2016 ii liszt academy concert magazine

LISZT ACADEMY CONCERT MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER—DECEMBER 2016

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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“AS A MALE I WOULD NOT HAVE RECEIVED DEATH THREATS” INTERVIEW WITH SUSAN MCCLARY

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CONCERTS IN SEPTEMBER

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IN THE ROLES OF WOMEN DEPENDENT ON MEN INTERVIEW WITH ANNA PROHASKA

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STYLE COMPETITION

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WOMEN IN THE CLASSICAL WORLD

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CONCERTS IN OCTOBER

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MUSIC WITHOUT FRONTIERS

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WOMEN IN THE MIDST OF NERVOUS BREAKDOWNS

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WOMEN IN THE ORCHESTRA

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BARTÓK KONZI AT THE LISZT ACADEMY INTERVIEW WITH SZABOLCS BENKŐ

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REVOLUTIONIST IN A BASEBALL CAP

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MAN WITH A ‘WOMAN’S VOICE’

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PARITY – INTERVIEW WITH GYULA FEKETE AND CSABA KUTNYÁNSZKY

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CONCERTS IN NOVEMBER

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IS DUKE BLUEBEARD MALE?

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THE JOY OF FREEDOM

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“IT’S FAR EASIER WITH FEMALE SOPRANOS” INTERVIEW WITH ANNA MAGDALENA BACH

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DOES JAZZ HURT?

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CONCERTS IN DECEMBER

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“THE MUSIC OF BARTÓK IS MY MOTHER TONGUE” INTERVIEW WITH BARNABÁS KELEMEN

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LISZT KIDZ ACADEMY

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THE PLACE OF THE LISZT ACADEMY IN EUROPE

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At the end of March we learned that the 2016 QS World University Rankings, one of the foremost global education surveys, had placed the Budapest Liszt Academy as the 30th best performance arts university in the world. What’s more, when we look solely at institutions with a music profile, the Liszt Academy is actually ranked among the top 15. This success, which is indisputably of world standing, is testament to the commitment of all at the institution: the teachers, staff, great names of the past and our immediate predecessors – and not forgetting, naturally, the students themselves, since their inspiration is an indispensable element of the spirit of the Liszt Academy.

The fact that one-fifth of our students are from abroad no doubt played an important part in the Liszt Academy’s favourable international appraisal. When we ask them what their favourite memories are from the time they spend here, in addition to the close teacher-student relationship, they often highlight the superb concerts held at the Liszt Academy. I believe that the concert life of the Liszt Academy is inextricably connected to university life, since we all know that a student musician can learn more from a great performance than from many instrumental courses. Happily, there is never a lack of great concerts, and this holds true for the autumn 2016 season, as is clearly evident from the pages of the current issue of the Concert Magazine.

We welcome world celebrities and star ensembles such as Anna Prohaska and Il Giardino Armonico, Jordi Savall and Concerto Copenhagen; from the international vanguard of jazz I can mention the American New Light Quartet or a brilliant spectrum of Hungarian performers, from Gábor Boldoczki and László Fenyő to Gábor Farkas, Emőke Baráth, and the Kelemen Quartet. The Talent Oblige series, which showcases the cream of our students, enters a new season; the Liszt Academy Symphony Orchestra perform under the baton of three conductors, namely, Ádám Medveczky, János Kovács and Gábor Takács-Nagy; we greet the 80-year-old Steve Reich in concert; and we host several festivals and competitions. Both the II International Éva Marton Singing Competition and the Liszt Ferenc International Piano Competition are organised and held under our roof, while in addition to the kamara.hu chamber music festival, arranged under the artistic direction of Izabella Simon and Dénes Várjon and featuring top-class stars, there is another opportunity this year to hear former winners of the Concours Géza Anda during the Géza Anda Festival.

I wish audiences much pleasure at our concerts, each and every one of which offers a rich intellectual experience. From our perspective here at the academy, we ourselves continue to learn from these outstanding performers, so that the Liszt Academy may retain its position among the best music conservatories in the world.

Andrea Vigh President of the Liszt Academy

Dear Guests, We talk a lot about how much our relationship to music has changed over the past 10–20 years. Music is to be found virtually everywhere; in shopping centres it pours from speakers almost as noise. Today, accessing a recording is a simple matter: all that is needed is to subscribe to a music sharing service. At the click of a mouse one can even retrieve rarities that had earlier perhaps required a trip abroad or long hours spent trawling through racks of records or CDs, and which finally – triumphantly! – having been discovered were then listened to reverently at home as though the performer themselves were playing in our living rooms. It appears as though this magic has completely disappeared from a world in which everything is on tap in the 24/7 digital plaza. But downloaded music cannot be handled, there are no sleeve notes to read, nothing to ‘get hold of’, nothing to cherish. And even having obtained something on record, listening to recorded music cannot begin to compare with the experience of the live performance: the close proximity to a much-loved performance artist, the unique ‘here and now’ feeling. In fact, this phenomenon is one of the most important driving forces behind the entire industry (if one may use such an ugly expression for the sublime world of classical music): the experience of a ‘personal meeting’ with the artist, the unique and unrepeatable singularity of the moment. This is particularly true of classical music and even more especially, I hazard to say, of chamber music, where the marvel is all the more the joint creation of performer and audience. If the audience and artists are in harmony, then both parties leave the concert hall richer in new experiences and new sensations.

It is therefore our job – the job of concert organizers – to connect the performer with the concert-going public. We make every effort to bring to the historical stage of the Liszt Academy those artists whose recordings we know many listeners would travel great distances to acquire. The Liszt Academy is the perfect venue for the meeting of performer and audience.

And our domestic audience only has to make the trip to Liszt Ferenc Square for the experience. Here, music truly is within arm’s reach.

András Csonka Program Director, Liszt Academy 2

Dear Reader, This is the seventh edition of the Liszt Academy Concert Magazine.

It has so much of interest that I urge you to get reading right away!

When, seven editions earlier, we formulated the structure of the Concert Magazine, we knew that this groundbreaking form would enable as an editorial concept – indeed encode as an expectation – the raising of difficult topics or controversial areas. In this edition we examine the issue of the roles women play in music, installing this theme as a binding principle into the series of recommendations and detailed concert chronologies in the autumn concerts and programmes for the 2016/17 season. We have an exclusive interview with a leading figure of feminist musicology, Susan McClary; Anna Magdalena Bach, Johann Sebastian’s second wife – who as a highly talented soprano was in effect forced to subordinate her own artistic career to the service of the great composer – was likewise prepared to talk only to us; Anna Magdalena’s fellow artist, Anna Prohaska, a singer with one of the defining voices of our age, talks openly about the extent to which a woman’s musical career can be held back in the male-dominated music world. We go on to examine the enthusiasm with which the great composers of opera, the history of which is monopolized by the male imagination, have burdened female characters with incurable and pathetic hysteria, consigning heroines to the depths of madness. In another article we conclude that the fate of many jazz divas similarly didactically underpins all our notions concerning the segregation of women. The creative concept for the artwork collection in this edition also chimes with this topic: the universal greatness of Liszt, his openness dictated by brilliance, readily accept our pictorial allusions of female equality.

Happy reading!

Imre Szabó Stein Editor-in-Chief / Director of Communications and Media Content Development, Liszt Academy 3

“AS A MALE I WOULD NOT HAVE RECEIVED DEATH THREATS” Susan McClary is one of today’s bestknown and most-cited musicologists and a leading figure in feminist musical scholarship. She has played a vital role in shifting the mindset of American musicology towards post-modernism. The Professor of musicology and Head of the Department of Music at Case Western Reserve University and Distinguished Professor Emerita of the University of California at Los Angeles touched upon several different issues in this exclusive interview given to the Liszt Academy Concert Magazine: not only did she speak about the purpose of feminist musicology but also about how gender stereotypes are hidden in various musical codes, what roles women have played in the history of music and why she has received death threats for some of her thoughts.

Do you think it is possible to compose female music? If so, what would its characteristics be?

I prefer not to use a biological term for music produced by women.

An artist may choose to make her or his gender relevant in the work produced, just as nationality, ethnicity, and many other aspects of identity may or may not be foregrounded. Many women resist understanding what they do in gendered terms – and rightly so. Their music need not have anything at all to do with the fact that they are women. Yet women novelists frequently try to write from a perspective that may differ from those of their male colleagues. We celebrate Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison for bringing the lives of African-American women into literature.

And composer Kaija Saariaho has composed operas and songs that draw on phenomena such as pregnancy. Just as we find enrichment in the characters Morrison presents, so we might deepen our range of human experiences by attending to areas not usually touched upon in cultural practices.

For those who don’t understand how we can have a gendered perspective on music (one could say a C major chord is, after all, just a combination of neutral notes), how would you explain the importance of feminist musicology?

The notion that music means nothing more than its constituent parts – for instance, isolated pitches or chords – has prevented scholars from dealing with ‘musicking’ as a basic human practice. As soon as we put two notes or chords together, we begin to imply movement and trajectory, to which the body responds immediately. The ways in which musicians combine pitches, rhythms, sonorities, lyrics, and so on produce meaningful patterns to which listeners respond in myriad ways. Clearly, a piece of music engages with many more dimensions of human experience than gender alone; no one wants to impose gender as the necessary approach to all music. Yet gender, sexuality and body are featured in significant ways in opera, popular song, film scores, and even instrumental idioms.

Feminist musicology seeks to understand how music participates in the construction of these crucial aspects of culture.

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Is it the music itself or the way we talk about it that is loaded with gendered bias? Can we even talk about ‘the music itself’?

Both the music and our discourse about it have gendered elements. The title of my book Feminine Endings derives from the ways this term uses gendered hierarchies to talk about many presumably neutral aspects of music. I demonstrate in quotations from theory treatises and textbooks that such terms rely upon and reinforce assumptions concerning male strength and female inadequacy. But ‘the music itself’ also bears gendered meanings because it makes use of well-established signs.

We can tell within a couple of seconds of sound whether a film is an action movie or a chick flick; we know from the sonority of a smoky tenor sax that a femme fatale is about to enter the scene; we discern from the opening bars that Carmen is a bad girl, Michaela a virtuous maiden.

Many twentieth-century modernists sought to escape semiotic contingencies, including those associated with gender, and they insisted on the category of pure music, for their own work and also for the rest of music history.

But those were not the conditions within which most music was composed, performed, and listened to.

What kinds of roles have women played in the history of music as composers, performers or patrons?

Women have always participated in musical activities, but they have usually had to take roles allowed for them within their particular societies.

In the 12th century Hildegard von Bingen was able to compose, but only after she received explicit clearance from the pope; the Baroque composer Barbara Strozzi published a huge number of cantatas, but largely because her father wielded a great deal of power in Venetian culture; Fanny Mendelssohn received the same training as her brother but was prevented from making it public. Men did not have to fight this same set of biases.

Women did have their voices as important resources, and many became professional singers. But from Homer’s sirens to today’s pop stars, they often have had to struggle with the perception that their voices seduce and that they offer nothing more than their sexualities. Today we have many women who star as concert violinists, cellists, pianists, and even conductors. Although they still face some traditional prejudices (recall the reluctance of the Vienna Philharmonic to hire women), they have made great strides toward acceptance. And from the women who patronized the troubadours in the Middle Ages to duchesses of Ferrara or the Medici court in the Renaissance, women have supported and commissioned male musicians.

Their tastes thereby shaped much of music history. Most recently Betty Freeman served as benefactor of American experimentalists.

Everything you have written reflects the belief that music cannot be understood without the cultural context in which it was created.

Could you briefly summarise why is it dangerous if a performer thinks that it is merely enough to ‘play the right notes at the right time’?

SUSAN MCCLARY

I would not call it ‘dangerous’ to ignore historical context. But a performer who does so relies on internalized and homogenized ideas of how the music is supposed to go. Understanding history allows the performer to think 5

BEETHOVEN AND RAPE Many of us are not aware how much musical terminology is sexual through and through; it is full of metaphors such as 'feminine ending', feminine theme, and the like. Although these are seemingly harmless terms, they actually sustain and reinforce gender stereotypes. Susan McClary pointed out this phenomenon in one of her papers in 1987 when describing the first movement of Beethoven’s 9 th Symphony as follows: "The point of recapitulation in the first movement of the Ninth is one of the most horrifying moments in music, as the carefully prepared cadence is frustrated, damming up energy which finally explodes in the throttling murderous rage of a rapist incapable of attaining release." This interpretation of the clearly horrifying moment created great turbulence and controversy in the press, so much so that the author was even threatened with death. When she later published her analysis in book form, McClary put it more diplomatically: she omitted the remark on rape, yet her language usage had a liberating effect on many who believe that music is much more than merely an abstract structure; rather it discusses the most fundamental questions of our existence.

about interpretations and encourages a much wider range of possible readings. I came to musicology after I had coached professionally for years. I was never satisfied with giving advice without being able to back up my suggestions with arguments drawn from analysis and history.

Is there any difference between the role women have played in classical music compared to jazz or pop music? Can you also find the load of gendered bias in writings on jazz or pop?

Popular music has proved a much more congenial area for women. At times, women have even been more prominent than men. The Blues Queens of the 1920s, for instance, solidified the blues as a genre and also made the sound recording industry viable. Today we have perhaps more female than male stars: Madonna, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Nicki Minaj, and so on. But pop critics often reduce women to their sexualities, and they can be dismissive of female artists, using the same sexist terms aimed at women in jazz and concert music. Women have to acquire a high degree of commercial success before they can be taken seriously.

As a well-known musicologist who has written some highly controversial texts and has become one of the heroines of the so-called ‘New Musicology’ in the 1990s, have you ever felt that what you have done was treated differently in the academic world because you are a woman?

Alas, if I had been male, I would have been regarded as just a ‘Young Turk’, an insolent and rebellious individual challenging tradition.

I would not have received death threats for my work.

How did you find feminism as your field of interest during your career?

In the 1980s, I came into contact with feminist theory, which was transfor­ ming scholarship in humanities and social science disciplines. As soon as I asked if gender mattered in classical music, I realized (like the literary critics and historians in other departments) that musicologists had neglected to pose important questions. Feminine Endings, which appeared in 1991, brought musicology into dialogue with those other disciplines. But I entered into other important conversations as well at around the same time. With Philip Brett and Liz Wood, I began to deal with music and sexuality; with Robert Walser, I helped to bring popular music studies into musicology; with Rose Rosengard Subotnik, Richard Leppert, and Lawrence Kramer, I worked to introduce the critical theories of Adorno and Foucault into music analysis. Others contributed methodologies developed within anthropology.

As my career has unfolded, I have maintained a commitment to feminist approaches, largely because I do not believe we can understand how music works without engaging with the body, affect, gender, and structures of desire and pleasure. My work does not always focus on women. But the questions I developed when I first began to take gender seriously informs everything I do, whether analysing Frescobaldi, figuring out how to perform Beethoven, attending to the latest release by Beyoncé, or writing on Peter Sellars’s productions of Saariaho’s L’amour de loin.

