centre, with a few rooms dedicated to teaching and musical matinees hosted in its concert halls. The building also had apartments for Liszt, the academy’s president, as well as for Ferenc Erkel, its director. (A separate article will focus on the Academy of Music’s main building.)

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Antal Augusz, Liszt’s closest Hungarian friend. Augusz was a member of the delegation that offered a decorative sword to the “always faithful relative” as a symbol of the nation’s gratitude and appreciation on 4 January 1840 in the National Theatre.

Tourists heading to Buda Castle are certain to cross through the Víziváros area of District II where the Capuchins consecrated a church and monastery in honour of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary. The Buda Choir and Music Academy held its practices in the friary’s rooms. On Fridays Liszt lunched with the Capuchins, and he played billiards or walked in the garden with the monks following the Lenten lunches.

Radio stations, co-produced film series, colourful magazines and travel offices have been created in Europe to assert that culture, tourism and recreation are tightly bound concepts, with gastronomy being the latest addition. A film crew led by British actor Simon Callow travelled throughout the continent’s cultural centres, also visiting Budapest to introduce locations that were important during the lives of Liszt, Erkel, Béla Bartók and Zoltan Kodály, and which remain culturally significant today.

In line with international trends, the Violin Travel Agency will open in mid-April in Váci Street. The experienced cultural manager Erika Nyúl will offer a three-day complete package entitled Homage to Liszt. The first day takes in Buda Castle, the Matthias Church, the Museum of Music History and the Hungarian National Gallery. The second day encompasses downtown Pest, including the Franciscan Church and the Congregation of Jesus Church (Downtown Saint Michael’s), the Vigadó concert hall, and the streets frequented by the composer. On the third day, the Old Academy of Music and the memorial museum inside it will offer plenty for guests to take in. The guided tours are complemented with culinary specialities and concerts.

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The Liszt Academy of Music’s new building was built more than a hundred years ago using the era’s greatest technological advances.

As a result of the reconstruction works undertaken over recent years, the institute will serve musicians with the most modern facilities for decades to come, all the while preserving its great predecessors’ achievements.

The two aims, which are not even slightly easy to balance, won international real estate development quality awards in two categories and a Europa Nostra Prize.

Culture and innovation in the past and present

The National Hungarian Royal Academy of Music founded in 1875 began operating from Franz Liszt’s apartment in Hal Square, but from its fifth year teaching continued in the four-floored building on the corner of Andrássy Avenue and Vörósmarty Street, where today the Liszt Ferenc Memorial Museum and Research Centre guards the spirit of the founder and location. The corner building near Oktogon remained the home of higher-level musical instruction for four decades, but the rapidly developing institute outgrew the location, and it became necessary to create a new building that could provide high-quality education to future generations in the longer term.

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Photo © Rudolf Klein

T ext : András Oláh

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Photo © Kata Schiller

The Chamber Hall located on the first floor was renamed in honour of one of the Academy of Music’s most famous alumni, Sir George Solti. It once again became capable of staging chamber operas, and was fitted with the most modern stage and lighting technology. As part of the reorganisation of the interior spaces, the ventilation courtyards were covered.

During the reconstruction of the Academy of Music, the building was torn down to its structural elements and renovated with archaeological meticulousness.

In the place of the northern courtyard, the ground-floor university library was expanded, with an events room created on the first floor, while in the southern courtyard a multi-story elegant canteen opened. The greatest developments, thanks to the designer’s expertise, remain hidden from the eyes of the average person.

Among these are the concert halls’ silent, energy-efficient climate control systems that make summer concerts possible, the installed stage and lighting technology that are the best available, and the renovated rows of chairs that offer a more comfortable experience for the audience. The sound-proofing in the classrooms, concert halls and practice rooms uses the very latest technology. The high-quality restoration of this historical building preserved the Photo © www.zeneakademia.hu

Planned for this purpose and with frescos, mosaics and stained glass windows, the richly decorated Art Nouveau palace was built between 1904 and 1907 in the former Gyár Street according to the plans of Flóris Korb and Kálmán Giergl, with the broad street that remained open in front of the building renamed in honour of the academy’s founder as Liszt Ferenc Square.

Even a hundred years ago the building sought to utilise the most modern solutions. The Academy of Music was the first Hungarian public building to utilise reinforced concrete in the floor, balcony and roof structures. The building’s pride is the Grand Hall with its excellent acoustics, which has a balcony that is 17 meters wide with a five-metre overhang without supports, which was an exceptional architectural solution in its day.

The auditorium that could seat 1,200 was the first in the country to contain an organ with four manuals, which was built in Karlsruhe specifically for the academy. Yale University and the Moscow Conservatory are the only other educational institutions to have organs similar to the historic instrument manufactured by Voit und Söhne. Additionally, the building’s mechanical ventilation system and central vacuum were also novelties.

Although it underwent a significant renovation following World War II, and another one 50 years ago, the first comprehensive reconstruction works were performed from 2011 to 2013. The renovation allowed a return to the basics. Greater attention was placed on restoring the original decorations and colours in the paintings of the listed building, so the Grand Hall’s cherry-red colours were changed to shades of green with black and gold decorations.

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Photo © György Darabos / Zeneakadémia

Photo © István Práczky / BFTK

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Grand Hall’s famous acoustics, and The entrance to the Academy of Music’s the developments in parallel not only Grand Hall features this compensated for the decades of newonderful example of glect, but are state of the art, which Hungarian Art Nouveau. has resulted in international recogAn inauguration plaque is located above the nition. The architectural designers decorative fountain.

Béla Pazár, Éva Magyar and Ferenc Potzner were awarded the Europa Nostra Prize in 2015 for their ten years of preparation work and the results that it achieved in the category of cultural heritage preservation. Although the vast majority of restoration works were completed in 2013, the full renovation of the Academy of Music was only completed in 2015, when the historical reconstruction of the Voigt-type organ, which was partially dismantled and damaged during World War II and later under socialism, was completed .

A new events hall and temporary exhibition room was created through the redevelopment of the Academy’s interior space.