Gergely Fazekas

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CONCERT CHRONOLOGY SEPTEMBER Concerts organized by Liszt Academy Concert Centre Hosted concert Classical Jazz Opera World / Folk Junior SUNDAY 4 SEPTEMBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

JEWISH CULTURAL FESTIVAL 2016 THE SOUNDS OF THE SYNAGOGUE OPENING DAY Works by Kodály, Lewandowski, Szelényi, Alkan, Sulzer, Meyerbeer, Schubert, J. Strauss jr., Rossini, Henle, Rose, Heller, Moszkowski, Naumbourg and Weill Erika Lux (piano); Alexander Ivanov (organ) Europäischer Synagogalchor Conductor: Andor Izsák Tickets: HUF 4 800, 6 500, 7 900 Organizer: MAZSIHISZ FRIDAY 9 SEPTEMBER 2016, 11.00, 19.30 SATURDAY 10 SEPTEMBER 2016, 11.00, 19.30 SUNDAY 11 SEPTEMBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

OVERTURE POPULAR OVERTURES AND ARIAS FROM THE REPERTOIRE OF KLASSZIK RADIO 92.1 Rossini: L’italiana in Algeri – Overture Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana – Overture Leoncavallo: Pagliacci – Intermezzo Leoncavallo: ‘Vesti la giubba’ – Canio’s aria from Pagliacci Verdi: Nabucco – Overture Mozart: Don Giovanni, K. 527 – Overture Donizetti: Don Pasquale – Overture Rossini: The Barber of Seville – Overture Rossini: ‘Una voce poco fa’ – Rosina’s cavatina from The Barber of Seville J. Strauss: The Gypsy Baron – Overture Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro, K. 492 – Overture Zsófia Kálnay (mezzo-soprano) Attila Fekete (tenor) Danubia Orchestra Óbuda Conductor: Máté Hámori Tickets: HUF 3 100, 5 200, 7 100, 8 600 Organizer: Klasszik Rádió TUESDAY 20 SEPTEMBER 2016, 14.00, 19.00 WEDNESDAY 21 SEPTEMBER 2016, 14.00, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

II INTERNATIONAL ÉVA MARTON SINGING COMPETITION PRELIMINARY

LISZT FERENC INTERNATIONAL PIANO COMPETITION

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THURSDAY 15 SEPTEMBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

BARTÓK’S BLOSSOMED TREES CONCERT OF THE HUNGARIAN HERITAGE HOUSE AT THE LISZT ACADEMY ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF BARTÓK

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HUNGARIAN RADIO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra Conductor: János Kovács Tickets: HUF 2 000, 3 000, 4 000, 5 000 Organizer: Hungarian Radio Music Ensembles 8

SUNDAY 18 SEPTEMBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

WEDNESDAY 21 SEPTEMBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

Dorka Gera, Ágnes Herczku, Eszter Pál (vocals); Beáta Czébely, Tímea Djerdj (piano); Katalin Kokas, Barnabás Kelemen (violin) Orchestra of the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble; Conductors: István ‘Szalonna’ Pál and Ferenc Radics

ÁGNES HERCZKU

Tickets: HUF 1 200, 1 700, 2 800, 3 900 Organizer: Fidelio Media, Hungarian Heritage House THURSDAY 22 SEPTEMBER 2016, 15.00, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

II INTERNATIONAL ÉVA MARTON SINGING COMPETITION SEMI-FINALS Page 10 THURSDAY 22 SEPTEMBER 2016, 19.00 GRAND HALL

MÁV SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Elgar: The Pomp and Circumstance Marches, Op. 39 Elgar: Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85 Dvořák: Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95 (‘From the New World’) István Várdai (cello) MÁV Symphony Orchestra Conductor: Péter Csaba Tickets: HUF 3 500, 4 000, 4 500 Organizer: MÁV Symphony Orchestra

ISTVÁN VÁRDAI

FRIDAY 23 SEPTEMBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

MONDAY 26 SEPTEMBER, 19.30 GRAND HALL

BAROQUE SOPRANOS ANNA PROHASKA & IL GIARDINO ARMONICO DIDO AND CLEOPATRA

INGRID FUZJKO HEMMING & MÁV SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

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Schubert: Four Impromptus, D. 899 Rachmaninoff: Prelude in G major, Op. 32/5 Chopin: Etude in C minor, Op. 10/12 (‘Revolutionary’) Liszt: Paganini Etude No. 6 in A minor Schubert: Rosamunde Overture, D. 797 Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11

IL GIARDINO ARMONICO

SATURDAY 24 SEPTEMBER 2016, 18.00 GRAND HALL

II INTERNATIONAL ÉVA MARTON SINGING COMPETITION FINAL Page 12 SUNDAY 25 SEPTEMBER 2016, 19.30 HUNGARIAN STATE OPERA

II INTERNATIONAL ÉVA MARTON SINGING COMPETITION GALA CONCERT Page 12 SUNDAY 25 SEPTEMBER 2016, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

TALENT OBLIGE COMPETITION WINNERS’ CHAMBER RECITAL: TOMASZ DAROCH, ÉVA OSZTROSITS, LÁSZLÓ VÁRADI Page 16

SUNDAY 25 SEPTEMBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

Ingrid Fuzjko Hemming (piano) MÁV Symphony Orchestra Conductor: Mario Košík

THURSDAY 29 SEPTEMBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

WE ARE FREE DANUBIA ORCHESTRA ÓBUDA SEPTEMBER DEVOTION Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K. 467 Brahms: Serenade No. 1 in D major, Op. 11 Tamás Érdi (piano) Danubia Orchestra Óbuda Conductor: Máté Hámori Tickets: HUF 2 500, 3 200, 3 800, 4 700 Organizer: Danubia Orchestra Óbuda

Tickets: HUF 2 000, 3 000, 4 000 Organizer: Propart Hungary TUESDAY 27 SEPTEMBER 2016, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

CHAMBER MUSIC, SO CLOSE QIAN ZHOU, VILMOS SZABADI, ERNŐ FEHÉR Page 16

WEDNESDAY 28 SEPTEMBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

BLACK AND WHITE COLOURS JÓZSEF BALOG PIANO RECITAL Page 20

THURSDAY 29 SEPTEMBER 2016, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

JAZZ IT! NEW LIGHT QUARTET Page 20

DOHNÁNYI ORCHESTRA BUDAFOK Dohnányi: Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 5 Schumann: Symphony No. 2 in C major, Op. 61

JÚLIA PUSKER

FRIDAY 30 SEPTEMBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

CONCERTO BUDAPEST Beethoven: Triple Concerto in C major, Op. 56 Bartók: Concerto, BB 123 Júlia Pusker (violin) Gergely Devich (cello) Ádám Balogh (piano) Concerto Budapest Conductor: András Keller Tickets: HUF 2 200, 3 100, 3 900, 4 800, 5 900 Organizer: Concerto Budapest

Balázs Fülei (piano) Dohnányi Orchestra Budafok Conductor: Gábor Hollerung Tickets: HUF 3 000, 3 500, 4 000 Organizer: Dohnányi Orchestra Budafok

DAVE LIEBMAN 9

FRIDAY 9 SEPTEMBER, 11.00, 19.30 SATURDAY 10 SEPTEMBER, 11.00, 19.30

TUESDAY 20 SEPTEMBER, 14.00, 19.00 WEDNESDAY 21 SEPTEMBER, 14.00, 19.00 THURSDAY 22 SEPTEMBER, 15.00, 19.00

GRAND HALL (FINALS)

SOLTI HALL

SUNDAY 11 SEPTEMBER, 19.30

GRAND HALL (GALA) LISZT FERENC INTERNATIONAL PIANO COMPETITION Repertoire for the finals: Ferenc Liszt: Sonata in B minor Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major Piano Concerto No. 2 in A major Totentanz

II INTERNATIONAL ÉVA MARTON SINGING COMPETITION PRELIMINARY AND SEMI-FINALS

Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra Conductor: Gergely Kesselyák Philharmonia Hungary is organizing the Liszt Ferenc International Piano Competition on the occasion of the 205th anniversary of the birth and the 130th anniversary of the death of Ferenc Liszt. A three-member editorial panel – chaired by Zoltán Kocsis, together with Kálmán Dráfi and János Mácsai – were responsible for compiling the competition programme. György Kurtág has accepted the position of honorary chair of the competition jury; executive chair is Kun Woo Paik (South Korea), and the other jury members are pianists Michel Béroff, Péter Frankl, Leslie Howard, Cyprien Katsaris, Kálmán Dráfi and Károly Mocsári, conductor János Kovács, and music historian János Mácsai.

The competition comprises four rounds. In the selection round the jury decide, based on audio recordings submitted along with the application form, who will perform in front of the audience of the Liszt Academy. The qualifiers are held on 3–5 September, and the semi-finals (with a maximum

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of 12 competitors) on 6–7 September in the Sir Georg Solti Chamber Hall; contestants in these two rounds play for 30 minutes and 50 minutes, respectively (programme material: Transcendent Etudes, Years of Pilgrimage cycle, selected opera paraphrases and freely chosen Liszt works). The jury then selects two pieces from the programme material for the final (Sonata in B minor, Liszt piano concertos) to be performed by a maximum of six finalists. First prize is €15,000, second prize €12,000, and third €9,000, with the audience prize worth an additional €6,000. Pianists from anywhere in the world born after 1 January 1984 may apply; as we went to press the organizers had already received entries from several dozen young pianists from eleven countries, including several promising Hungarian artists.

Tickets: HUF 1 400, 1 900, 2 400 (solo finals) Tickets: HUF 1 400, 1 900, 2 900, 3 900 (orchestral finals) Tickets: HUF 1 400, 1 900, 2 900, 3 900 (gala concert) Organizer: Philharmonia Hungary

Although the Liszt Academy has hosted countless music competitions, the Éva Marton International Singing Competition was the first it had organized itself. This year more than a hundred singers from 25 countries applied to compete in the competition founded by the professor emerita and former head of department of the Liszt Academy, with total prize money of €42,000. The following Hungarian and international luminaries from the world of opera have received invitations to sit on the jury headed by Éva Marton: Miguel Lerín, one of the most influential managers in European opera; Vittorio Terranova, artistic director of the F. Tagliavini opera competition; Christina Scheppelmann, director of the Barcelona Teatro Liceu; Sung Bin Kim, dean of the arts faculty of Daeshin University; Anatoli Goussev, professor of La Scuola Musicale in Foro Buonaparte di Milano; Honghai Ma, professor of the Beijing Central Music Academy; Andrea Meláth, head of the Department of Vocal and Opera Studies, Liszt Academy; and Szilveszter Ókovács, director of the Hungarian State Opera.

Admission to preliminary and semi-final rounds: free Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

II. INTERNATIONAL

PRESENTED BY

Tuesday 20 September I SOLTI HALL I Preliminary Wednesday 21 September I SOLTI HALL I Preliminary Thursday 22 September I SOLTI HALL I Semi-final Saturday 24 September I GRAND HALL I Final Sunday 25 September I HUNGARIAN STATE OPERA I Gala Concert Featuring: Hungarian State Opera Symphony Orchestra Conductor: Balázs Kocsár

martoncompetition.hu

Emberi Erőforrások Minisztériuma

FRIDAY 23 SEPTEMBER, 19.30

SATURDAY 24 SEPTEMBER, 18.00

SUNDAY 25 SEPTEMBER, 19.30

GRAND HALL

GRAND HALL

HUNGARIAN STATE OPERA

BAROQUE SOPRANOS ANNA PROHASKA & IL GIARDINO ARMONICO DIDO AND CLEOPATRA Works by Purcell, Händel, Hasse, Graupner, Sartorio, Locke, Castrovillari, Castello, Cavallo and Rossi Anna Prohaska (soprano) Il Giardino Armonico Conductor: Giovanni Antonini

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II INTERNATIONAL ÉVA MARTON SINGING COMPETITION FINAL Hungarian State Opera Symphony Orchestra Conductor: Balázs Kocsár

The programme from the unrivalled early music ensemble Il Giardino Armonico evokes the legends of the mythological and historical African queens, respectively, Dido of Carthage and Cleopatra of Egypt. Dido, who sacrificed herself on the departure of Aeneas, her Trojan lover, and the similarly tragically fated Cleopatra, who first drove Caesar and then Anthony mad with love, were both heroines of a whole series of aria-filled Baroque operas. In addition to the famous works of Purcell and Händel, there are excerpts from lesser-known authors such as Christoph Graupner, who was considered for the famous Leipzig position before Bach, and Antonio Sartorio, who worked as court musician in Hannover a few decades before Händel. In this concert Anna Prohaska, the half-Austrian, half-English coloratura soprano, impersonates the two queens; her stylistic notes and ease within the world of Baroque vocal music have been demonstrated in many remarkable recordings. Il Giardino Armonico have enjoyed unbroken success since 1985. They are conducted by the superlative co-founder of the ensemble, Giovanni Antonini.

“When I was a student at the Liszt Academy, I resolved that if I ever had my own students, then I would teach them independence and self-confidence from the very first minute. Generally, a teacher wishes to create a lesser artist of the student than himself or herself. This is wrong! You have to lend them wings so that they can stand their ground in life as soon as possible.” This is how Éva Marton – former head of department at the Liszt Academy and professor emerita – formulated the ars poetica of the singing competition founded by her and named after her. The Grand Prix in 2014 was awarded to Szilvia Vörös, first prize went to the Romanian Alexandru Aghenie, second prize plus the audience prize to the Ukrainian Tetiana Zhuravel, while Polish soprano Marcelina Beucher picked up third place. In the final, competitors have to sing three arias of different styles and characters selected from works appearing on the opera list of the competition (each piece must be sung without sheet music, in the original key and language, and in its full version).

One might regard it compulsory for opera fans to attend the competition final given that they will be able to hear, in the very best of form, singers who are likely to take leading roles in international opera productions in the coming decades.

Tickets: HUF 4 900, 6 500, 9 200, 11 900 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

Tickets: HUF 900, 1 200, 1 700, 2 200 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

II INTERNATIONAL ÉVA MARTON SINGING COMPETITION GALA CONCERT Hungarian State Opera Symphony Orchestra Conductor: Balázs Kocsár “I never wanted to be like others, and I never wanted to be other than what I am.”

This is how Éva Marton has described the guiding principle for her career. As both teacher and mentor, the artist has always attempted to assist her students in developing their own capabilities, showing them how to take their own path in life. To this day Éva Marton declares that “every person has his/her own place in life, the real challenge is to find it.” A competition always represents the perfect proving ground on which artists can discover their place in the world of music, presenting themselves to influential figures on the international concert scene and winning opportunities to make appearances in all parts of the world. The II International Éva Marton Singing Competition is an excellent opportunity to gain experience in this area. However, the awards ceremony and gala recital being held on the stage of the Opera House are not simply about competition and excitement, they are more about acknowledging welldeserved successes.

Tickets: HUF 1 100, 1 600, 2 200, 2 900 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

Anna Prohaska © PATRICK WALTER 13

IN THE ROLES OF WOMEN DEPENDENT ON MEN She has already enjoyed a career spanning 17 years, yet she still ranks among the generation of youthful singers. As well as being attracted to 20–21st century music, she also finds the Baroque repertoire especially to her taste, while she has worked with some of the greatest – Abbado, Boulez, Harnoncourt included – in both areas. World-famous soprano Anna Prohaska brings arias

by Baroque heroines to the Liszt Academy. In an interview with the Concert Magazine she speaks about her programme choice, dream roles, development of her voice and discrimination against women.

Although you were brought up in a classical music milieu, you apparently don’t think in terms of categories such as ‘pop music’ and ‘classical music’. You even like heavy metal …

As far as I am concerned, quality is what matters. The Beatles, Queen, Prince and many others wrote great music. Now I’ll even admit that on the evening before a Don Giovanni premiere in Los Angeles I went to a concert by Rammstein, a band I’ve loved for a long time (and lip-synched the numbers from beginning to end because, of course, I wasn’t allowed to sing).

You’ve had a professional singing career for 17 years. How has your voice developed over the years?

There’s not been much change in its tone. At one time I sang quite high roles, for instance Blonde from Il Seraglio. Today I am far closer to Konstanze. My voice has become stronger, somewhat deeper, and more able to meet the challenge of singing with a full orchestra; I have been receiving genuine lead roles more recently, roles such as Susanna from The Marriage of Figaro and Sophie from Der Rosenkavalier.

Do you have any dream roles?

I would love to sing the title role of Lulu in the Alban Berg opera, although I am still not ready for it (I have been offered the part on several occasions, though). I could learn it – that wouldn’t be a problem – but the long, difficult parts demand considerable stamina. I would also like to be Ilia in Mozart’s Idomeneo. I would really love to sing Cleopatra in Händel’s Giulio Cesare; Debussy’s Mélisande is likewise one of my absolute dream roles.