Liszt Academy of Music 1061 Budapest Liszt Ferenc tér 8. zeneakademia.hu/en/home

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A Grand Boulevard in place of a

Grand Canal

The Nagykörút turns 120 The Grand Boulevard (Nagykörút), Budapest’s busiest ring road, turns 120 this year, with the 4 and 6 trams that run down its centre transporting 200,000 passengers daily.

900,000 forints for its construction, declaring “the buildings that rise along its path will be exempt from taxation for 30 years.” The financial crisis of 1873, however, delayed the purchase of land and led to the withdrawal of the tax exemption.

The sequence of development was also reversed, and instead of the palaces and apartment buildings, the 45 metre-wide granite road with asphalt sidewalks and a drainage system was built first.

The decision was influenced by the push for public works, with attention directed at street lighting and the sewer system required from a public health perspective. The city of Budapest was unified in 1873 from Óbuda, The Oktogon is one of Buda and Pest, and the construcBudapest’s busiest intertion of this route commenced ursections and a favourite ban planning in the city. The route meeting spot for locals. stretches 4,141 metres from Marga-

Photo © jknaus / panoramio.com

Had the plans of the renowned city architect Ferenc Reitter come to fruition, these tourists would instead be riding gondolas on a navigable channel filled with water from the Danube’s Soroksár branch.

The great flood of 1838, however, devastated Pest outside the former city walls, which roughly aligned with today’s Small Boulevard (Kiskörút), and plans for a canal were dropped. (For more on the Small Boulevard, please see our spring 2015 issue.) The battles during the 1848-49 Revolution and War of Independence also left their mark on Pest and Buda. The need for urban planning was raised following the compromise with Austria and Emperor Franz Joseph.

The idea for a grand boulevard was mooted in 1871. The Budapest Public Works Council considered the creation of this route important, and recommended that the budget dedicate

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City Guide ret Bridge to Petôfi Bridge, and owing to the financial crisis, was built in three phases. Only 23 buildings were completed from 1872-1883. Another 106 were built from 1884-1890, and an additional 86 apartment buildings were raised on either side during the third phase from 1891-1896. Between Üllôi Road and Boráros Square, 251 structures had to be demolished to be replaced by 253 multi-storey buildings. Due to these three phases, the façades on the Grand Boulevard are undeniably eclectic, as Classicist, Neo-Renaissance and Neo-Baroque styles can all be found. In 1891, the National Industry Association declared: “Budapest’s calling is to become a world city. Budapest’s calling is to be the Paris of the East.” On 31 August 1896, the Grand Boulevard in Pest was ceremonially inaugurated within the framework of the millennial celebrations of the Hungarian Conquest.

Two brilliant architects, the Austrian Ferdinand Fellner and the Prussian Hermann Helmer designed and built theatres for Europe’s middle classes in the years on either side of the turn of the century. From Odessa to Prague and Vienna to Budapest, 47 wonderful theatre buildings guard the memory of these architects. Budapest’s middle class wanted a theatre suitable for their own tastes and needs, and the imposing Vígszinház (Comedy Theatre) was built in 1896 in under a year. Its auditorium seating more than a thousand people radiates beauty and elegance. The theatre drew sell-out crowds upon opening, and it can be said that 20th-century modern Hungarian theatre was born within its walls.

The Grand Boulevard curves at the Nyugati Railway Station.

The large cast-iron and glass hall was built from 1874-1877 by

Photo © Krisztián Bódis

Photo © István Práczky / BFTK

The façade of the Vígszinház as seen from Szent István Boulevard.

Photo © Fortepan.hu

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The view onto Blaha Lujza Square.

Today trees grow on the site of the former National Theatre (see above)

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The Corvin Buildings wrap around the Corvin Movie Theatre. A new neighbourhood was built behind them during the previous decade.

the Eiffel Company, with most of the iron structure fabricated in Paris. The station’s façade is topped by a decorative cornice, which is bookended by two double-towered eclectic buildings.

The Oktogon remains one of the city’s busiest intersections to this day. The meeting of the Grand Boulevard and Sugár Road (Andrássy Avenue today) was a deep pit until the 1870s, which upon being filled was converted into an eight-sided crossroads.

Four eclectic buildings were raised on its sides based on the plans of the esteemed Antal Szkalnitzky. Szkalnitzky was awarded an artist prize for his buildings at Oktogon at the 1873 Vienna World Exposition. Abbázia, one of the city’s most delightful cafés, opened at Andrássy Avenue 49, and was frequented by artists and writers.

The location houses a bank branch today.

The People’s Theatre, also the work of the Fellner-Helmer architectural duo, opened its doors in 1875 and later became the National Theatre. Its former location at Blaha Lujza Square was demolished in 1965 during the construction of Metro line 2, unnecessarily according to many.

Vacant plots of land could still be found when the Grand Boulevard was inaugurated, with the final buildings completed in 1906. The run-down factory building that stood on the corner of József Boulevard and Üllôi Road was torn down to be replaced by a sports facility. It in turn were replaced in 1927-1928 by the Corvin Buildings.

In 2016 the Grand Boulevard will be the location and theme of the Budapest100 initiative on 17-18 April. The aim of Budapest100 is to explore the past and present of Grand Boulevard as well as the new possibilities it may offer. This year’s motto will be “Nagykörút revisited”.

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As one of the centres of fighting during the 1956 Revolution, the Corvin Buildings suffered much damage.

Photo © Fortepan.hu

The area around the Nyugati Railway Station built by the Eiffel Group is one of the city’s most vibrant.

Photo © BFTK Photostock

Photo © jknaus / panoramio.com

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A gourmet gathering in Budapest the

Bocuse d’Or European finals

Photo © velvet.hu/ Tamás Szécsi

Text: Zsuzsa Mátraházi

Jérôme Bocuse surrounded by executive members of the Hungarian Bocuse d’Or Academy and some of Hungary’s leading chefs.

The best chiefs from over 50 countries will test their knowledge during the internationally recognised Bocuse d’Or tournament, with the European finals hosted in Budapest on 10-11 May. The Hungarian capital’s culinary culture is renowned, with its four Michelin-starred restaurants the most in Eastern Europe.

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Photo © Stéphane de Bourgies

The Bocuse d’Or chef competition, the world’s most prestigious, has been around for almost 30 years. With Hungary’s appearance on the haute cuisine map, it was invited to host the European finals. The event will take place as part of Sirha Budapest, the world’s benchmark event in food service and hospitality.

The Chefs of the Year

The gourmets visiting for this exceptional occasion will obviously not limit themselves to the Hungexpo, the competition’s location, but will also visit local establishments. We would like to offer a few tips ourselves on the restaurants to try, since the international achievements of Hungarian master chefs and significant gastro diplomacy also played a role in the Bocuse d’Or European finals being held in Budapest.

The Hungarian Bocuse d’Or Academy opened in 2009, and took domestic responsibility for the competition. In the Bocuse d’Or final in Lyon in 2013, Tamás Széll, the sous-chef at Budapest’s Michelin-starred Onyx restaurant led the Hungarian delegation, which placed 10th in the global competition. Gábor Molnár, who works in Munich but participated as a Hungarian, placed 13th overall, and in the top ten for Europe in last year’s final. Qualifiers for the February 2016 final in Hungary were held in December 2015.

A garden on a plate

Richárd Domján, the head chef at Bock Bisztró in Budapest, is one of the 11 participants in the December qualifiers. Bock Bistró, located on Erzsébet Körút, was founded by executive chef Lajos Bíró, who is a significant figure in Hungarian gastronomy. Bíró took the bistro concept and introduced it to Budapest based on the French blueprint. This is where Michelin-starred chefs open dining establishments where they serve gourmet meals using excellent ingredients at a fraction of the cost of exclusive restaurants. Bíró was twice chosen as the Year’s Restaurateur, and was elected president of the Hungarian Bocuse d’Or Academy, later becoming its honorary president.

“Variety, creativity, and the consistently new ingredients and techniques drew me into becoming a chef,” Domján said, who as a child spent Photo ©bockbisztro.hu

Photo © velvet.hu/ Tamás Szécsi

Gastro-diplomacy

} Chef of the Century

The 90-year-old Paul Bocuse, after whom the competition is named, was born into a family of millers in Collonges-au-Mont-d’Or, France. By the age of nine he was already working in the kitchen of his father’s restaurant.

Bocuse studied in Eugenie Brazier’s three Michelin-starred restaurant in Lyon, perfecting his craft in noted Parisian and Viennese restaurants. He has earned three Michelin stars, and was awarded the Legion of Honour medal in 1975 by French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. The Gault Millau Guide selected him as the Chef of the Century. Based on his idea, the first Bocuse d’Or chef competition was organised to promote the development of the craft, to uphold quality and to ensure continuity, which in the world of gastronomy draws as much interest as Formula 1 does in motorsports.

a lot of time in the kitchen next to his mother. Regarding the latest trends, he said that elements of sous-vide, confit and molecular gastronomy preparation are blended with traditional methods, which is how the new compositions can be created.

“We don’t represent the absolute minimalist kitchen,” Domján sums up Bock’s credo. “We serve larger potions, and we rework traditional Hungarian dishes in ways where we reduce them to their components, but when our guests consume them together, they experience the

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46 same flavours as in a traditional butcher’s stew.

Among the sweets we try to add vegetables. For the weekly special menu, I created a sweet potato cake.”

The Golden Bocuse statuette is the Oscar of the culinary world.

From the main ingredients in the qualifying rounds, such as sterlet and venison, he prepared the following dishes: sterlet rolls stuffed with foie gras and smoked sterlet with molecularly processed orange caviar, served with marinated lentil soup flavoured with pepper cream and parboiled black root. For the venison he cooked a quince compote with a sweet potato side, garnished with beetroot splashed with balsamic vinaigrette, along with a cake prepared from Hokkaido squash with black quinoa on top. It was like a small flower garden.

It began with crêpes

During the December qualifiers, Sipos prepared brown butter shiitake mushrooms, mustard seed sterlet served with wasabi foam, and the venison was prepared with parmesan and quince puree.

Photo © LE FOTOGRAPHE

According to Domján, “a rich, special selection is the goal, and not for Hungary to no longer only be mentioned as the home of pörkölt (beef stew) and gulyás.

But it must be said that international visitors often visit Hungary to eat a pörkölt, which they cannot get anywhere else. The ox cheek pörkölt, which has traditionally been on the Bock Bistro menu, is a curiosity not only abroad, but in Hungary as well.”

Vietnamese pho soup, chili con carne, or dishes flavoured with garlic, ginger, cinnamon and lime not only represent a unique world of flavours, but also serve as a remedy for illness. His fish and meat dishes are popular, not to mention his fruit foam dessert selections.

András Sipos, the 27-year-old chef at nU Bisztró located near the Nyugati Railway Station, is tall and thin.

“No matter how much I eat, I cannot gain weight, although I have to admit that the 30 spoonfuls of food tasted during my 13 hours of work is not that high in calories.”

Of Hungary’s best 11 chefs, some work in London, while chefs from Balatonszemes, Kecskemét, Székesfehérvár will participate in the Hungarian final, as well as chefs from Costes Downtown, the Four Seasons, Kollázs, Mák Bisztró and Olimpia in Budapest.

Sterlet caviar and venison

Zoltán Hamvas was formerly head chef at Budapest’s Kempinski Hotel Corvinus, overseeing its gourmet restaurant and banquet kitchen, before departing with seven employees for the Gerbeaud. Together they opened Onyx in 2007, so that Budapest would also have a Michelin-starred restaurant that is internationally acknowledged.

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Photo © Chaine Des Rotisseurs

Photo © dr Zoltan Karadi 2013

nU’s chef cooked as a child on the weekends with his father, and he came to enjoy cooking crêpes, including just tossing them in the pan, which he still enjoys.

(It is no wonder that nU Bisztró’s legendary dish is a stacked crêpe cake.) Following culinary school, he arrived at the Gellért Hotel as a student. Many regarded him with jealousy owing to this exclusive opportunity, but after some time he did not find the traditional kitchen a challenge. Sipos wished to be more creative, and he is constantly expanding his knowledge thanks to international literature. Today Sipos works alongside a team he has largely trained, with one being a former dishwasher whose talent Sipos recognised, thereby launching him on this career.