You are bringing a Baroque programme to Budapest but you sing many different styles of music. What are your favourite periods and who are your favourite composers?

I have great fondness for Wagner although I know that I will never sing the great Wagner roles. I think that as a singer I perhaps now feel closest to Purcell; it is as though with him I feel I don’t have to do anything, he is so suited to my voice. I am a fan of Schubert, particularly the sadder, more melancholic songs. We are soon to set out on a tour with two Salve Reginas, Pergolesi’s and Schubert’s; in the latter the soprano part is accompanied by a string quartet. From the 20th century, I feel most attracted to the crystal clear music of Webern: you’ve always got to sing

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long phrases even though the music is extremely fragmented. This is what makes it so beautiful. Yes, I think these three are my favourites: Purcell, Schubert and Webern.

Your Budapest programme is built around the personalities of two great female figures, Dido and Cleopatra. Is there some sort of feminist message in this?

Without doubt. Irrespective of the fact that Cleopatra was a historical figure and Dido fictional, we see in both characters a woman strongly dependent on her male partner. As soon as Aeneas leaves Dido, not only does the woman collapse but all of Carthage does too. Cleopatra could only remain a strong queen alongside Julius Caesar and then Marcus Antonius. There have been a few strong female figures in history, and of course many more that we don’t know about because they weren’t able to assert themselves, but all had to pay a high price in fundamentally patriarchal societies.

The question of female roles and stereotypes is frequently aired these days. As an opera singer, what are your experiences in this matter?

Opera has always been a more tolerant world, a world where talent counts first and foremost, not sexual orientation; and as for the gender roles, in principle there is much diversity here: in the beginning castrati were the heroes of opera, while homosexual artists played a defining role in the history of the genre, most probably because of their more imaginative, more delicate and sensitive nature. The majority of my friends are gay but of course that’s not why I chose them, rather because they are wonderful, generous, creative people. I have lived in Berlin since I was ten, in this extremely open, tolerant city where one can meet on the streets the most diverse couples and nobody is flustered. I’m not saying that I have never come across discriminatory behaviour against women in my profession, but perhaps it is less common. For instance, when I was contracted to the Staatsoper, I received a lower salary than a tenor colleague of mine just because he was a man, despite him having the same amount of experience as me. And men are in the most influential positions, something that is most evident among the circle of conductors, although things are changing here as well, albeit slowly. Women have to make a far greater effort in everything, and often they are judged very unfairly. If a woman wants something, then she has to be sweet and compliant because if she dare raise her voice or express herself more forcefully, then she is immediately written off as being hysterical. If a man does the same thing, then everyone nods understandingly, commenting on what ‘authority’ he has. It is far harder for us to acquire this ‘authority’; if women fight for their rights, if they question why they don’t receive the same freedoms, why nobody takes account of the fact that they bring up children, why they have to work for less money, or if they simply express a different opinion about something, they are immediately asked: “why are you being so aggressive?”. This has to change.

Judit Rácz 15

SUNDAY 25 SEPTEMBER, 19.00

TUESDAY 27 SEPTEMBER, 19.00

SOLTI HALL

SOLTI HALL

TALENT OBLIGE COMPETITION WINNERS’ CHAMBER RECITAL: TOMASZ DAROCH, ÉVA OSZTROSITS, LÁSZLÓ VÁRADI

CHAMBER MUSIC, SO CLOSE QIAN ZHOU, VILMOS SZABADI, ERNŐ FEHÉR

Ligeti: Sonata for Solo Cello Chopin: Trio in G minor, Op. 8 Chopin: Sonata for Cello and Piano in G minor, Op. 65

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Beethoven: Sonata No. 7 for Violin and Piano in C minor, Op. 30/2 Rolla: Duo in A major Prokofiev: Sonata for Two Violins, Op. 56 R. Strauss: Sonata for Violin and Piano in E-flat major, Op. 18

Éva Osztrosits (violin) Tomasz Daroch (cello) László Váradi (piano)

Qian Zhou, Vilmos Szabadi (violin) Ernő Fehér (piano)

Tomasz Daroch (born in 1989) performs a work by György Ligeti (1923–2006) dating from the post-war period (albeit discovered well over 30 years after this). Daroch graduated from the conservatory in Mannheim and went on to perfect his skills under masters such as David Geringas, Miklós Perényi and Heinrich Schiff. He first took to the stage with an orchestra at the age of 14, and two major world competitions sparked his adult career: in 2011 he won the Lutosławski International Violoncello Competition, while he shared second place at the Pablo Casals Cello Competition in Budapest in 2014. Junior Prima Prizewinning pianist László Váradi, one of the best-known personalities of the generation of young artists in Hungary, partners the Polish musician. Together they play the cello sonata by Chopin, composed in the weeks prior to the 1848 French Revolution; it was to be the last work of the composer published in his lifetime. Éva Osztrosits joins these two artists for the only violin work written by Chopin, who was then only 18 years old. She is a student of Katalin Kokas at the Liszt Academy and she, too, has won placings at numerous major competitions.

“Significant world-class artist” – these are the words of authoritative music journal The Strad about Chinese violinist Qian Zhou. Hungarian violinist Vilmos Szabadi has played together with legendary artists such as György Solti, Mstislav Rostropovich and Plácido Domingo.

These two fine performers are here accompanied on piano by Ernő Fehér, winner of a series of Hungarian and foreign competitions. Beethoven’s Sonata in C minor is a refined, eloquent masterpiece, and has precisely the dramatic character that typifies the composer’s use of this morose and anguished key. The Duo in A major by the early Romantic Italian violin virtuoso Alessandro Rolla is a striking bravura piece considered the trademark of the composer (it is no mere coincidence that the father of young Paganini visited this genius of the string instrument, asking him to teach his son). In his autobiography, Prokofiev noted the moment he realized two violins could manage without piano accompaniment.

He looked on this compositional limit as a creative challenge, and the rarely performed Sonata in C major, revealing lyricism mixed with piquant rhythms, proves that he passed the test with flying colours.

Tickets: HUF 1 900 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

Tickets: HUF 1 600 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

QIAN ZHOU

STYLE COMPETITION This year sees the organization of the 14th music competition that launched the careers of pianists Annie Fischer, Berman Lazar, Gergely Bogányi and János Balázs Jnr. among others. The following is a historical review of the 83 years of the Liszt competition.

ANNIE FISCHER WINNER OF THE 1933 LISZT COMPETITION

The first Liszt competition was held in the Liszt Academy in 1933, so becoming the first international music competition organised in Budapest.

In formulating the concept of this event, which elicited enormous interest the world over, the success of the Chopin competition in Warsaw six years earlier was an obvious exemplar; at the same time, there were increasing calls for some sort of festival that would place greater emphasis on the Liszt tradition and cult in Hungary. Though Ernst von Dohnányi was not alone in championing a piano competition to pay tribute to the life and oeuvre of the founder of the College of Music, the realization of the concept largely fell on the shoulders of the former director of the Liszt Academy.

Dohnányi took his responsibilities extremely seriously, spending an entire year just on the preparations. He planned the competition material with extraordinary attention, selecting quintessential works from the Liszt repertoire as core material, and he formulated the systems of assessment in great detail. Likewise, he was immensely careful to ensure a delicate balance in the composition of the jury. He was not satisfied by simply drawing up a list of the good and the great (although the list of names of those asked for serving on the jury is truly remarkable, including Wilhelm Backhaus, Bartók, Edwin Fischer, Alfred Cortot, Arthur Schnabel, and Emil Sauer); he also weighed up how many students of Liszt still living at the time could be asked to undertake the onerous task, in addition to determining how many members of the jury should be Hungarian and how many foreigners. Those chosen to be jury members received letters of invitation personally from Dohnányi.

The public and press even followed the so-called ‘pre-rounds’ for the first competition with great attention. Glowing articles were penned about the performances of Sauer student Angelica de Morales and Lajos Hernádi (at that time Heimlich), a student of Bartók, Schnabel and Dohnányi – right up until the moment that the jury was hit by a bombshell.

With his student Morales not making it into the final, Emil Sauer, who enjoyed enormous prestige as a pupil of Liszt, accused his colleagues of favouritism and, together with Morales, quit Budapest even before the conclusion of the competition. In the end, the first Liszt competition was won by Dohnányi’s 19-year-old student, Annie Fischer, who more than justified the jury’s decision in her later career. But the scandal lingered long in the memories of those involved.

In fact the scars ran so deep that there was no continuation of the initiative for over two decades. Although a Bartók competition was organized in 1948, which later gained a place in the list of Budapest International Music Competitions arranged by Philharmonia and at which Paul Badura-Skoda took second prize, the organization of a piano competition bearing the name of Liszt had to wait until 1956. It was at this time it was first suggested it might be worth linking the two undisputed geniuses of Hungarian music life, and after the Liszt competition had been arranged for 10–24th September, a Bartók Festival was immediately announced.

Numerous illustrious guests were invited to the two events, among them 17

STYLE COMPETITION

Eduard Liszt, the composer’s nephew and a professor of law, who lived in the Schottenhof flat in Vienna where his father, the state attorney of the monarchy, was visited by the great composer himself. The press gave even more coverage to events than they had done in 1933. In feverish tones they reported on exactly how many flags of nations were raised on the facade of the Liszt Academy (22 to be precise, together with the Hungarian colours, and including such exotica – given the realities of Pest in 1956 – as India, Morocco and Ecuador). The press also covered the arrival of the newly ordered pianos (two Steinways and a Bösendorfer – up to then only a single decrepit Steinway was at the disposal of artists appearing in Pest), the carefully stage-managed meeting of competitors with Kodály, and even how József Szaller, a traffic officer, saved the organizers of the competition when he repositioned (with commendable alacrity) the temporary trolley stop set up in front of the artists’ entrance of the Liszt Academy.

From 1961 the Liszt competition was linked to the Bartók competition, and right up until 1986 the contest (which by then had been constituted as the piano competition section of the Budapest International Music Competitions, and which was organized every five years) functioned as the Liszt-Bartók competition. The event was then reorganized in 1986 with a more complex Liszt programme than in previous times and was renamed the Liszt competition. This is largely how things stood until 2011, notwithstanding the fact that the Liszt Academy once again hosted the Liszt-Bartók competition in 2006. (A new, independent competition featuring the oeuvre of Bartók is in the planning stage: the Liszt Academy is organizer of the Bartók World Competition and Festival to be held in 2017, for violinists in this first instant, and to be subsequently staged every second year.)

Although over the decades many elements of the competition have changed, the competition itself has never lost its true function and challenge.

Most major piano competitions expect candidates to bring a mixed repertoire rather than tackling works from different periods of the same composer’s oeuvre, works that within themselves represent varied stylistic and genre concepts. Dr Hans Sittner, director of the Vienna conservatory and member of the jury in the 1971 competition, described the Budapest piano competition as being a ‘style competition’, in which the emphasis is placed on the presentation of a great master’s creative world (and for a short period, of two great masters’ creative worlds). This is the particular trait of the contest: the emphasis is less on the technical challenges posed by the virtuosity of Liszt’s oeuvre and more on the pianist’s interpretation of genuine master­ pieces. Perhaps this is part of the secret why this great international piano competition in Budapest has been able to supply truly exciting and remarkable artistic personalities to the world for the past 80 years.

Zsuzsanna Rákai

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MARIA JOÃO PIRES (21 JANUARY 2016) © LISZT ACADEMY / LÁSZLÓ MUDRA

BEA PALYA (30 DECEMBER 2015) © LISZT ACADEMY / LÁSZLÓ MUDRA

DMITRY SINKOVSKY & JULIA LEZHNEVA (9 APRIL 2016) © LISZT ACADEMY / LÁSZLÓ MUDRA 19

WEDNESDAY 28 SEPTEMBER, 19.30

THURSDAY 29 SEPTEMBER, 19.00

GRAND HALL

SOLTI HALL

JAZZ IT! NEW LIGHT QUARTET BLACK AND WHITE COLOURS JÓZSEF BALOG PIANO RECITAL Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 3 in C major, Op. 2/3 Schumann: Kinderszenen, Op. 15 Debussy: Images – Volume 1 Gershwin–Wild: Six Etudes

József Balog graduated from the class of Jenő Jandó, was awarded an Annie Fischer Scholarship in 2005, and in the same year won the Liszt International Recording Grand Prix. These are just a few of the key moments from the career of this artist, who is equally at home in both classical and contemporary music.

“While I am unable to resolve something technically, I remain unable to understand it musically”, Balog is quoted as saying in an interview five years ago, referring to that ancient understanding of the symbiosis between the art of execution and the mastery of your skill (even the ancient Greeks used the same word to describe the two). After all, in an ideal situation the heart, the mind and one’s hands are working together in harmony. The programme of this pianist in his mid-30s is proof of this holistic approach.

In September 1972 John Coltrane’s former drummer Elvin Jones, who was even then considered a living legend, played at the Lighthouse Club in California with his band. The concert featured on two recordings released

by Blue Note. Even at the time the material was looked on by many as being of historical significance in jazz terms, and served as inspiration for generations of jazz musicians.

Saxophonist Dave Liebman, one of the defining figures in the post-Coltrane era, and bassist Gene Perla also played in that formation. Decades later these two artists revived the ensemble, now called New Light, along with a couple of young musicians: drummer Adam Nussbaum carries the baton of Elvin Jones, so to speak, while saxophonist Adam Niewood is fully cognisant not only of the past and present of jazz history but maybe its future as well.

The double saxophone, bass and drum line-up embodies the Live at the Lighthouse album; at this concert it is not only the tone but also several of the melodies that will take the audience back to the golden era of the 1970s.

Tickets: HUF 1 200, 1 700, 2 800, 3 900 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

Tickets: HUF 1 900, 2 500 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

József Balog (piano)

JÓZSEF BALOG

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Dave Liebman (saxophone) Adam Niewood (saxophone) Gene Perla (bass) Adam Nussbaum (drums)

WOMEN IN THE CLASSICAL WORLD “The history of music, as it is generally told, is conspicuous by the absence of women. The reason has more to do with the way history is told than a lack of musical activity on women’s part.” In his book Music – A Very Short Introduction the British musicologist Nicholas Cook links the underrepresentation of women to the fact that over the past several centuries women were almost exclusively amateurs; in other words, they did not play profess­ionally, for money, but rather they played solely in ‘social circles’ and very rarely composed.

According to Cook, since women did not compose music, a general perception arose that women were constitutionally – indeed biologically – incapable of music composition, and a vicious circle ensued. Those few women who wrote music mainly did so under a male ‘nom de plume’ as using their own name would only result in automatic rejection of the work for performance, further perpetuating this vicious circle.

“Women themselves are least responsible for their own underrepresentation; rather it results far more from that patriarchal system that kept women not only distant from music composition but for so long from many other careers, too,” argued musicologist Péter Laki, affirming his colleague’s theory.

Laki, visiting associate professor at Bard College, believes that “women could not take up positions with the principal music employers (senior clergy, kings, princes, counts) who commissioned the lion’s share of music production.” Laki states that the Italian Renaissance and early Baroque were unusual periods during which female composers could assert themselves (in certain circumstances), mainly when they themselves were the performers. This is how Francesca Caccini and Barbara Strozzi found niches as composers. “Of course, this was equally valid for men: until the 20th century there were barely any composers who were not at the same time performers of their own pieces,” the professor notes.

Enlightened critical musicology took up the cause of women a good three decades ago. On the one hand, it began to patronize women artists and support the performance of works written by women (today, there are gazettes covering female composers, women’s music publishers, and so on); on the other, it formulated a type of music history writing that has made it possible to include the music activities of women in the general discourse. Nicholas Cook believes that neither approach is free of those problems all researchers of so-called women’s studies face. “Do you attempt to position women’s music within the mainstream, thereby risking its being swamped by a predominantly male tradition, or do you promote it as a separate tradition – ‘women’s music’ – thereby risking marginalization within a male-dominated culture?”

This is how the British musicologist ponders this unresolved dilemma.

Tamás Vajna

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CONCERT CHRONOLOGY OCTOBER Concerts organized by Liszt Academy Concert Centre Hosted concert Classical Jazz Opera World / Folk Junior

SATURDAY 1 OCTOBER 2016, 15.30 GRAND HALL

ZUGLÓ PHILHARMONICS BUDAPEST Brahms: Funeral Song, Op. 13 Haydn: Cello Concerto No. 1 in C major, Hob.VIIb:1 Brahms: A German Requiem, Op. 45 Máté Tomasz (cello); Gabriella Fodor (soprano); Zoltán Bátki Fazekas (bariton); Zugló Philharmonics Budapest – King Stephen Symphony Orchestra and Oratorio Choir; Conductor: Alexander Mayer Tickets: HUF 2 100, 2 300, 2 700 Organizer: Zugló Philharmonics Budapest

Tickets: HUF 2 200, 3 100, 3 900, 4 800, 5 900 Organizer: Concerto Budapest SUNDAY 2 OCTOBER 2016, 11.00 SOLTI HALL

LISZT KIDZ ACADEMY MUSIC-MAKING FISH FOR 10–15-YEAR-OLDS Page 26 SUNDAY 2 OCTOBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

COMPLETE WORKS LIVE COMPLETE BACH CONCERTOS FOR TWO OR MORE PIANOS

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FRIDAY 7 OCTOBER, 19.00 GRAND HALL

MÁV SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA László Vidovszky: Romantic readings No. 2 Bruch: Violin Concerto in G minor, Op. 26 Dohnányi: Symphony No. 2 in E major, Op. 40

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TUESDAY 4 OCTOBER 2016, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

Tickets: HUF 3 500, 4 000, 4 500 Organizer: MÁV Symphony Orchestra

VOICE, SO CLOSE GYÖNGYI LUKÁCS & GÁBOR FARKAS TCHAIKOVSKY & RACHMANINOFF Page 28 WEDNESDAY 5 OCTOBER 2016, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

ACOUSTIC, AUTHENTIC KAROLINA CICHA & BART PALYGA NINE LANGUAGES Page 28

COREY CEROVSEK

CHAMBER MUSIC, SO CLOSE ERNŐ KÁLLAI & ZOLTÁN FEJÉRVÁRI

SATURDAY 8 OCTOBER 2016, 11.00 ROOM XXIII

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SATURDAY 1 OCTOBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

LISZT KIDZ ACADEMY JAZZ PLAYGROUND FOR 6–15-YEAR-OLDS

CONCERTO BUDAPEST

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Liszt: Hungarian Fantasy Liszt: Totentanz Liszt: Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major Bartók: Concerto, BB 123

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GÉZA ANDA FESTIVAL RONALDO ROLIM PIANO RECITAL

Corey Cerovsek (violin) MÁV Symphony Orchestra Conductor: Zsolt Hamar

SATURDAY 1 OCTOBER 2016, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

János Balázs, Mihály Berecz, János Palojtay (piano); Concerto Budapest Conductor: András Keller

FRIDAY 7 OCTOBER 2016, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

SATURDAY 8 OCTOBER 2016, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

GÉZA ANDA FESTIVAL PIETRO DE MARIA PIANO RECITAL Page 32

RONALDO ROLIM

SUNDAY 9 OCTOBER 2016, 11.00 SOLTI HALL

FRIDAY 14 OCTOBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

GÉZA ANDA FESTIVAL ALEXANDER SHAIKIN PIANO RECITAL

MVM CONCERTS–THE PIANO DAVID FRAY PIANO RECITAL

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Brahms: Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann, Op. 9 Schumann: Novellette in F-sharp minor, Op. 21/8 Schoenberg: Three Piano Pieces, Op. 11 Brahms: Seven Fantasies, Op. 116 David Fray (piano)

PIETRO DI MARIA

Tickets: HUF 4 000, 5 000, 6 000, 8 000, 10 000 Organizer: Jakobi Concert

WEDNESDAY 19 OCTOBER 2016, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

RUTSUKO YAMAGISHI Liszt: The Fountains of the Villa d' Este Liszt: Paganini Etude No. 3 in G-sharp minor (‘La Campanella’) Liszt: Dante Sonata Toru Takemitsu: Rain Tree Sketch Rachmaninoff: Variatons on a Theme

by Corelli, Op. 42 Rachmaninoff: Etude in D major, Op. 39/9 Rachmaninoff: Moment musical in B-flat minor, Op. 16/1 Rachmaninoff: Moment musical in E minor, Op. 16/4 Rutsuko Yamagishi (piano)

SUNDAY 9 OCTOBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

Tickets: HUF 1 900 Organizer: Dreamkid

GÉZA ANDA FESTIVAL DE MARIA, ROLIM, SHAIKIN, VÁRJON & CONCERTO BUDAPEST GALA CONCERT

THURSDAY 20 OCTOBER 2016, 19.00 GRAND HALL

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MÁV SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

WEDNESDAY 12 OCTOBER 2016, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

KONZI CONCERTS/1

Tickets: HUF 3 500, 4 000, 4 500 Organizer: MÁV Symphony Orchestra DAVID FRAY

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THURSDAY 13 OCTOBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

SUNDAY 16 OCTOBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

CAFe BUDAPEST CONTEMPORARY ARTS FESTIVAL KRISTÓF BARÁTI & JEAN-EFFLAM BAVOUZET WORKS BY BARTÓK AND KURTÁG

CAFe BUDAPEST CONTEMPORARY ARTS FESTIVAL REICH 80

Kristóf Baráti (violin) Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (piano)

MONDAY 17 OCTOBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

Tickets: HUF 1 500, 2 500, 3 500, 4 900 Organizer: CAFe Budapest Contemporary Arts Festival

CAFe BUDAPEST CONTEMPORARY ARTS FESTIVAL OUR GUEST IS KRZYSZTOF PENDERECKI • 3.2 CONCERTO BUDAPEST

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FRIDAY 21 OCTOBER 2016, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

SATURDAY 22 OCTOBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

VOICE, SO CLOSE MICHAEL CHANCE & MAGGIE COLE DOWLAND, BYRD, SCHUBERT

MASTERS OF THE ORCHESTRA ÁDÁM MEDVECZKY & LISZT ACADEMY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

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Page 44 SATURDAY 22 OCTOBER 2016, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

OPERA A DOCTORANDIS ELECTA/2

Page 44

SUNDAY 23 OCTOBER, 2016, 15.30 GRAND HALL

BUDAPEST FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA

MAGGIE COLE

FRIDAY 21 OCTOBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

WE ARE FREE DANUBIA ORCHESTRA ÓBUDA THEME AND VARIATIONS Webern: Variations, Op. 30 Rota: La Strada–Suite Elgar: Enigma Variations, Op. 36 Danubia Orchestra Óbuda Conductor: Marcello Rota

Albinoni: Sonata in G major, Op. 2/1 Galuppi: Concerto Grosso No. 4 in C minor Platti: Concerto Grosso in D major after Arcangelo Corelli Vivaldi: Violin Concerto in E minor, RV 278 Vivaldi: Concerto for Two Cellos in G minor, RV 531 Vivaldi: Concerto for Strings in A major, RV 158 Scarlatti: ‘Ombre tacite e sole’ – Cantata for Alto Voice Terry Wey (alto); Budapest Festival Orchestra; Artistic director and concertmaster: Midori Seiler Tickets: HUF 2 700, 3 700, 4 600, 6 600, 11 000 Organizer: Budapest Festival Orchestra SUNDAY 23 OCTOBER 2016, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

OPERA A DOCTORANDIS ELECTA/3

Page 44 Tickets: HUF 2 500, 3 200, 3 800, 4 700 Organizer: Danubia Orchestra Óbuda FRIDAY 21 OCTOBER 2016, 20.00 ST THERESA OF AVILA CHURCH

OPERA A DOCTORANDIS ELECTA/1 Page 42

TERRY WEY

SUNDAY 23 OCTOBER 2016, 19.45 GRAND HALL

BUDAPEST FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA Albinoni: Sonata in G major, Op. 2/1 Galuppi: Concerto Grosso No. 4 in C minor Platti: Concerto Grosso in D major after Arcangelo Corelli Vivaldi: Violin Concerto in E minor, RV 278 Vivaldi: Concerto for Two Cellos in G minor, RV 531 Vivaldi: Concerto for Strings in A major, RV 158 Scarlatti: ‘Ombre tacite e sole’ – Cantata for Alto Voice Terry Wey (alto); Budapest Festival Orchestra; Artistic director and concertmaster: Midori Seiler Tickets: HUF 2 700, 3 700, 4 600, 6 600, 11 000 Organizer: Budapest Festival Orchestra MONDAY 24 OCTOBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

MVM CONCERTS – THE PIANO IN 1 JÁNOS BALÁZS CONCERT SERIES VARIATIONS Mozart: 12 Variations, K. 265 Beethoven: Eroica Variations, Op. 35 Schumann: Abegg Variations, Op. 1 Chopin: Variations brillantes, Op. 12 Brahms: Variations on a Theme by Paganini, Op. 35 János Balázs (piano) Tickets: HUF 2 000, 3 000, 4 000, 5 000, 6 000, 8 000 Organizer: Jakobi Concert TUESDAY 25 OCTOBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

ACOUSTIC, AUTHENTIC TÉKA 40 Page 45

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SUNDAY 30 OCTOBER 2016, 11.00 GRAND HALL

UNDERSTANDABLE MUSIC DOHNÁNYI ORCHESTRA BUDAFOK FLUTTERS OF THE HUMAN SOUL – THE FLEEING SOUL Strauss: Don Quixote Viktória Kusz (viola); Dániel Helecz (violin) Dohnányi Orchestra Budafok Narrator and conductor: Gábor Hollerung Tickets: HUF 1 900, 2 300, 2 700 Organizer: Dohnányi Orchestra Budafok TAMÁS PÁLFALVI

WEDNESDAY 26 OCTOBER 2016, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

TALENT OBLIGE TAMÁS PÁLFALVI & JEROEN BERWAERTS TRUMPET RECITAL Page 45

WEDNESDAY 26 OCTOBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

FOUR BY FOUR KELLER QUARTET Page 46

THURSDAY 27 OCTOBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

MOZART EFFECT THE CLEMENCY OF TITUS Page 46

SATURDAY 29 OCTOBER 2016, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

SONGS BY FERENC LISZT & IMRE SZÉCHÉNYI Page 46

GÁBOR HOLLERUNG

MONDAY 31 OCTOBER 2016, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

ZITA SZEMERE & BUDAPEST SAXOPHONE QUARTET Works by Vivaldi, J. S. Bach, Händel, Barber, Mozart, Puccini, Verdi, Rossini, Gounod and Donizetti Zita Szemere (soprano) Dávid Kanyó (flute, piccolo) Budapest Saxophone Quartet Tickets: HUF 2 500, 3 200 Organizer: Convention Budapest

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SATURDAY 1 OC TOBER, 19.00

SUNDAY 2 OC TOBER, 11.00

SUNDAY 2 OC TOBER, 19.30

SOLTI HALL

SOLTI HALL

GRAND HALL

CHAMBER MUSIC, SO CLOSE ERNŐ KÁLLAI & ZOLTÁN FEJÉRVÁRI

LISZT KIDZ ACADEMY MUSIC-MAKING FISH FOR 10–15-YEAR-OLDS

COMPLETE WORKS LIVE COMPLETE BACH CONCERTOS FOR TWO OR MORE PIANOS

Liszt: Au bord d’une source Debussy: Poissons d’or Britten: Fish in Unruffled Lakes Schubert: The Trout, D. 550 Schubert: Piano Quintet (‘Trout’) in A major, D. 667 (excerpt)

Johann Sebastian Bach: Concerto for Two Pianos in C minor, BWV 1060 Concerto for Two Pianos in C major, BWV 1061 Concerto for Two Pianos in C minor, BWV 1062 Concerto for Three Pianos in D minor, BWV 1063 Concerto for Three Pianos in C major, BWV 1064 Concerto for Four Pianos in A minor, BWV 1065

Mozart: Sonata No. 32 for Violin and Piano in B-flat major, K. 454 Mozart: Sonata No. 35 for Violin and Piano in A major, K. 526 Schoenberg: Fantasy, op. 47 Schubert: Fantasy in C major, D. 934 Ernő Kállai (violin) Zoltán Fejérvári (piano) Mozart did not have time to score the piano part of the Sonata for Violin and Piano in B-flat major for its premiere in 1784, so craftily he accompanied violinist Regina Strinasacchi using sheet music that was blank. A sentimental but far from maudlin piece was finally created, similar to the Sonata for Violin and Piano in A major. The accompaniment for the latter sonata is one of the most technically challenging Mozart ever wrote for keyboard. Schoenberg’s Fantasy plays with the familiar structural solutions of Renaissance and early Baroque fantasies, while remaining an enigmatic musical work. The core of Schubert’s Fantasy in C major is fashioned out of variations on the song ‘Sei mir gegrusst’; it reveals lyricism and bravura reminiscent of Paganini. Violinist Ernő Kállai was invited by Itzhak Perlman himself to attend the New York Juilliard School, where he spent four years on a scholarship. The critics characterize Zoltán Fejérvári as a sensitive and honest craftsman of the piano. Besides lifting prizes at the British James Mottram and Spanish Ricardo Viñes International Piano Competitions, he also holds the Liszt Society’s Grand Prix du Disque.

Tickets: HUF 1 900, 2 500 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre 26

Zoltán Megyesi (tenor); Dániel Papp (violin); Enikő Balogh (viola); György Deák (cello); Ivan Stankov (double bass) Piano accompaniment and narrator: Balázs Fülei

Imre Dani, István Lajkó, Diána Szőke, Balázs Szokolay (piano) Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra (artistic director: János Rolla)

Nobody knows how music arose, but many believe that at some point in the distant past humanity discovered the beauty of nature’s voice and tried to copy it with instruments that were to hand.

Whatever the truth, nature has always played an important role in so-called ‘classical’ music, as has the question of how we can evoke the world around us with the help of music. The relationship between music and nature is examined in the autumn semester of the Liszt Academy’s series for young people, the Liszt Kidz Academy. Right away we venture into a very different environment, going underwater among the fish. The fact is that although the singing of fish is barely sufficient to inspire anyone to music, a remarkable number of composers have written ‘watery’ or even ‘fishy’ music.

As to which these are, and why they are what they are, pianist Balázs Fülei, head of the Chamber Music Department at the Liszt Academy, will reveal all, assisted not only by accomplished fellow musicians but Liszt, Debussy and Schubert, too.

This production promises to be a celebration of harmony in at least two senses: on the one hand, Johann Sebastian Bach was the finest-ever exponent of musical counterpoint; on the other hand, these multi-piano compositions demand an astounding degree of harmonization and concent­ ration from the artists. But we are in luck: the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra, who have accumulated success on top of success in a good half-century of music making, are as much a guarantee of harmony as Liszt Prize winner Balázs Szokolay, teacher in the Piano Depart­ ment of the Liszt Academy and an internationally acknowledged inter­ preter of the works of Bach. His wife, Diána Szőke, won first prize at the 4th International Bartók Piano Competition in 2010. There is rising talent on stage, too: István Lajkó was winner of the 2010 Junior Prima Prize, while last spring Imre Dani triumphed in the 21st Johannes Brahms International Competition.