“Even if we don’t operate a molecular kitchen in nU, we use algae powder, which gels,” Sipos added. “Most of our guests are somewhere between young to middle aged, but there are also a handful of retired patrons who eat with us three or four times a week. I can see the guests from the kitchen, and last time, when an elderly couple ordered veal liver, I told my colleague to inform them that we serve it rare, so it is still pink, but if they ask, we can prepare it well done. They said they would try our way. It’s a good thing that many are willing to try new things.”

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For the European finals in May each participant will have a nametag featuring the restaurant that employs them.

If someone samples the food, they can easily visit the restaurant where they work, which we hope will include many from Budapest.

} Tamás Széll reaches Bocuse d’Or European finals

Photo © trademagazin.hu

Zoltán Hamvas, President of the Hungarian Bocuse D’Or Academy

Bocuse d’Or Europe 9-11 May 2016, HUNGEXPO Sirha Budapest 1101 Budapest, Albertirsai út 10. (Expo tér 1.) bocusedorhungary.hu

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To qualify for the Bocuse d’Or Europe competition held this May in Budapest, six chefs and their commises tested their knowledge in Budapest on 18 February.

Tamás Széll, the chef of the Michelin-starred Onyx, won the competition with the help of his assistant Kevin Szabó. Széll said his previous experience in the competition gave him an advantage in terms of earning a place among the twenty chefs in the European final. This was not the first time he has cooked according to the competition’s strict rules: in 2013 he reached the world finals in Lyon, placing 10th.

This year Budapest was honoured with the opportunity to host the two-day European final on 1011 May, with Széll competing on the second day. Following two months of preparation, planning and practice, he will have 5 hours and 35 minutes to prepare culinary specialities and compositions from Hungarian ingredients (venison leg and saddle, and sterlet and its caviar) in order to impress the international jury. If he is successful, Tamás Széll will represent Hungary alongside 23 other chefs from around the globe at the 2017 final in Lyon.

Photo © Tamás Kovács / MTVA

“My first active role in the Bocuse d’Or competition was in 20122013 as a trainer with the Hungarian team built around Tamás Széll for the European finals held in Brussels, and later the world finals in Lyon. This year I was given the honour of presiding over the continental finals in Budapest in May. Both “competition themes” (sterlet caviar, venison) are based on Hungarian ingredients,” Hamvas revealed.

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The storied building that was brought back to life: Photo © budapest.boscolohotels.com

the

The New York Palace’s tower is the most spectacular decorative element on the Grand Boulevard.

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Boscolo Budapest Text: Júlia Szászi

Among Budapest’s notable buildings, the 120-year-old palace enjoys a prominent location on the Grand Boulevard. Still frequently called the New York Palace, these days it is known as the Boscolo Budapest.

The building’s old name referred to the New York Life Insurance Company, as the building was constructed to be the group’s local head office. The story begins with a talented youth from northern Hungary, who after earning his juris doctorate in Budapest and learning French, became acquainted with the insurance company’s director in Paris. As a result of this meeting, Miksa Arányi was soon tasked with developing the company’s network in Hungary, which of course necessitated an impressive headquarters.

Alajos Hauszmann, one of the era’s defining architects, was asked to design it. Completed in 1894, the building features Italian Renaissance elements in its eclectic style, becoming a gem on the rapidly developing Grand Boulevard. Along with the palace, the café on its ground floor was opened, which soon became popular due to its grand opulence, frescos and statues.

A fountain was located by the entrance, and Venetian chandeliers hung from the ceilings.

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Photo © István Práczky / BFTK

Photo © István Práczky / BFTK

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The café features a Ladies Hall, and the billiards room was called the Deep Hall, with Gypsy music to entertain guests in the evenings.

The first tenant expected to host affluent and upscale guests, and the café soon became the meeting place for the city’s bohemians.

According to a popular anecdote, the author Ferenc Molnár led a small group on the opening day to throw the café’s key into the Danube, so that it would always remain open. A delightful story indeed, but Molnár was only 16 at the time.

recognised the possibilities it contained, and according to plans

by Maurizio Papiri and Adam D. Tihany set about restoring it.

The hotel opened in May 2006, preserving its original renaissance and eclectic pomp, albeit incorporating elements of modern interior architecture. The Italian marbles, textiles and furnishings make the hotel’s atmosphere even more sublime. Room 107, which contains handmade chandeliers from Murano, offers exquisite luxury, and the two presidential suites are nothing short of breath-taking.

The author of The Paul Street Boys (made into an Oscar-nominated film) and Liliom (later turned into a musical as Carousel) did, however, become a regular at the café later, in addition to other famous writers. Not by coincidence: they were provided with paper, blotters, ink, and in time even encyclopaedias. Every important domestic and international newspaper was also delivered here.

Those who remember the location as a run-down publishing house and believed it impossible to resurrect will be amazed. The renovation works were honoured with a torrent of awards: the Europa Nostra Medal in 2006, the Budapest Architectural Award in 2007, and the Hotel of the Year Award in 2013 in the five star category.

The famous paper Pesti Napló had its own table, and turn of the century literary figures considered the café their second home.

Artists, critics, film and theatre people also regularly came, and this was the haunt of the Impressionists Circle. In other words, it was a magnet for the figures of the city’s lively cultural life.

And the café? The renovators kept tradition in mind throughout.

Their success was revealed by the café receiving the title of Most Beautiful Café in the World in 2011. So that the cultural heritage would remain intact, the New York Artists Lodge was founded in March 2013, becoming popular through a string of high-quality events.

Later a book and newspaper publisher set up shop upstairs. The palace became a victim of history, however, as bankruptcy, war, and improper use all left their mark. Renovations, owing to its historical and cultural heritage seemed impossible, or at the very least a risky endeavour. In 2001, however, the Boscolo Group

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Boscolo Budapest Hotel 1073 Budapest Erzsébet krt. 9/11. budapest.boscolohotels.com

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A world of auctions in Budapest

Róbert Berényi’s long lost painting from 1928 was found on the set of the film Stuart Little. At the Judit Virág Gallery’s winter 2014 auction, it sold for 70 million forints.

Photo © BÁV Zrt

Photo © Anna Kelen

T ext : Györgyi Orbán

Art Deco and Art Nouveau jewellery decorated with glittering diamonds and precious gems, wristwatches from classic brands, paintings by 19th and early 20th century Hungarian painters, 17th and 18th century silver items, Zsolnay ceramics, old Hungarian folk art objects and furniture, and even a neo-Renaissance bed from 1860 that allegedly belonged to Ábrahám Ganz, the industrial magnate who founded Hungarian heavy industry. These are the types of quality items going under the hammer at the most recent auctions in Budapest.

A Neo-Renaissance bed and a black diamond

Considering the previous year’s turnover, it would appear that the Hungarian art market has significantly recovered from the 2008 financial crisis. At the art auction in December 2015, 2.5 billion forints worth of art was sold.

This rare and unique Zsolnay decorative pitcher was made in 1900. At the BÁV art auction in 2015, it sold for 1.8 million forints.

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The first art auction in Hungary was held on 6 October 1920 in the State Auction Hall, which was called an art auction to save national treasures. Following a long and involuntary recess, the fine arts market structure developed by the latter half of the 1990s, which is when the Kieselbach and Judit Virág Galleries appeared with painting auctions, which they still hold to this day.

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In the early 2000s, London’s Sotheby’s auction brought international attention to Hungarian works. At the time, 55 Hungarian works were auctioned, with a painting by László Paál fetching the highest price at £160,650.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Hungary, the biggest names in art were Mihály Munkácsy, László Mednyánszky, Béla Iványi-Grünwald, József Rippl-Rónai, János Vaszary, Vilmos AbaNovák, Hugó Scheiber, and the Nyolcak avant-gar-

de artist group. Last year at an auction by the Judit Virág Gallery, the oil painting Beszélgetôk a Szabadban (People Talking in the Open Air) by the exceptional contemporary painter Béla Kádár became 2015’s most expensive Hungarian painting, with the large work selling for 90 million forints. Contemporary painters Ilona Keserü and Imre Bak are always popular. The gallery also sells Zsolnay ceramics, which it first auctioned in 1998, the price of which has increased tenfold over the past 15 years. A decorative dish entitled Édenkert sold for 6.5 million forints at the December auction.

The BÁV Auction House on Bécsi Street in the heart of downtown Pest.

At the Kieselbach Gallery’s spring season closing auction, Vilmos Aba-Novák’s protected painting Fürdôzô Nôk was the greatest sale at 44 million forints. Of works by contemporary artists, Simon Hanta’s Etûd from 1969 began at 12 million forints, eventually selling for 20 million.

The works of Munkácsy, Lajos Gulácsy and Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka all sold for over 100 million forints. There were many more works for under 60 million forints, however, with more than 100 sales annually above 10 million forints, generating major turnover for the leading auction houses.

In addition to the customary spring, autumn and winter live auctions, online auctions are increasingly popular. Every auction house publishes its current fine arts catalogue on their websites.

The Judit Virág Gallery’s auctions even have guests arriving from the United States.

Photo © István Práczky / BFTK

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Photo © BÁV Zrt

Photo Photo © © BÁV BÁV Zrt Zrt

City Guide

This bouquet-shaped gold piece of jewellery decorated with 140 diamonds sold for 1.5 million forints at the BÁV jewellery auction held in 2015.

At the Pintér Auction House, in addition to the summer and winter collection, online auctions are held monthly and increasingly attract the attention of younger international buyers. There is great interest in silver objects older than 70 years and worth over 100,000 forints per item. PaintThe Kieselbach Gallery and Auction House located on the corner of the Grand Boulevard and Falk Miksa Street.

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Photo © BÁV Zrt

Photo © Noémi Bruzák / MTVA

This white gold pair of earrings with 2 large diamonds sold for 7.5 million at the BÁV jewellery auction in 2015.

addition to Hungarian collectors and investors, there are many foreign private individuals, not to mention investment groups appearing at the auctions. While no age group or occupation is dominant, there are increasing numbers of women among the bidders.

The Nagyházi Gallery auctions a variety of artworks, paintings, graphics, silver, 17th-18th century faience and furniture. They hold an auction exclusively for folk art objects in the spring for a day or two. The house’s speciality is that they are the only ones to collect and sell Hungarian folk objects such as trays, pitchers, jugs, shepherd carvings and gunpowder horns from Hungary’s historical territories. These events increasingly draw younger crowds. At their most recent furniture auctions, a neo-Renaissance bed from 1860, which allegedly once belonged to Ábrahám Ganz, sold for 2,800,000 forints from a starting bid price of 600,000 forints. ings by the internationally renowned László Fehér also always sell well.

This 66 gem automatic men’s wristwatch by IWC Schaffhausen set in 18 karat gold sold for 7.5 million forints at the BÁV auction in 2015.

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Photo © BÁV Zrt

This decorative Zsolnay vase is one of the few Hungarian-made objects that survived the fire at the 1906 Milan International. This representative piece was purchased by an international collector shortly thereafter, with its fate unknown for a hundred years. The vase’s current owner has offered it for auction by the Judit Virág Gallery.

At the auctions, which take place in May, October and December, foreign buyers are primarily seeking early 20th century Hungarian works and especially those by the Nyolcak avant-garde group.

At the Kieselbach Gallery, one can see how Mednyánszky’s paintings attract interest from Slovakia, since the artist was from what is today Slovakia. The number of international inquirers is growing, and gallery operators agree that the profile of buyers is changing. In

In Falk Miksa Street, central Pest’s gallery and antique strip, the Biksády Gallery’s diverse yearend auction produced noteworthy outcomes in nearly every category. Rugs are in demand, with the most expensive Caucasian and Turkmen pieces selling for between 3 and 5 million forints.

The BÁV auction house traditionally has a fine collection of jewellery, silver and men’s watches. A white gold ring decorated with a black diamond recently sold for 1.8 million forints, ten times

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Photo © sothebys.com

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the asking price. Among the extraordinarily expensive items of jewellery was a pair of earrings decorated with large diamonds from the 1930s, which sold for 7.5 million forints. A turn of the century broche in the shape of a bouquet decorated with 140 diamonds in turn sold for 1.5 million forints. In addition to jewellery, Art Nouveau, Art Deco and Neo-Classicist silver objects also sold well, such as a Neo-Classicist candelabra from 1860, old IWC, Omega and

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Longines watches, and representative pieces from Zsolnay’s early years, which for the most part sold for three or four times their starting price.