Tickets: HUF 1 400 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

Tickets: HUF 1 400, 2 100, 3 500, 4 900 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

ANNIE FISCHER – WINNER OF THE 1933 LISZT COMPETITION

TUESDAY 4 OC TOBER, 19.00

WEDNESDAY 5 OC TOBER, 19.00

SOLTI HALL

SOLTI HALL

ACOUSTIC, AUTHENTIC KAROLINA CICHA & BART PAŁYGA NINE LANGUAGES

VOICE, SO CLOSE GYÖNGYI LUKÁCS & GÁBOR FARKAS TCHAIKOVSKY AND RACHMANINOFF

For this concert a truly great Hungarian opera diva takes to the stage of the Liszt Academy to show her remarkable singing culture, artistic intelligence and modesty. Though it is unnecessary to detail the glittering international career of opera singer Gyöngyi Lukács, it is suffice to say that she has been applauded in all the top opera houses of the world for reviving the most demanding of soprano roles through her voice and spirit. For this most exciting recital Lukács bewitches the audience with the art of Piotr Tchaikovsky and Sergei Rachmaninoff, making the song poetry of the two Russian masters, inexhaustibly rich in emotions and managing the female voice so beautifully, our shared experience. Essential piano accompaniment for this evening of song comes from no less an artist than Liszt and Junior Prima Prize winner Gábor Farkas. The 35-year-old musician is one of the most gifted pianists of his generation. His poetic quality, sensitivity and astonishing technique are certain to contribute to the success of this important recital of Russian works.

Karolina Cicha is a Polish singer-songwriter, one-person orchestra and holder of dozens of major Polish and German prizes for singing and composition. She is fluent in several instruments (sometimes even playing two at the same time) and she sings in several languages.

Besides this she has a PhD in humanities; however, she should not by any means be considered only a theorist. She taught herself to play music and first won attention when she put verses written by classical Polish poets of the 20th century to music in her very own special way (basically giving them a rock character).

Karolina Cicha released her first album in 2012 with the support of the third channel of Polish Radio, and the album that forms the basis for her Liszt Academy concert came out in 2013.

The title of the album is Nine Languages and the truth is that Cicha does sing (extremely fluently) in nine languages (there are songs in Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Russian, Lithuanian, Tatar, Romanian, Yiddish and Esperanto).

The folk songs, which have the most varied origins, reveal the multicultural and multi-ethnic roots of the northern regions of Eastern Europe. We could say that the album communicates to the listener, in a highly energised way, Bartók’s message of fellow peoples living alongside each other.

Tickets: HUF 2 500, 3 200 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

Tickets: HUF 1 900, 2 500 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

Songs by Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff Gyöngyi Lukács (soprano) Gábor Farkas (piano)

GYÖNGYI LUKÁCS

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Karolina Cicha (vocals, keyboard instruments, accordion, percussion); Bart Pałyga (electric cello, bass, scat singing, Jew’s harp, percussion)

MUSIC WITHOUT FRONTIERS Podlasie is located in the north-eastern tip of Poland on the borders with Belarus and Lithuania. It is one of the most interesting regions of the country both culturally and ethnically speaking. It is not mere chance that this was where the foundations of Esperanto were hammered out at the beginning of the 20th century, nor that it formed the launch pad for the career of Karolina Cicha, an artist who constantly draws inspiration from the tonal world of different languages and the melody of words.

Karolina Cicha is a genuine curiosity among those artists appearing at the Liszt Academy this autumn. Curiosity in that unlike the artists of the Liszt Academy, who are traditionally classically trained, Cicha holds a humanities doctorate and, in the strictest sense, has never even studied playing an instrument. She herself worked out her vocal technique, drawing on folk and pop music roots alike, added to which as a self-taught artist – and following in the singer-songwriter tradition – she confidently plays a variety of instruments, quite often more than one at a time.

The tag ‘world music’ only loosely fits her songs. Although folk music has had the strongest influence on her, in 2009 she received an award in Poland as one of the best rock music performers of the year, added to which she frequently experiments with electronic genres. Her role models include the equally multi-talented Polish singer Ewa Demarczyk, who gained fame in the Socialist bloc in the 1960s, and just like Cicha frequently appears in stage productions. Most recently Cicha played the roles of Elektra and Iphigenia staged by the Gardzienice Theatre Group, called with disarming simplicity “one of the few essential theatre companies working anywhere in the world today” by American writer Susan Sontag.

Her experiences of Podlasie were set down in 2013 in her concept album Wieloma Językami (‘Nine Languages’). Songs on the recording feature the languages characteristic of the region, namely, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Russian, Lithuanian, Tatar, Romanian and Yiddish, together, as a real speciality, Esperanto. True to her philological background, Cicha has gone to great lengths to ensure perfect pronunciation of the languages; yet of even more importance, she has placed alongside each other, with the greatest of naturalness, the cultures of nations of Eastern Europe, nations that are too frequently irreconcilable neighbours. It is as if the twelve songs on the album proclaim the power of music to override national borders and centuries-old conflicts.

The other artist on the Nine Languages album is Bart Pałyga, who like Karolina Cicha appears on the stage of the Liszt Academy in October as a multi-instrumentalist. In addition to his two main instruments, the cello and his own voice, he is the master of such exotic sounding instruments as the sarangi, the morin khuur, the gadulka, the kemenche and the saz. Their joint concert in the Solti Hall promises to be one of the most exciting recitals in the Liszt Academy’s autumn offering and certainly one of the most offbeat.

György Frauenhoffer

KAROLINA CICHA © TOMASZ KACZOR 29

WOMEN IN THE MIDST OF NERVOUS BREAKDOWNS The degree to which the male imagination has dominated the history of classical music is best seen in the realm of opera. Though from the outset women have been important characters on opera stages, throughout the history of the genre male dramaturgy was often only willing to assign them the roles of hysterics, consigning these women to the depths of madness. Máté Mesterházi reviews 400 years of the tragically fated heroine.

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According to Eva Weisweiler, if there were an opera in which the libretto is written specifically from a female perspective, then it would have to be Schönberg’s monodrama Erwartung (Expectation, from 1909), which is based on the text of Marie Pappenheim. She also draws our attention to the fact that interest in the libretto of Erwartung “somewhat increased when, in the 1950s, the identity of a certain Anna O., patient of Josef Breuer, who was a friend of Freud, came to light: the frequently mentioned ‘heroine’ of psychoanalysis was none other than Bertha Pappenheim, relative of the poet ... The language used in Erwartung presents its heroine as a representative, and at the same time a victim, of high society – a member of a society that trains a woman to be beautiful, affectionate and submissive only, leaving no possibility of working out the loss of her ‘male’ sense of her life.” According to Jürg Stenzl, who also has a great understanding of 20 th century music: “the central moment of Erwartung is Schönberg’s fearless glimpse into the collapse of a coherent world; we experience the collapse of Ego in the depiction of the apocalypse of love.”

Just that this apocalypse – in the years before, during and after the First World War – could also be formulated in an opera written not exclusively to a female librettist’s work and not necessarily with the “collapse of the coherent world” of tonality. The fact is that the (consummated) yearning of Salome (1905) by Wilde/R. Strauss for the lips of the Prophet John led to the collapse, just as did the (satiated) demand for revenge of Electra by Hofmannsthal/Strauss for the murderers of her father Agamemnon (1909). And though The Woman Without a Shadow (1918) by Hofmannsthal/Strauss is based on a symbolic tale, as is Gozzi/ Puccini’s Turandot (1926), the dyer’s wife’s disgust at her marriage and the frigid hatred of all men shown by the Chinese noble lady are personifications of modern female neuroses.

The absence of men could trigger female hysteria in just the same way as could male dominance. Monteverdi gave voice to Ariadne’s complaint (Lamento d’Arianna, 1623) when she was abandoned by Theseus using ‘genere rappresentativo’; the same heroine was comforted by Hofmannsthal /Strauss, in their play evoking ‘opera semiseria’, with ‘commedia dell’arte’ figures, and then more effectively with the love of handsome Bacchus (Ariadne on Naxos, 1912). However, Purcell cast in immortal music in Dido and Aeneas (1689), which is based on the epic by Virgil, the tragedy of the Carthage queen, who commits suicide on the departure of Aeneas: Dido’s bass farewell to life (‘When I am laid in earth’) is perhaps the finest lament in music.

At the end of Haydn’s great, Eszterháza ‘heroic drama’ (dramma eroico) Armida (1784), the sorceress Armida appears in the Frank camp to follow her lover, the knight Rinaldo, who is about to leave her, into the bloody

battle. The sorceress foretells a frightful end to the wavering man, who swears his loyalty and intention to return to his lover. As the troops depart, this unusual, most beautiful Haydn opera points towards the age-old lesson of bitter separation. Lully’s Armide (1686), the most famous setting to music of the heroes of the Tasso epic poem (Jerusalem Delivered), does not reach such a balanced conclusion; it is the most mature piece and at the same time the cornerstone of the cooperation of the composer and his librettist, Philippe Quinault.

And talking of Lully, his contemporary Marc-Antoine Charpentier wrote an opera about another mad woman – or to be slightly kinder, a ‘sorceress’ – called Médée. The fine libretto of Médée (1693) was written

by Thomas Corneille, drawing primarily on the Médée drama by his own older brother, the famous Pierre Corneille. After the rival, Kreus, is poisoned, Médée takes revenge on Jason. She descends on a dragon (!) and announces that the man can weep not only for his love but his children, too. At their final embittered clash, the woman lays all the blame on the man. As punishment, Jason has to watch Médée put Corinthia to the torch. The opera concludes without closing allegories and catharsis, with the rapid and irrevocable destruction of a world unworthy of absolute values.

(Cherubini’s work of the same name, written 100 years later, worked on an identical theme but with the pathos of Gluck and revolutionary opera.)

As far as Gluck is concerned, his most important heroine, the nearly sacrificed Iphigenia, has every reason to be neurotic! The composer wrote a tempest at the beginning of his last and most radical ‘reform’ opera Iphigénie en Tauride (1779), which gradually subsides (Beethoven also recalls this in his Pastoral symphony), although the emotions in the soul of the heroine rage on. Iphigenia talks about her dream in which she has a premonition of her parents’ tragedy (this is the plot of Strauss’s Elektra), which she is informed of later by her brother, Orestes. Electra, however, will soon appear (under a strong Gluck influence) in Mozart’s first ‘adult’ opera, Idomeneo (1781), calling down curses on her rival, Ilia, Princess of Troy, and Idamantes, Prince of Crete, who is the subject of her own hopeless love. Mozart condensed the emblematic tools of female hysteria into the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute (1791).

It would take a long time to list the most important hysterics, all melancholic and exalted opera heroines of the Romantic and modern age (Berlioz’s Dido and, for example, Wagner’s Venus in Tannhäuser are among the ‘great abandoned’). However, Iphigenia’s dream brings to mind Bellini, a maestro who did not even live as long as Mozart, and his first opera of international fame, The Pirate (1827). The principal soprano, Princess Imogene, sees in a dream the approaching death of a man, the noble pirate dear to her. However, when the dream becomes reality and the princess loses her mind, the composer, using a heartbreaking ‘mad scene’, opens the path along which the ‘attractively singing’ heroes of 19th century ‘bel canto’ opera can escape to, perhaps, a better reality.

Máté Mesterházi

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FRIDAY 7 OC TOBER, 19.00

SATURDAY 8 OC TOBER, 11.00

SATURDAY 8 OC TOBER, 19.00

SOLTI HALL

ROOM XXIII

SOLTI HALL

GÉZA ANDA FESTIVAL RONALDO ROLIM PIANO RECITAL

GÉZA ANDA FESTIVAL PIETRO DE MARIA PIANO RECITAL

Chopin: Mazurkas, Op. 50 Chopin: Polonaise in F-sharp minor, Op. 44 Szymanowski: Masques, Op. 34 Bartók: Suite, Op. 14 Liszt: Dante Sonata Ronaldo Rolim (piano) One of the jury members of the Concours Géza Anda, which is held in Zurich every three years, characterized the play of the featured Brazilian artist thus: “Virtuosity, warm piano tone, huge imaginative power and the search for new colours and nuances.” Ronaldo Rolim won the special prize and finished third in the 2015 contest, the achievement being all the greater given that participants must demonstrate an extraordinarily broad repertoire. The career of this musician, born in 1986, is packed with startling numbers: he has taken more than 30 prizes at international competitions; despite his youth, audiences on four continents have heard him play; he has also appeared at New York’s Carnegie Hall, the London Wigmore Hall and in South Korea, among other places. He is one of a select band of artists to be a pianist DLA student at the Yale School of Music; there he is studying under the famous Russian artist-professor Boris Bermann and is writing his dissertation on the music of Szymanowski. For his Budapest appearance, he is twinning pairs of Polish and Hungarian composers, forming a network of connections not only in the sense of a ‘musical bloodline’ (Chopin–Szymanowski, Liszt–Bartók) but also between the artists themselves.

Tickets: HUF 1 900 Organizers: Liszt Academy Concert Centre, Géza Anda Foundation 32

LISZT KIDZ ACADEMY JAZZ PLAYGROUND FOR 6–15-YEAR-OLDS Kristóf Bacsó (saxophone); Márton Fenyvesi (guitar) Narrator and percussion: András Dés There are no swings, slides, climbing frames or sandpits in the Jazz Playground.

So what is there to play with? Of course, there are ideas, emotions and above all else, sounds and rhythms, as explored here by András Dés, Kristóf Bacsó and Márton Fenyvesi. The fact is our presenters recognize that joint improvisation, like all truly serious play, is first and foremost about attention and having an awareness of others. These three fine musicians – together with the kids – examine the subject of improvisation and build the music cooperatively.

András Dés put it like this: “Playing jointly with the children, improvisation, is all about us, the jazz musicians, and the children giving something to each other. They supply the innovation, an openness free of preconceptions, the carefree enjoyment of play, and we provide what we have learned about how this can be transplanted into music – making the melody, harmony and rhythm; how we have learned to pay attention to each other, to enjoy, love and respect the playing of each other.”

Tickets: HUF 1 200 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

Chopin: Mazurka in F minor, Op. 7/3 Chopin: Mazurka in C major, Op. 24/2 Chopin: Mazurka in C-sharp minor, Op. 63/3 Chopin: Ballad in G minor, Op. 23 Chopin: Nocturne in D-flat major, Op. 27/2 Chopin: Scherzo in B-flat minor, Op. 31 Ligeti: Etudes (excerpts) Schubert–Liszt: Soirées de Vienne No. 9 Liszt: Petrarch Sonnet 104 Liszt: Paganini Etude No. 3 in G-sharp minor (‘La Campanella’) Pietro De Maria (piano) Held in Switzerland every three years since 1979, the Concours Géza Anda, which bears the name of the Hungarian considered one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century, is regarded as one of the most prestigious music compe­ titions in the world. At the Géza Anda Festival, Budapest audiences are pre­ sented with an opportunity to enjoy artists who have achieved great results at the Concours Géza Anda. Here we hear the 1994 winner, Pietro De Maria, who notably had received the special prize at the Tchaikovsky Competition, Moscow four years earlier, at the age of 23. Pietro De Maria has worked with such renowned conductors as Daniele Gatti, Eliahu Inbal and Marek Janowski.

His repertoire is extremely broad and varied: he has recorded the entire Wohltemperiertes Klavier series, all Beethoven works written for violoncello and piano, and he is the first Italian artist to play all Chopin’s pieces for piano in a series of concerts (one of the biggest record labels preser­ ved this huge undertaking on an album).

Tickets: HUF 1 900 Organizers: Liszt Academy Concert Centre, Géza Anda Foundation

SUNDAY 9 OC TOBER, 11.00

SUNDAY 9 OC TOBER, 19.30

SOLTI HALL

GRAND HALL GÉZA ANDA FESTIVAL GALA CONCERT DE MARIA, ROLIM, SHAIKIN, VÁRJON AND CONCERTO BUDAPEST J. S. Bach: Concerto for Two Pianos in C major, BWV 1061 Mozart: Concerto for Two Pianos in E-flat major, K. 365 Liszt: Piano Concerto No. 2 in A major Bartók: Piano Concerto No. 3, BB 127

GÉZA ANDA FESTIVAL ALEXANDER SHAIKIN PIANO RECITAL Prokofiev: Ten Pieces from Romeo and Juliet, Op.75 Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition

At this festival parading the cream of the Concours Géza Anda we learn more about the individual schools of piano through the genius of young artists. At this the third performance in the series, following a Brazilian and an Italian musician, a young representative of the legendary Russian school of piano, who gained second place last year, takes to the stage. Born in 1987, Alexander Shaikin studied at the Moscow Conservatory, alma mater of Boris Berezovsky and Alexei Volodin, as a student of Heinrich Neuhaus (who also taught Richter, Gilels and Lupu), graduating from the class of Eliso Virsaladze in 2010. He perfected his skills at the Salzburg Mozarteum between 2013 and 2015, and his career has since been guided by Pavel Gililov. Alexander Shaikin brings to Budapest a programme representative of his diverse repertoire yet one which still forms a coherent whole.