László Paál’s A falu szélén (Edge of the village).

Hungarian painters from the second half of the 19th century are popular at international auctions. This painting sold in 2008 at New York’s Sotherby’s auction for $145,000.

For more on the Hungarian auction market, please see: axioart.com

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My 10

BLOGGER’S

CORNER Alexander STEMP

favourite places

My name is Alexander Stemp. I am English and live in Budapest, where I write short stories and journals, often traveling to Ukraine for media-related ventures.

P hotos : BFTK Photostock

Buda and Pest are lively all year round, whether I cycle along the ritzy Andrássy Avenue, ride aboard the Children’s Railway, or pass through the lesser known District VIII in the footsteps of the Paul Street Boys (the protagonists of a novel by Ferenc Molnár). These and other defining contrasts are essentially what I consider Budapest to be. Personally, I think it takes a year or more to see all of the sights. However, if you are short on time, it would be fair to say that it is best to see Buda by day and Pest by night.

Popular tourist sites

The Danube and its geography

1

Whenever guests visit, I always take them to the neo-Gothic and neo-Romanesque Fisherman’s Bastion, which also functions as a lookout tower, to provide them with an immediate first impression of the city. This works every time!

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2

What struck me, when I first arrived via train from the Hungarian border crossing at Szob in 1993, was the wild, natural splendour of the Danube and the unruffled riverside scenery. The train proceeded alongside the rocky peaks of Dömös to the famous Danube Bend with Visegrád Castle in clear view, before continuing downstream to the vast, sunshine-filled Keleti train station. From that moment onwards, I knew I would follow this same route again, as I frequently travel around the River City and elsewhere whenever I can.

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Bridges

3 Like the Danube, I also have a special relationship with all nine of the bridges in Budapest. Each bridge has its own story and at-

mosphere, depending on the weather and time of day. From these fine structures, one can immediately see the sites of Buda and Pest!

Entertainment

Parliament

4

For classical music, I like the first-rate Liszt Academy of Music and the fine Müpa Budapest for jazz and dance. For popular music, there is the excellent Budapest Park outdoor venue, which hosts the likes of Magdi Rúsza, Pannonia Allstars Ska Orchestra and many more. For a mixture of arts and education, my family often visits the Millenáris centre. Finally, my eldest daughter Judy and I had the pleasure of meeting local legend Judit Halász at the grand Vígszínház theatre!

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5

This exquisite neo-Gothic architectural monument is a unique wonder in Pest that defines the city. Should too much walking be an issue, I recommend tram 2, which not only passes by this architectural marvel, but continues along the riverside promenade, giving the best views a tram could ever give!

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Islands

6

I have been to them all, the Luppa, Szentendre, Papp, Óbuda, Molnár and Csepel islands. But it is Margaret Island which is most popular, and my family and I often visit this cheerful, green place since it is great for children.

7

Bicycle Lanes Following the bicycle lanes in the city is the best way for getting around. My favourite lane leads from the modern Megyeri Bridge to Budafok on the Buda side of the river.

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Ice skating

8

When snow falls, the enchanting City Park ice rink behind Heroes’ Square is the place to be. There is no better way to enjoy winter sports than by being here with family and friends at this time.

Kozma Street Jewish Cemetery

Massolit Books & Café, Nagydiófa utca

10 9 This central, alternative oasis in Pest has a loyal following. If you are in search of insightful second-hand books, a good crowd and fine tea-related essentials, then make your way there!

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I have profound respect for this delicate resting place. As I walk around the calm, intriguing surroundings and read the various inscriptions on the stones, some of which are beautiful, the atmosphere is similar to Hitchcock’s classic Vertigo. On a heart-sinking note, there are memorials for those who perished by the hundreds of thousands in World War II. May they rest in peace.

facebook.com/alexander.stemp

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A sport for all ages Tennis courts in Budapest

Photo © Építôk Tenisz Klub

Text: József Gyüre

No matter where a visitor to Budapest may find themselves, they will certainly not be far from a tennis court. Courts can be found in abundance even in the agglomeration outside of the city independently or as part of a larger sports complex.

Photo © fortepan.hu

“Hungary has all the necessary attributes in tennis to organise international training camps,” Jenô Márky, the owner-director of Római Tennis Academy believes. According to him, however, the situation is the same for tennis as it is for other sports: more English-speaking professional coaches would be beneficial, and due to the overabundance of facilities, they are not used to their full potential.

Tourists to Hungary rarely visit tennis clubs, but expatriates who live here are much more likely to visit their local courts. In general, there are two groups among tennis players: seniors and the very young. The children of diplomats and businesspeople are always glad to spend their free time in the tennis camps organised for them, where they even manage to learn a little Hungarian during the sessions. The Római Tennis Academy primarily draws players from English-speaking regions, but has attracted Asian players as well.

“In Tabán we’ve had players arrive from the United States, Russia, Italy and even Bulgaria,” Mihály Karácsony, the director of the Tabáni Tenisz Center told Budapest’s Finest. According to him, it’s not tourists who look up the tennis clubs, but rather expatriates who visit their facilities and are the primary participants in the Center’s camps, courses and tournaments. “In the past we individually and personally offered our services to hotels within a two kilometre radius. What we noticed,

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The Park Tennis Club in the1930s.

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City Guide Zsuzsa Körmöczy, the 1958 French Open women’s singles champion

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however, was that interest among foreign visitors was not great. (This was probably due to the reception’s limited interest in promotions. The Editors.)

In the Tabáni Tenisz Center, we assist guests in finding a partner with an equal skill level to play against. Additionally, equipment can be rented or bought in our shop. We try to attract guests with our high-quality facilities, free parking and panorama restaurant,” Karácsony added.

Let us take a look back at the sport’s past in Budapest to emphasise the potential value in providing tourists with services in this area, considering that the city already has plenty of high-quality courts and friendly clubs.

Photo © vasassc.hu

The origins of tennis come from France, where it was a popular folk pastime before spreading throughout Europe, becoming known in the royal court of King Matthias, according to written sources. The modern game of lawn tennis, however, originated in England, with Pál Zsigmondy bringing the sport to Hungary after several years spent living there. He built the first clay court in Hungary in 1881 by Városligeti Boulevard in the Liedemann Garden. The facility was not open for long, as a sanatorium was soon built on the site. (Today its pavilions stand empty.)

The first Hungarian tennis book was written by János Kertész, the general secretary of the Hungarian Tennis Association at the turn of the 20th century. In it, Kertész determined that of the ball games, lawn tennis was the most popular. He described it as delicate and “lovely”, as the game could be played by all “regardless of age or gender”. According to Kertész, his father Tódor was the first to bring tennis racquets to Hungary, selling them in a shop on Dorottya Street.

Photo © Christian Mesiano

Photo © fortepan.hu

Ágnes Szávay at the 2010 US Open.

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Photo © Bogaerts, Rob / Anefo

Balázs Taróczy represented Hungary for a decade at Wimbledon.

Photo © Gábor Werni

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} Several excellent facilities with easily accessible locations: Park Tenisz Klub

Photo © Péter Zádor

Many high-ranking families had a court on their land or in their gardens in the 1880s. Tennis was played in the Károlyi Garden, at the Horse Racing Grounds, and in numerous summer residences belonging to lords. Tournaments were organised by the 1890s. The first champion was Alice Széchenyi, with the first official tournament won by Countess Paulina Pálffy. Men soon came to favour this “feminine” game, so much so, that national tournaments were only organised in men’s singles. Considered aristocratic, the sport survived the Rákosi dictatorship owing to its successes: József Asbóth won the French Open in 1947 and finished third at Wimbledon in 1948. Ten years later in 1958, Zsuzsa Körmöczy won in Paris and finished third at Wimbledon, subsequently earning her 2nd place on the world rankings. The champiTímea Babos ons of the 1960s and at Wimbledon in 2015.

1980s, István Gulyás, Andrea Temesvári and Balázs Taróczy also collected many trophies.

Following a hiatus of several years, the Hungarian Tennis Association once again organised the Tennis Ball in the Hilton Budapest Hotel in Buda Castle. In advance of the ball, a conference entitled The Present and Future of Tennis was held by the association on 12-13 February, where the organisation’s strategy, coach training and sports economics were addressed. A prize draw to support special Olympians and wheelchair tennis players was also part of the event.

Budapest, XI. Bartók Béla út 63-65.

Budapest’s oldest tennis complex, centrally located next to Lake Feneketlen Court reservations: + 36 1 279 0930, Coaches: Andrea Temesvári, Levente Barátosi Tennis players who started here: Ágnes Szávay, Melinda Czink, Tímea Babos

Római Tennis Academy (Római Teniszakadémia) Budapest, III. Királyok útja 105.

Telephone: +36 1 240 91 23

Tabáni Tenisz Center

Budapest, I. Krisztina krt.

Telephone:: +36 1 212 72 05

Külkereskedelmi Sport-, és Szabadidôpark

Budapest, II. Budakeszi út 73/c Telephone: +36 1 200 18 98

Marczibányi Sportcentrum Kft.

Budapest, II. Marczibányi tér 16.

Court reservations: +36 1 336 0777

Molnár Teniszakadémia

Budapest, III. Virág Benedek u. 39.

Telephone: +36 70 382 2862

Net Corner Teniszlub

Budapest, II. Herman Ottó u. 15 Telephone: +36 1 98 22 908

Vasas Pasarét Sportcentrum Budapest, II. Pasaréti út 11-13.

Telephone: +36 1 212 52 46

Építôk Tenisz Klub

Budapest X. Vajda Péter u.

Telephone: +36 30 932 63 98

Városmajor Tenisz Klub

Budapest, Városmajor utca 63-69.

Telephone: +36 1 202 53 37

Metro Tenisz Klub

Budapest, XVI. ker. Csömöri út 158.

Telephone: +36 30 742 04 80

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Munkácsy in Beijing and Chinese designers in Budapest Thriving Chinese-Hungarian cultural relations

China is the Guest of Honour at this year’s Travel trade fair, the largest professional tourism exhibition in Hungary.

This year the Budapest Spring Festival will feature a performance by the China National Peking Opera Company and a fashion show introducing the collections of young Chinese designers. The cultural relationship between China and Hungary is increasingly lively.

“Of the countries of the Eastern European region, Hungary has the best reputation in China. Our friendly relations go back a long way, with a number of shared moments in history,” Steve Guo, CEO for the Morgan Star Group offered. The Morgan Star Group is responsible for building contacts between the two countries. The aim is to first increase cooperation in the cultural, educational and scientific fields. Additionally, it effectively and efficiently brings Hungarian and Chinese agricultural, pharmaceutical and smaller investment activities together as well.

What types of partners do you work with?

The Morgan Star Group places an emphasis on cooperating with prestigious companies. Our goal is to develop long-term, valuable relationships, because doing so is advantageous not only for our international reputation, but also lays the foundation for actual accomplishments.

Photo © Morgan Star Ltd.

What role does culture play in your personal interests?

In my personal life, I frequent exhibitions and concerts. As a businessman, I oversee successful cultural projects with my colleagues and Hungarian partners. Let me remind you of one of 2015’s Spring Festival sensations: the excellent painter Qi Baishi’s paintings, which for the first time in Chinese cultural history crossed the border to be exhibited internationally in the Hungarian National Gallery. But I could also mention the Munkácsy exhibition at the Beijing Fine Art Academy, which has also been met with a huge response, or the Silk Road programme’s gala concert in Fuzhou. For the second year in a row, Xiamen will host a Hungarian Music Week concert series co-organised by the Morgan Star Group and the city’s cultural leadership. We also have major cultural ambitions in 2016 for Hungary and China alike.

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What attracts you to Hungarian culture?

Hungary is a country with a rich history and cultural heritage.

This elicits great respect among Chinese people. There are Hungarian characteristics that are also familiar in China: for example, we write the family name first as well. Only when our names are written in English or German does the family name come second, just as it is for Hungarians. The flavours and spices in Hungarian food are all close to the Chinese kitchen. I can also mention our music relationship, with descending five-note melodies that are familiar to the Chinese ear.