As one critic put it, the Concours Géza Anda “is not looking simply for a virtuoso but something different, something bigger: a profundity paired with instrumental perfection”. Evoking the artistic creed of Géza Anda, participants have to maintain a vast repertoire, with several piano concertos alongside their solo pieces, at the prestigious challenge which has been organized every three years in Switzerland since 1979. For this remarkable occasion, artists that have achieved great results in the competition are present together; it is a rare moment indeed for so many superb pianists to be heard within a single programme.

Dénes Várjon took first place in 1991, the Italian Pietro De Maria won the next competition in 1994, while the Russian Alexander Shaikin and Brazilian Ronaldo Rolim achieved second and third places, respectively, in 2015. To match the occasion, we have the chance to hear these hugely gifted artists play a truly remarkable programme together with an excellent orchestra.

Tickets: HUF 1 900 Organizers: Liszt Academy Concert Centre, Géza Anda Foundation

Tickets: HUF 1 400, 2 100, 3 500, 4 900 Organizers: Liszt Academy Concert Centre, Géza Anda Foundation

Alexander Shaikin (piano)

ALEXANDER SHAIKIN

Pietro De Maria, Ronaldo Rolim, Alexander Shaikin, Dénes Várjon (piano) Concerto Budapest Conductor: András Keller

33

WOMEN IN THE ORCHESTRA How much testosterone does a musician need to play Beethoven well?

Is there any relationship between the Y chromosome and a successful performance of a Mahler symphony?

Clearly these are meaningless questions. Yet the neglect of women in symphony orchestras is not only part of a dark past but remains a topical issue even today thanks to some still strongly male-centric ensembles (one example being the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra).

In the Budapest of the early 20 th century, ‘women’s orchestras’ were ensembles performing in clubs and cafés in which the performers did their best to satisfy the largely male audiences not through, shall we say, their artistic abilities alone. There was general amazement when these ‘café girls’ showed they really could play music. During the 1930s women found a more welcome reception in genuine symphony orchestras. “The total exclusion of women from the orchestra is not in tune with the spirit of our age,” wrote philosopher György Lukács in 1933. He quickly added, “It is logical, therefore, that women also find a place in the ranks of orchestras that require less talent but more feminine characteristics.”

Nearly a decade later, Sir Thomas Beecham approached the matter of female instrumentalists from a different direction, marking them down as more or less distractions. “I do not like, and never will, the association of men and women in orchestras and other instrumental combinations,” declared Beecham.

Referencing a member of his orchestra, he justified his opinion thus: “If a woman is attractive I cannot play with her, and if she is not, I won’t.” Female wind instrumentalists were attacked along the same lines: why should a woman ruin her attractive facial lines with contorted mouth positions?

Even if today social norms have made such openly sexist remarks unfashionable (at least in public), it is still a very rare occurrence to find an orchestra where there are more or less equal numbers of men and women. It seems incredible that, for instance, it was only in 1997 that the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra officially accepted among their ranks the first woman, the Hungarian harpist Anna Lelkes, who had been playing with them for 26 years. The timing was no coincidence because the ensemble was at that very moment preparing for an appearance at New York’s Carnegie Hall and American public opinion was increasingly outraged at their policy of gender discrimination. It appears that the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, which even today employs noticeably few women, still fear that women would smash the solidarity of their male alliance. Several members of the orchestra have said that the unified sound that has become their trademark would come under threat.

However, the picture is far more complex when it comes to resolving why to this day there is still not a balance in the number of men and women in the biggest orchestras, many of which publicly proclaim their anti-discriminatory approach. Tours alone can complicate family life. There are (primarily Scandinavian) orchestras which employ family-friendly rehearsals and touring schedules in attempt to achieve an orchestral life more in harmony with the lives of its members. However, the resulting ‘sacrifices’ can frequently lead to a deterioration in the level of performance of the orchestra, a fact conceded by members of these orchestras. All this raises the far-reaching question as to whether an orchestra can truly remain among the best in the world with a compassionate, people-friendly approach.

Anna Belinszky

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BARTÓK KONZI AT THE LISZT ACADEMY The ensembles of the Béla Bartók Conservatory of Music (Bartók ‘Konzi’) give three concerts at the Liszt Academy in the 2016–17 concert season. Szabolcs Benkő, director of the conservatory, spoke to the Concert Magazine about the close relationship between the two insti­ tutions and about future plans.

The Liszt Academy is a leading institution of higher education but the Bartók Konzi has far more rivals. Does this cause any problems?

Judging from the achievements of our students, at the moment we are the most successful secondary school in the area of music teaching. In the past three years we have taken 40% of podium places at national competitions.

Another critical factor that must not be forgotten is the institution’s broad training palette. At the moment we have three parallel classes for each year; besides the classical principal subjects, we also run jazz and folk music courses, not to mention that we have also taken on the training of instrument makers.

As director of the Konzi, what changes have you introduced and what innovations are you planning in the near future?

The school is extremely active in applying for funds. We have already won several grants supporting the procurement of instruments and we have taken great strides in renovating the building over the years. But of course there is still much to do. In the professional sphere, on the one hand, we are working in partnership with Dr Andrea Vigh on renewing our theoretical teaching; on the other hand, I would like to mention the highly popular New Music Project, in which students stage contemporary music performances.

Chamber music and orchestral work have been particularly successful in recent years, both among our students and at competitions.

How did the idea of the Konzi Concerts come about?

This is a totally new project. Our 175th anniversary concert at the Liszt Academy was a great success and the student concerts are similarly very successful. The president of the academy wanted to extend this to the Konzi, which is why she approached us to invite us to launch a concert series at the Liszt Academy. The first recital will be a chamber music concert with a varied programme, with several soloists and at the end of which will be a chamber music produc­tion. The choice of programme is also intended to highlight the fact that chamber music is extremely important not only at the Liszt Academy but at the Konzi, too. At concerts thereafter it is likely that teachers at the Liszt Academy will also be involved. I am confident that this series will further strengthen professional relations between the Liszt Academy and its training school.

Zsuzsanna Lakatos

SZABOLCS BENKŐ © LISZT ACADEMY / ZOLTÁN TUBA 36

ENTRY IN THE GUEST BOOK OF LISZT ACADEMY PIIA KOMSI (16 FEBRUARY 2016)

WEDNESDAY 12 OC TOBER, 19.00

SUNDAY 16 OC TOBER, 19.30

MONDAY 17 OC TOBER, 19.30

SOLTI HALL

GRAND HALL

GRAND HALL

CAFE BUDAPEST CONTEMPORARY ARTS FESTIVAL REICH 80

CAFE BUDAPEST CONTEMPORARY ARTS FESTIVAL OUR GUEST IS KRZYSZTOF PENDERECKI • 3.2 CONCERTO BUDAPEST

Steve Reich: Mallet Quartet City Life – Hungarian Premiere Quartet Radio Rewrite – Hungarian Premiere

Penderecki: Sinfonietta for Strings Penderecki: Symphony No. 3 – Adagio Penderecki: Trumpet Concerto – Hungarian premiere Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92

Kelemen Quartet: Barnabás Kelemen, Katalin Kokas (violin); Gábor Homoki (viola); László Fenyő (cello) Amadinda Percussion Group UMZE Chamber Ensemble

Gábor Boldoczki (trumpet) Concerto Budapest Conductor: Krzysztof Penderecki

KONZI CONCERTS/1 Hummel: Octet Partita in E-flat major – 1 st Movement Mozart: Oboe Quartet in F major, K. 370 Mozart: Sonata No. 17 in C major, K. 296 Mozart: Piano Quintet in E-flat major, K. 452 – 1 st Movement Lou Harrison: The Song of Quetzalcoatl Barber: Adagio Mozart: Symphony No. 25 in G minor, K. 183 Featuring students of the Béla Bartók Conservatory The Béla Bartók Conservatory of Music – or as it is known colloquially, the Bartók Konzi – is Hungary’s longest-established secondary school of music. Its predecessor, the National Conservatory, was founded in 1840 as the Pest-Buda Hangász Society School of Singing. No less an artist than Ferenc Liszt himself played a leading role in raising the funds needed to establish the school; he also gave two hugely successful concerts, the proceeds of which went to the society. Until the foundation of the Liszt Academy in 1875, the National Conservatory was the leading institute of Hungarian music teaching and a centre of key importance in the music life of the day. Renamed the State Conservatory from 1948, it took on the name of Béla Bartók in 1966 and has functioned as the teacher training school of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music since 1973. Currently nearly 400 students study in the 24 departments of the Bartók Konzi – the very best of these are on stage for the first in the Konzi Concerts series.

Tickets: HUF 1 200 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre 38

Leading artists of Hungarian classical music celebrate the 80th birthday of the person who is without a shadow of doubt the most significant living figure of Minimalism in music. American Steve Reich is an icon of contemporary classical music; his repetitive music has exercised a huge influence on modern music aesthetics. Mallet Quartet (which, by the way, was written for the 25th anniversary of the formation of Amadinda) and Quartet both explore melodic per­cussive possibilities, the former in a leaner, purified ‘filleted’ form, the latter in a more (tonally) varied way, occasionally with direct use of harmonies unusual in the Reich oeuvre. The audience are given yet more birthday treats in the form of two more Reich works, both premieres in Hungary: City Life, integrating urban noise into a music medium, and Radio Rewrite, dating from 2012. A factoid of interest concerning the latter is that it was partly inspired by two songs from famous British rock band Radiohead.

Krzysztof Penderecki is one of the most internationally celebrated composers of our day. An avant-garde composer of epochal significance in the 1960s, the creative mind behind Threnody, written in memory of the victims of Hiroshima, and the grandiose St Luke Passion and Polish Requiem, he has now an extensive oeuvre including eight symphonies, around 20 concertos and a similar number of oratorios. Thanks to a change of style implemented a few decades ago, he has become particularly popular even among that segment declaring itself to be conservative. The artist, who celebrates his 83rd birthday a month after the concert yet who remains indefatigable as both active composer and conductor, reveals traces of Bartók in his work Sinfonietta for Strings, which was completed in 1991.

Symphony No. 3 was written four years later for the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra in a style strongly connected to the Bruckner and Mahler traditions, whereas the Trumpet Concerto is a more recent composition, being premiered by trumpet phenomenon Gábor Boldoczki in October 2015.

Tickets: HUF 1 500, 2 500, 3 200, 3 900 Organizers: CAFe Budapest Contemporary Arts Festival, Liszt Academy Concert Centre

Tickets: HUF 1 500, 2 500, 3 200, 3 900 Organizers: CAFe Budapest Contemporary Arts Festival, Liszt Academy Concert Centre,

REVOLUTIONIST IN A BASEBALL CAP The greatness of Steve Reich is a given. In the 1960s and ‘70s, he found a rigorous solution to a pressing challenge: how to restore, after a long period of experimentation, the primal pleasures of stable harmony and a steady pulse. Reich did this in a way that was unblinkingly modern and not at all nostalgic or neo-Romantic. Reich’s influence is vast, reaching far outside classical music. On some days, as familiar shimmering patterns echo on the sound­tracks of commercials and from the loudspeakers of dance clubs, it seems as though we are living in a world scored by Reich.

In light of the grandeur of his reputation, it is almost disconcerting that the man himself is still so present, writing at full force. You can ride the subway to the lower end of Manhattan, emerge onto a street within sight of the Brooklyn Bridge, walk for a minute or two, press a buzzer marked ‘Reich’, and, if you are fortunate, hear a crisp voice say “Come on up.” He does not look the part of the musical revolutionist, whatever that might be. With his black button-down shirts and signature baseball cap, he fits the image of an independent film director, a cultural studies professor, or some other out-in-the-world intellectual. Once he starts speaking, you feel the peculiar velocity of his mind. He is, notably, as much a listener as a talker, although he talks at blistering speed. He reacts swiftly to slight sounds in his midst – the soft buzz of a cell phone, a siren on the street outside, the whistle of a teakettle. Each sound has some information to give him. The windows have thick double panes: even for a listener as omnivorous as Reich, the city gives out too much information.

Steve Reich was born in New York on 3 October 1936. His parents separated when he was still a baby, and he spent much of his childhood riding trains back and forth to Los Angeles, where his mother, a successful singer and lyricist, had moved. He later said that the clickety-clack of wheels on tracks helped to shape his rhythmic sense. Otherwise, he had a fairly ordinary middle-class upbringing; he absorbed all the humming waves of information that were being given out by America’s culture of post-war prosperity. His formative musical experiences were recordings rather than live performances. In particular, he found himself listening nonstop to Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, and various bebop records featuring the likes of Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, and Kenny Clarke. Inclined at first towards philosophy, he studied the thought of Ludwig Wittgenstein at Cornell. Then he went to Juilliard for music. Seeking an escape from the East Coast establishment, he moved to San Francisco and enrolled in the music school at Mills College, where the Italian avant-gardist Luciano Berio was a visiting professor in 1961 and 1962. Most of Reich’s early works employed Schoenberg’s twelve-tone method, but there was something grudging about his use of the then-canonical compositional system. He began to hear alternatives in the modal improvisations of John Coltrane, who he went to hear some fifty times, and also in archival recordings of polyrhythmic African drumming.

One day in January 1965, he was fooling around with tapes of a Pentecostal preacher when he noticed an interesting effect. Two identical tapes of the preacher’s voice were running in unison, but one machine was playing slightly faster than the other, so that the tapes began to go out of phase.

Listening on stereo headphones, with one ear tuned to the left machine and the other to the right, Reich had a physical reaction; the sound went down one side of his body and up the other. He generated an electronic 39

composition from this happy accident, entitled It’s Gonna Rain. Reich now had a stroke of genius: he translated the going-out-of-phase effect into instrumental music. Piano Phase, for two pianos, uses a repeating pattern made up of the first six notes of the major scale. As the pianists move in and out of sync, a surprisingly eventful and colourful narrative unfolds, replete with modulations, transitions, and climaxes. In this and other pioneering process-driven works, a distinctive personality emerges – lean in form, detached in mood, logical in movement, yet marked by some indefinable mixture of beauty and sadness. The music has a soul of its own, which may fascinate and mystify the composer as much as it does the rest of us.

What came to be called minimalism was unleashed in full force in Four Organs, first conceived in August 1969, the month of the Manson murders and the killing of a spectator at a Rolling Stones show in Altamont, California. Explosions of violence had been filling the news: the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr, the massacre at My Lai in Vietnam, riots on university campuses and in inner cities. Four Organs is, in its own way, an apocalyptic, end-of-the-world piece; heard at full volume, its electric-organ sound becomes an all-out assault. In the 1976 masterwork Music for 18 Musicians, pulsating rhythm is balanced by a comparably sophisticated drama of harmony. The piece is almost symphonic in its narrative arc, proceeding from light to dark and back to light again. Reich wrote several more examples of what might be called ‘grand minimalism’, letting his discoveries resonate within a large frame. In Drumming, he applied lessons that he had learned from studying West African drumming at the University of Ghana. The Desert Music and Tehillim are spacious, dramatic settings of William Carlos Williams and the Hebrew Psalms, respectively. Then a new project seized Reich’s attention: he worked to erase the boundary between speech and music by teasing melodies out of the rise and fall of recorded voices. Perhaps the most haunting Reich work to date is Different Trains, which was given its premiere in 1988 by the Kronos Quartet. This was the first piece in which the composer used recorded speech to create melodic lines. It stemmed from the memory of those long railroad journeys of childhood, and also from the adult reflection that if Reich had been a child in Europe in the 1940s his fate might have been different: “As a Jew, I would have had to ride on very different trains.” The electronic component mingles voices of AfricanAmerican Pullman porters with those of Holocaust survivors and the neutral noise of train whistles. As the string instruments sing along to these memory-shrouded sounds, they don’t tell us what to feel; they set forth a glistening grid, on which we can plot our own emotions. The result is a music of precision and tears.

Alex Ross

STEVE REICH © LISZT ACADEMY / GÁBOR FEJÉR 40

FRIDAY 21 OC TOBER, 19.00

FRIDAY 21 OC TOBER, 20.00

SOLTI HALL

ST THERESA OF AVILA CHURCH

VOICE, SO CLOSE MICHAEL CHANCE & MAGGIE COLE DOWLAND, BYRD, SCHUBERT Works by Dowland, Byrd and Schubert Michael Chance (countertenor) Maggie Cole (harpsichord, piano)

MICHAEL CHANCE © HANYA CHLALA

These days we are lucky to have an abundance of incredible countertenors, but Michael Chance is totally unique in the English Baroque vocal repertoire.

He has been an active player on the international music scene for nearly 40 years and is associated with several legendary recordings. As one of the regular soloists of John Eliot Gardiner’s productions he has participated in, for instance, the Bach cantatas, passions and Mass in B minor, as well as operas

by Monteverdi and Händel. Besides these, he has worked with other greats such as Trevor Pinnock, Franz Brüggen, Ton Koopman and Nicholas McGegan.

It is a rare occasion when we can experience in such an intimate and personal setting the art of Renaissance lutenist and composer John Dowland (who died 390 years ago), which combines poetry and music into a single entity, as well as the songs of Romantic composer Franz Schubert, who started out in a different direction but arrived at the same place. Partner of this world-class countertenor is Maggie Cole, who has long performed in concert on the harpsichord, piano forte and piano, and regularly works with such famed musicians as soprano Nancy Argenta, violinist Catherine Mackintosh and violoncellist Steven Isserlis.

Tickets: HUF 1 900, 2 500 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

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OPERA A DOCTORANDIS ELECTA/1 Franck: Mass in A major, Op. 12 Featuring students of the Doctoral School of the Liszt Academy Artistic director: Dániel Sárosi The Doctoral School of the Liszt Academy represents the pinnacle of music higher education in Hungary: not only do instrumentalists applying for the school have to prove their outstanding skills as performers, but they have to show an appropriate intellectual aptitude as well. Each year the workshop of Péter Nagy, head of the keyboard programme of the Doctoral School, enriches Budapest concert life with ground-breaking productions – and this year is no different. Under the artistic direction of organ student Dániel Sárosi, there is a performance by students of the Doctoral School of an extremely rarely heard masterpiece: César Franck’s exceptionally sensitive Mass in A major written for three vocal parts (soprano, tenor and alto), completed in 1860 and subsequently reworked on several occasions, played in the St Theresa of Avila Church close to the Liszt Academy. The performance is all the more special for being staged in a sacred setting given that its premiere in 1861 was in the Church of SainteClotilde, Paris.

Free admission Organizer: Liszt Academy Doctoral School

MAN WITH A ‘WOMAN’S VOICE’ Audiences a few decades ago found them unpalatable because their voices were so unusual, perhaps even abnormal, yet today they are ranked among the most popular of singers, and many of them are genuine stars.

Countertenors, who at one time could only find service in cathedral choirs, now receive warm and enthusiastic welcomes on opera stages the world over, entrancing today’s audiences with the peculiar quality of their voices, just as castrati swept opera enthusiasts off their feet in the 17th and 18th centuries. There has been a renaissance in soprano roles originally written for male voices, which can now once again be heard being sung by men.

According to tradition, countertenors (male singers vocalizing using a falsetto technique) played an important role in the music life of English cathedrals from the Renaissance onwards, and this tradition spread from there to the continent. While it is true that men singing in a higher vocal range were important in English ensembles, it would be incorrect to assume that they were not present in the cathedral choirs of other major cities in Europe in earlier centuries. At the same time, however, it is certain that England has played a key role in the rediscovery and popularisation of the countertenor in the 20th century, something that would have been impossible without Alfred Deller (1912–1979), who started his career as a vocalist at Canterbury Cathedral. It is thanks to Deller that increasing numbers of artists performed as countertenor soloists, primarily in church and concert hall programmes from the 1950–60s onwards. That they made appearances on the opera stage only later, in the 1970–80s, is due in part to the fact that Deller himself was by no means suited for acting roles. Later generations of countertenors were not so reluctant about donning costume for stage productions. The Grammy-winning Michael Chance, who is also British, stands out in this respect as regards his acting capabilities, musicality and vocal skills.

A graduate of King’s College, Cambridge, Michael Chance is as devoted to the interpretation of contemporary works as he is to early music, and in this he is no different from his great predecessor Deller, who worked intensively with composer Michael Tippett. The breadth of the countertenor vocal range is illustrated in the concert by Chance in the Liszt Academy in October. The singer, who maintains close relations with Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Ton Koopman and Trevor Pinnock, extends the Baroque repertoire in two directions: aside from Schubert, Renaissance works by William Byrd and John Dowland dominate the programme. Maggie Cole, one of the most versatile performers of early and new keyboard instruments, comes to the Liszt Academy as the partner of the countertenor. She not only plays the harpsichord but can also be heard on the piano in the Schubert songs. Maggie Cole selects her chamber partners (including Steven Isserlis, Kati Debretzeni and Catherine Mackintosh) with just as much care as the works in her repertoire, which stretches from Bach and Haydn to Poulenc and Ligeti. The instrumentalist has similarly achieved a significant reputation for her programmes combining literature and music.

In addition to regularly giving concerts and performing her teaching duties, she is active in social programmes, one example being a joint project with the Sarasa Chamber Ensemble in which they address juvenile offenders through music, poetry and improvisation.

Anna Belinszky

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SATURDAY 22 OC TOBER, 19.30

GRAND HALL

SATURDAY 22 OC TOBER, 19.00 SUNDAY 23 OC TOBER, 19.00

SOLTI HALL MASTERS OF THE ORCHESTRA ÁDÁM MEDVECZKY & LISZT ACADEMY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Beethoven: Egmont Overture, Op. 84 Járdányi: Vörösmarty Symphony Liszt: Faust Symphony Atilla Kiss B. (tenor) Honvéd Male Choir (choir master: Kálmán Strausz) Liszt Academy Symphony Orchestra Conductor: Ádám Medveczky The Liszt Academy Symphony Orchestra is a unique formation: it comprises selected academy students who are replaced every couple of years, the students representing and, in turn, passing on the artistic tradition of this 140-year-old institution. The Kossuth, Liszt and Bartók– Pásztory Prize-winning conductor, Ádám Medveczky (who marks his 75th birthday in 2016) has countless ties to the Liszt Academy, where he once led orchestral practice and played a part in the training of would-be opera singers and conductors. As with the performers, the composers of the works played at this concert serve to burnish the reputation of the Liszt Academy. As well as the founder and eponym Ferenc Liszt, Pál Járdányi is also one of the academy’s prides: between 1946 and 1959 he was a teacher of folk music, losing this position due to his ‘harmful political views’ after participating in the work of the 1956 Liszt Academy revolutionary committee. His Vörösmarty Symphony also dates from this time, while the Faust Symphony that features in the second half of the concert is in all likelihood the base pattern for this programme symphony.

Tickets: HUF 1 200, 1 700, 2 800, 3 900 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre 44

OPERA A DOCTORANDIS ELECTA/2-3 Works by Beethoven, Schumann, Debussy, Scriabin, Bartók, Grandjany and György Kurtág Featuring keyboard students of the Doctoral School of the Liszt Academy Three years ago students of the keyboard programme of the Liszt Academy’s Doctoral School (headed by Péter Nagy) dealt with Schubert’s Winterreise (Winter Journey) song cycle for an entire year, two years ago they analysed Bach’s monumental Wohltemperiertes Klavier during the academic year, and last year they delved deep into Haydn and Mozart sonatas as well as keyboard works. On all three occasions, they subsequently presented the findings of their research in a concert series. This year is no different, at least as far as the concert series goes, only this time (as suggested by the title of this series) it was not their teachers who decided on the topic but everyone had the chance to choose for themselves the works that they would approach from different angles in the course of doctoral seminars. In other words, there is no thematic link between the compositions in the concerts, although this will be more than compensated for by the personal devotion that binds the performers and the works to each other.

Tickets: Free tickets to the concert can be obtained at the ticket office of the Liszt Academy Organizer: Liszt Academy Doctoral School

TUESDAY 25 OC TOBER, 19.30

WEDNESDAY 26 OC TOBER, 19.00

GRAND HALL

SOLTI HALL TALENT OBLIGE TAMÁS PÁLFALVI & JEROEN BERWAERTS TRUMPET RECITAL

ACOUSTIC, AUTHENTIC TÉKA 40 Téka Ensemble: András Soós (violin, contrabass); Máté Kalász (violin); Luca Hegedűs (cimbalom, contrabass); Beatrix Tárnoki (vocals, cobza); György Lányi (contrabass, bagpipes, cobza); Pál Havasréti (bass, cello, hurdy-gurdy, gardon, drums, zither, vocals) Guests: László Porteleki, Zoltán Nagy, Zoltán Porteleki, Balázs Vizeli, Kálmán, Balogh, Gábor Eredics, Gergely Koncz, Róbert Kerényi, Balázs Szokolai Dongó, Sándor Csoóri Jr., Péter Éri, Mihály Sipos, Dániel Hamar, Ilona Budai, Éva Fábián, Katalin Szvorák, the Hungarian HurdyGurdy Orchestra and the Hungarian Bagpipes Orchestra

TÉKA ENSEMBLE © ZSOLT PATAKY

Kagel: Morceau de concours Telemann: Trio Sonata (wind quintet arrangement) Herbert Grassl: Trio – premiere Sofia Gubaidulina: Trio for Three Trumpets Scelsi: Quattro Pezzi su una nota sola – 2 nd Movement László Dubrovay: Witches’ Gallop Harrison Birtwistle: The Silk House Tattoo Weill–Schlosser: Jazz Suite Tamás Pálfalvi, Jeroen Berwaerts (trumpet) Featuring: János Elmauer (trumpet); Attila Sztán (trombone); Gergely Endre Lukács (tuba); János Benyus (horn)

Formed 40 years ago, Téka Ensemble are an esteemed formation in Hungarian folk music culture and the dance house movement. Members of the muchdecorated ensemble collected songs from locally-based musicians and studied all the nuts and bolts of music making so that they could present authentic Carpathian Basin folk music to audiences on four continents. Their latest album, their 27 th , which borrows its title from the name of a men’s dance of the Mezőség region, Ritka Magyar, appeared this year. Naturally, they will not only present material from this recording at the anniversary concert, but there will also be references to key episodes in their marvellous 40 years of music making.

It was apparent from an early age that the extraordinarily talented Tamás Pálfalvi was destined for a career as a trumpet player. He won a scholarship to study at Bard College in 2009, and it is almost impossible to conceive that despite his youth he has already found time to work together with so many major orchestras and conductors (Fabio Luisi, Péter Eötvös, Christoph Eschenbach and Zoltán Kocsis to name but a few).

He gave his diploma concert at the Liszt Academy in May 2016, while his solo album has just recently been released, on which he displays his versatility with a stunningly diverse programme.

His partner for the evening, Jeroen Berwaerts, born in 1975, is just as at home in 20th century and contemporary music as in jazz. He has been first trumpet player with the Northern German Radio Symphony Orchestra in Hamburg since 1999, but he frequently appears as soloist in ensembles directed by Christoph Eschenbach, Christoph von Dohnányi and Thomas Hengelbrock; he is also associated with several premieres.

Tickets: HUF 1 100, 1 500, 2 200, 2 900 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

Tickets: HUF 1 900 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre 45

WEDNESDAY 26 OC TOBER, 19.30

THURSDAY 27 OC TOBER, 19.30

SATURDAY 29 OC TOBER, 19.00

GRAND HALL

GRAND HALL

SOLTI HALL

MOZART EFFECT THE CLEMENCY OF TITUS Mozart: The Clemency of Titus, K. 621

FOUR BY FOUR KELLER QUARTET Barber: Adagio Ligeti: String Quartet No. 1 Schubert: Octet in F major, D. 803

Critics from the New York Times voted them among the best in 2013, The Strad string music journal have spoken in awe of them, and in 2014 Belgian critics awarded the Caecilia Prize to the Keller Quartet’s Ligeti–Barber album. These facts alone give some idea of the standard of the evening ahead. Although Ligeti’s First String Quartet is a single monumental movement, it is in essence an eventful series of moods and formulations, from folk and dance motifs right up to deeply sarcastic elements.

Barber’s Adagio is almost the complete opposite: one of the best-known pieces of 20th century music, it is the purgatory of emotions, the quintessence of elegy and passion. Schubert’s Octet in F major is a grandiose work bordering on the symphonic. The profusion of expressive modes, musical themes and contrasts finally settle, like the Ligeti, to a balance and whole, while the bucolic sincerity is akin to the purity of Barber.

“Una porcheria tedesca” (or “German swinishness”) – this is how Empress Maria Luisa dismissed Mozart’s final opera, which the Estates of Bohemia had commissioned to celebrate the coronation of her husband, His Royal Highness King Leopold II. The Empress’ scorn, which has entered into the annals of musical anecdotes, should not dissuade us from appreciating this the final masterpiece in the opera seria genre, which, in common with numerous other opera seria works, is a dream about the perfect ruler: it speaks of an emperor who even in the storm of passion and amidst a tangle of emotions is still capable of rising above himself in order to exercise one of the most important classical virtues of the sovereign: clemency.

Roman Emperor Titus, who reigned from AD 79 to 81 and who for several centuries was regarded as the ideal of a good ruler, had already featured in the lead role of a whole line of operae serie before Mozart’s time, although nowadays this noble figure, who forgives the act of betrayal, is perhaps better known to us from this opera of 1791.

Here the work is performed under the experienced musical eye of György Vashegyi on period instruments and with top-class singers and the magnificent Purcell Choir. At one time this opera was received by the court audience with little understanding; however, it won greater applause among connoisseurs.

Tickets: HUF 1 400, 2 100, 3 500, 4 900 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

Tickets: HUF 3 700, 5 100, 6 500, 7 900 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

Keller Quartet: András Keller, Zsófia Környei (violin); Zoltán Gál (viola); Judit Szabó (cello) Zsófia Stefán (bassoon) Bálint Tóth (horn) Csaba Klenyán (clarinet) Vilmos Buza (bass)

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Emőke Baráth (soprano) Bernhard Berchtold (tenor) Purcell Choir; Orfeo Orchestra Conductor: György Vashegyi

SONGS BY FERENC LISZT & IMRE SZÉCHÉNYI Works by Ferenc Liszt and Imre Széchényi Lilla Horti (soprano); Botond Ódor (tenor) Emese Virág (piano) Artistic director: Éva Marton (Artist of the Nation, professor emerita) Host: Sándor Kovács Ferenc Liszt’s lyric poetry oeuvre illustrates the life-long openness of the maestro combined with a spirit accepting of other languages and cultures. Of the Liszt songs sung in a total of five languages, probably the most representative at this concert are those with German and French lyrics written to poems by Goethe, Heine and Victor Hugo. Although Hungarian audiences rarely hear these Liszt works, the true discoveries of the programme must be the songs by Count Imre Széchényi (1825–1898). Nephew of István Széchenyi and a young contemporary of Liszt, Széchényi was a diplomat; compositions by this cultured aristocrat were once almost unknown to musicologists. Now, thankfully, we have the opportunity to hear a few of his works composed to German and French poems. These works are sung by two talented young artists with strong ties to the Liszt Academy, the soprano Lilla Horti and the tenor Botond Ódor, with sensitive and inspiring piano accompaniment from Emese Virágh. Host and teacher Sándor Kovács promises the audience plenty of background information and many entertaining moments.