What is your take on your cooperation with the Budapest Festival and Tourism Centre?

I consider it a great opportunity.

The Budapest Spring Festival is an internationally renowned cultural event series. In addition to the shared organising of events, the Morgan Star Group considers the introduction of festival programmes in China via the widest channels a priority. We will ensure a presence for the programs of Budapest Festival and Tourism Centre this year at the Shenzhen International CulIn December 2015, Steve tural Industries Fair and in XiaGuo received the Pro Cultura Hungarica medal men’s annual expo. So far Eastern for his achievements in Europe has not been on the promoting diverse ChineseChinese tourist map. This is slowly Hungarian relationships. but surely changing. Affinity for the Hungarians among the Chinese has made me strive harder to make Hungary our primary Eastern European cultural tourism destination. With this in mind, the Morgan Star Group is working towards bringing Hungarian cultural values even closer to the Chinese.

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Photos © zoobudapest.com

PROGRAMME

CORNER

China’s

enchanting lights in the zoo Although Chinese lanterns are not unknown in Hungary, few know that these illuminated works of art come in thousands of shapes, sizes and colours.

So much so that in Asian countries the crafting of these lanterns is considered a branch of the arts, in which a thousand years of tradition is just as present as are modern stylistic trends.

We have only had limited opportunities to encounter these spectacular works of art on our continent, however, similar Chinese lantern festivals have been held in Dutch and Belgian

zoos and botanical gardens in recent years. In Central Europe, the Budapest Zoo will be the first to bring this unique Chinese light magic into Europe’s heart, which the public can view on the zoo’s grounds from 8 April to 22 May. Visitors can absorb 50 colourful compositions of light, which will contain themes ranging from the very traditional to newer eras. Naturally, a giant illuminated dragon will also be included, as will lamps depicting animals. Through all of these various works, the Hungarian public will become acquainted with this lesser-known branch of the arts, which is an important part of a culture going back over 1,000 years.

During the festival, which will run for 45 days, the Budapest Zoo and Botanical Garden’s regular opening hours will remain in effect. The zoo will close in the afternoon and reopen later from 7pm to 10pm for visitors who have come explicitly to see these compositions of Chinese light magic.

For more information: zoobudapest.com

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3-5 March 2016

16 April 2016 – 26 June 2016

Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art

Arriving from Berlin’s Künstlerhaus Bethanien, the exhibit will explore the era before the internet and social media and how music fans behaved, with an emphasis on rock music. Through their works, the artists will examine fans’ passion and enthusiasm, the various objects of their desire, and how popular culture can impact mass media and fan behaviour. lumu.hu

Corinthia Hotel Budapest

Following the professional day on Thursday, the VinCE Budapest Wine Show will await wine connoisseurs on Friday and Saturday with numerous programmes. From 3-5 March at the region’s largest wine event, visitors can see the world’s first smartphone-enabled wine dispensing and storage system, with the ability to rate the wines sampled through an app.

The same location will also host an event on 19 March featuring the Tokaj wine region and its tourism, culinary and artistic offerings. corinthia.com

Photo © Gábor Mozsi

VinCE Budapest Wine Show

Passion. Fan Behaviour and Art

Photo © Candice Breitz

PROGRAMME

CORNER

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Open House on World Water Day

Photo © fcsm.hu

19 March 2016

Budapest District XXIII., Meddôhányó u. 1.

The Budapest Sewage Works are inviting guests for an unusual tour. On the Saturday before World Water Day (March 22), they will open the South-Pest Wastewater Treatment Plant to the public, who can see the amazing flowers and lush vegetation that it contains. With the assistance of the jungle-like vegetation’s roots and the synthetic biotextile placed in the basins, the water released back into the Danube is even cleaner than the river. Pre-registration is required. Activities such as this have proven popular, with the Hundertwasser-designed waste incineration plant in Vienna becoming a bona fide tourist attraction. www.fcsm.hu

31st Telekom Vivicittá Spring Half Marathon 16-17 April 2016

Budapest

Vivicittá – long live the city and love it! The Italians coined this term in 1984 to promote running within their cities, with the Vivicittá Spring Half Marathon being a regular event in Hungary since 1986. The Telekom Vivicittá will also include a classic 10K and the Midicittá 7K, thereby encouraging participation by even those who have yet to lace up their running shoes this year. futanet.hu

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PROGRAMME

CORNER

Chamber Music – Tuned for Grand Hall Joshua Bell & Sam Haywood

Photo © Roberto Serra - Iguana Press

11 May 2016, 7:30 pm

21 May 2016

Joshua Bell requires no introduction: renowned for his passionate playing, inquisitiveness and multifaceted musical interests, the musician is understandably described as one of the most significant violinists today. Bell debuted with Riccardo Muti and the Philadelphia Orchestra at the age of 14. He is a soloist and chamber musician who is constantly on tour, the music director of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, and the visionary for numerous educational charity projects. Bell even performed incognito in the Washington DC metro several years ago. His Liszt Academy evening together with Sam Haywood will be more classical in style, featuring performances of Vitali, Beethoven and Fauré. zeneakademia.hu

Hungarian State Opera

Heralded by the New York Times as “one of the most inspired, audacious and personal operas to have come along in years”, Thomas Adès’s 2004 opera uses the tales of Prospero, Caliban and Ariel – as well as the young Ferdinand and Miranda – to raise issues about the thirst for vengeance, the power of good and evil, the nature of magic, the possibility of love, and paths to reconciliation. The English-language performance of the work based on Shakespeare’s play will be directed by Ludger Engels and conducted by Péter Halász, with Franco Pomponi in the role of Prospero.

Photo © BFTK Photostock

opera.hu

Photo © Tumbler.com

Thomas Adès: The Tempest

Liszt Academy of Music, Grand Hall

Gourmet Festival 12-15 May 2016

Millenáris Park

The best of everything! The OTP Bank Gourmet Festival awaits guests from 12-15 May at Millenáis Park with its excellent quality offerings, culinary delights by the best chefs, and an exciting assortment of flavours. On this occasion the master chefs will not reinvent a classic dish, but will focus on two basic ingredients – wild game and fish – in addition to their own specialities. gourmetfesztival.hu

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The publication can be ordered via the publisher’s address.

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