Tickets: Free tickets to the concert can be obtained at the ticket office of the Liszt Academy Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre Sponsor: MMA

PARITY Following its renewal, the Liszt Academy, which consciously embraces the symbiosis of education and concert life, belongs to the premier league of global performance arts universities in the 21st century. I spoke to Csaba Kutnyánszky, head of the Conducting Department and deputy rector for education, and Gyula Fekete, head of the Composition Department and deputy rector for the international relations of the institution, about the duality of modernization and the following of traditions, as well as how to maintain the prestige of the Liszt Academy.

The latest global survey by American Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) reveals that the Liszt Academy is the 30th best performance arts university in the world, coming ahead of such esteemed institutions as the Salzburg Mozarteum, the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Leipzig, and the St Petersburg State Conservatory. Are you satisfied with the result?

CSABA KUTNYÁNSZKY: This result is extremely valuable from the point of view of prestige, particularly if we take into account that it is not only universities in the field of music that appear on the list; and if I read the results correctly then we are in an even higher place among universities of music.

GYULA FEKETE: This is how I feel as well. I think this ranking is a huge achievement not only because did we not lobby for it, but we didn’t even know about the survey. We have just been doing our jobs: teaching and carrying on a tradition of 140 years.

Do foreign students actively seek out this tradition?

Cs. K.: Our family tree, which we refer to with such pride, is no doubt extremely attractive to foreign students. Our professors today are direct ‘descendants’ of Ferenc Liszt, inasmuch as there has been no break in the chain, with our current teachers being formally the students of the students of the founders.

Gy. F.: I believe the nearly 20% of our students that come from abroad don’t just come here because two-thirds of courses at the Liszt Academy are available in English, or that teachers are famous concert performers and star musicians known as active participants in international music life. Other ingredients of the special package we offer include our outstanding professors, the virtually limitless concert opportunities, as well as the chamber music teaching and world-class theoretical training.

It is my experience that there are two types of Liszt Academy student.

There are those who want to learn from the stars, and there are those who are looking for the diverse and complex programmes we offer.

Make no mistake, we, too, have star teachers. And world-famous alumni.

To mention just a few, Bartók, Kodály, Ligeti and Kurtág, who all attended the Budapest composition department.

Some criticize the teaching carried out in today’s modernized Liszt Academy as missing the legendary spirit of the academy, which is characterised by a vibrant student life.

Cs. K.: I too miss my student days... However, our educational method, which requires a measure of trust and which is built on a close student-

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teacher relationship, remains unchanged to this day. In 2016 the classes given by great masters represent a benchmark, just as they have done in the past 140 years.

Is tradition sufficient to retain a position among the world’s elite?

Cs. K.: Previous decades have shown that traditions can be renewed. Just consider the fact that Ferenc Liszt only knew folk music as a café song culture termed ‘Gypsy music’. As a result of the efforts of Kodály, Bartók and musicologists who came after them, we can be proud of having our own independent folk music department; and through a similar path of eman­cipation, jazz has also won a place in its own right with us. Today, the very latest electronic inventions are built into courses, forming an integral part of the teaching structure of the department headed by Gyula.

Can other areas of training be modernized?

Cs. K.: Changes in the area of instrumental performance art are not as revolutionary as in other areas of life. A flute must be played in just about the same way as a century ago, obviously discounting one or two contem­ porary compositions which demand different flute-playing techniques. It is our job to reveal to students the musical universe, from the classics to the most modern. We provide the professional foundations from which students should be capable of playing everything, including new modes of notation.

Gy. F.: Innovation is a trendy buzzword, but frequently chasing after innovations for their own sake can be very risky for us. I am convinced that the reason we are in such a prominent position in the ranking is, as we have already spoken about, the fact that we preserve our traditions.

People are not interested in Liszt Academy concerts around the world because we play the piano or violin in an innovative way, but rather because we play these instruments as they should be played.

Or maybe because the public rewards traditional performance styles.

Isn’t shaping tastes all part of tradition?

Cs. K.: If a top-flight conductor, singer or solo instrumentalist includes a truly avant-garde piece in the programme, then generally even the most conservative audiences react surprisingly well.

Gy. F.: The audience – to switch the conversation towards the Kodály tradition – can be made to be truly open at the earliest possible age, so that they are receptive to the new throughout their lifetime. Music pedagogy methods constantly developed in the Kodály Institute in Kecskemét, together with the various exploratory programmes put on at the Liszt Academy, serve this objective using the latest tools.

Tamás Vajna

GYULA FEKETE & CSABA KUTNYÁNSZKY © LISZT ACADEMY / ISTVÁN FAZEKAS 49

CONCERT CHRONOLOGY NOVEMBER Concerts organized by Liszt Academy Concert Centre Hosted concert Classical Jazz Opera World / Folk Junior Other

Viktoria Postnikova (piano) Concerto Budapest Conductor: Gennady Rozhdestvensky

TUESDAY 1 NOVEMBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

CONCERTO BUDAPEST Liszt: From the Cradle to the Grave Schubert–Liszt: Wanderer Fantasy Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique, Op. 14 Viktoria Postnikova (piano) Concerto Budapest Conductor: Gennady Rozhdestvensky Tickets: HUF 2 200, 3 100, 3 900, 4 800, 5 900 Organizer: Concerto Budapest

LISZT KIDZ ACADEMY JAZZ PLAYGROUND FOR 6–15-YEAR-OLDS

Tickets: HUF 2 200, 3 100, 3 900, 4 800, 5 900 Organizer: Concerto Budapest

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THURSDAY 3 NOVEMBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

ZUGLÓ PHILHARMONICS BUDAPEST

CONCERT OF THE ANIMATO FOUNDATION PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA Borodin: Polovtsian Dances Sibelius: Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47 Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36

GENNADY ROZHDESTVENSKY

SATURDAY 5 NOVEMBER 2016, 11.00 ROOM XXIII

SATURDAY 5 NOVEMBER 2016, 15.30 GRAND HALL

Schumann: Kinderszenen – 7. Träumerei, Op. 15 (transcription for string orchestra) Schumann: Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54 Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 55 (‘Eroica’)

Alexandra Soumm (violin) Animato Foundation Philharmonic Orchestra Conductor: Pierre Bleuse

Mária Kovalszky (piano) Zugló Philharmonics Budapes King Stephen Symphony Orchestra and Oratorio Choir Conductor: Kálmán Záborszky

Tickets: Free tickets to the concert can be obtained at the ticket office of the Liszt Academy.

Organizer: Animato Foundation

Tickets: HUF 2 100, 2 300, 2 700 Organizer: Zugló Philharmonics Budapest

FRIDAY 4 NOVEMBER 2016, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

2ND BUDAPEST INTERNATIONAL GUITAR FESTIVAL ROBERTO AUSSEL SOLO RECITAL Works by Praetorius, Domeniconi, Gasull, Leo Brouwer, Piazzolla and Yupanqui

SATURDAY 5 NOVEMBER 2016, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

2ND BUDAPEST INTERNATIONAL GUITAR FESTIVAL MARGARITA ESCARPA SOLO RECITAL Works by Piazzolla, Aguado, Debussy, De Falla, Rodrigo, Albeniz, Tárrega, Sainz de la Maza, Castelnuovo and Lendle

Roberto Aussel (guitar) Margarita Escarpa (guitar)

WEDNESDAY 2 NOVEMBER 2016, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

CHAMBER MUSIC, SO CLOSE GERGELY ITTZÉS & HIROKO SASAKI Page 54

WEDNESDAY 2 NOVEMBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

CONCERTO BUDAPEST Liszt: From the Cradle to the Grave Schubert–Liszt: Wanderer Fantasy Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique, Op. 14 50

Tickets: HUF 1 900, 2 400, 2 800, 3 900 Organizer: Eötvös Music Foundation FRIDAY 4 NOVEMBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

SÁRIK PÉTER TRIO X BEETHOVEN RECORD RELEASE CONCERT Page 54

Tickets: HUF 1 900, 2 900 Organizer: Eötvös Music Foundation SATURDAY 5 NOVEMBER 2016, 11.00 ROOM XXIII

LISZT KIDZ ACADEMY JAZZ PLAYGROUND FOR 6–15-YEAR-OLDS Page 54

SATURDAY 5 NOVEMBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

THURSDAY 10 NOVEMBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

BLACK AND WHITE COLOURS GÁBOR FARKAS PIANO RECITAL Page 55

MVM CONCERTS – THE PIANO EVGENI KOROLIOV PIANO RECITAL BACH SERIES 1

SUNDAY 6 NOVEMBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

J. S. Bach: Das Wohltemperierte Klavier – Volume 1, BWV 846-869

2ND BUDAPEST INTERNATIONAL GUITAR FESTIVAL THE HISTORY OF TANGO

Evgeni Koroliov (piano)

Works by Piazzolla, Villoldo and Máximo Diego Pujol Giampaolo Bandini (guitar); Cesare Chiacchiaretta (bandoneon) Anima Musicae Chamber Orchestra Conductor: Joan Pages Valls Tickets: HUF 1 900, 2 400, 2 800, 3 900 Organizer: Eötvös Music Foundation MONDAY 7 NOVEMBER 2016, 19.00 GRAND HALL

MÁV SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet – Suite No. 1 and 2 (excerpts) Rachmaninoff: The Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43 Tchaikovsky: Francesca da Rimini – Symphonic Fantasy after Dante, Op. 32 Evgeni Mikhailov (piano) MÁV Symphony Orchestra Conductor: Mark Gorenstein Tickets: HUF 3 500, 4 000, 4 500 Organizer: MÁV Symphony Orchestra THURSDAY 10 NOVEMBER 2016, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

HERE AND NOW JUDIT RAJK & CLASSICUS QUARTET MUSICA CONSOLATIONIS Page 55

Tickets: HUF 4 000, 5 000, 6 000, 8 000, 10 000 Organizer: Jakobi Concert FRIDAY 11 NOVEMBER 2016, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

MARVELLOUS MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE INSTRUMENTS RÓBERT MANDEL’S HISTORY OF INSTRUMENTS SERIES Page 56 FRIDAY 11 NOVEMBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

IN TRIO FOR EQUALITY – JÁNOS BALÁZS, ERNŐ KÁLLAI, GYÖRGY LAKATOS AND THEIR STUDENTS CHARITY CONCERT FOR THE HUNGARIAN INTERCHURCH AID Liszt: Grand Duo Concertant sur la Romance de M. Lafont ‘Le Marin’ Bartók: Rhapsody No. 2, BB 96 Ligeti: Ballad and Dance Weiner: Divertimento, Op. 20/1 Dohnányi: Piano Quintet in C minor, Op. 1 – 1 st Movement Mozart: Sonata in A major, K. 305 – 1st Movement Haydn: Piano Trio in G major, Hob.15 – Finale, Rondo All'Ongarese Schubert: Military March in G major, D. 733 Dvořák: Trio in C major, Op. 74 – 1 st and 2 nd Movement Mendelsshon: String Quartet No. 6 in F minor, Op. 80 – 1 st Movement Vivaldi: Concerto for Three Violins in F major, RV 551 Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No. 15 in A minor (‘Rákóczi March’)

János Balázs (piano); György Lakatos, Ernő Kállai (violin) Kállai Quartet: Ernő Kállai, Géza Szajkó (violin); Kálmán Dráfi (viola); István Balázs (cello) László Onódi, Patrik Gergő Oláh, Gyula Váradi (violin); Sándor Szalacsovis, Bettina Foskolos, Kamilla Tóth (piano) Blanka Bolyki (cello); Zoltán Sztojka (viola) Chamber Orchestra formed of György Lakatos’ students (concertmaster: József Lendvai, Jenő Farkas) Artistic director: György Lakatos Tickets: HUF 1 500,1 800, 2 000, 2 200, 2 500 Organizer: György Lakatos Sponsor: OTP Bank SATURDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2016, 11.00 GRAND HALL

LISZT KIDZ ACADEMY MUSIC-MAKING ANGELS FOR 10–15-YEAR-OLDS Page 56 SUNDAY 13 NOVEMBER 2016, 18:00 SOLTI HALL

BÉLA BARTÓK 135 – LAJOS BÁRDOS 30 Works by Béla Bartók and Lajos Bárdos Children’s Choir of the Károly Koós School (choir master: Mónika Mitók) Girls Choir of the Lajos Kossuth Secondary School Cegléd (choir master: Judit Soltészné Lédeczi); Béla Bartók Women’s Choir Szeged (choir master: Péter Ordasi); Ferenc Erkel Mixed Choir (choir master: Zsófia Cseri) István Dominkó, Egry-Pertis Duo (piano) Host: Klára Márkusné Natter-Nád Tickets: Free tickets to the concert can be obtained at the ticket office of the Liszt Academy.

Organizer: Association of Hungarian Choirs and Orchestras, Lajos Bárdos Society

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MONDAY 14 NOVEMBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

MASTERS OF THE ORCHESTRA JÁNOS KOVÁCS & LISZT ACADEMY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Page 56

Tickets: HUF 3 500, 4 000, 4 500 Organizer: MÁV Symphony Orchestra

TUESDAY 15 NOVEMBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

THURSDAY 17 NOVEMBER 2016, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

MESSIAH Händel: Messiah, HWV 56 Orfeo Orchestra Purcell Choir Conductor: György Vashegyi Tickets: HUF 2 400, 3 900, 4 900, 5 900 Organizer: Philharmonia Hungary WEDNESDAY 16 NOVEMBER 2016, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

ACOUSTIC, AUTHENTIC ROMENGO Page 58

TURNING POINT KAMARA.HU/1 CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL OF THE LISZT ACADEMY Page 58 FRIDAY 18 NOVEMBER 2016, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

TURNING POINT KAMARA.HU/2 CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL OF THE LISZT ACADEMY Page 58 FRIDAY 18 NOVEMBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

SATURDAY 19 NOVEMBER 2016, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

TURNING POINT KAMARA.HU/3 CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL OF THE LISZT ACADEMY Page 64 SATURDAY 19 NOVEMBER 2016, 19.45 GRAND HALL

BUDAPEST FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA Berlioz: The Corsair – Overture Hindemith: Violin Concerto Beethoven: Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 36 István Kádár (violin) Budapest Festival Orchestra Conductor: Gergely Dubóczky Tickets: HUF 2 700, 3 700, 4 600, 6 600, 11 000 Organizer: Budapest Festival Orchestra SUNDAY 20 NOVEMBER 2016, 11.00 SOLTI HALL

VADIM GLUZMAN & FRANZ LISZT CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

ON THE SPOT CHURCH MUSIC DEPARTMENT MUSIC OF ECCLESIASTICAL FESTIVALS FROM GREGORIAN TO THE 21ST CENTURY

TURNING POINT KAMARA.HU/4 CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL OF THE LISZT ACADEMY

Schnittke: Suite in the Old Style Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major, K. 216 Brahms: String Quintet No. 2 in G major, Op. 111

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SATURDAY 19 NOVEMBER 2016, 10.30 AM CUPOLA HALL

SUNDAY 20 NOVEMBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

TURNING POINT KAMARA.HU/THE LITTLE RED VIOLIN (AND THE BIG, BAD CELLO) JOURNEY INTO THE MAGICAL EMPIRE OF FAIRY TALES AND MUSIC

TURNING POINT KAMARA.HU/5 CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL OF THE LISZT ACADEMY

WEDNESDAY 16 NOVEMBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

Vadim Gluzman (violin) Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra Tickets: HUF 2 900, 4 200, 5 500, 6 900 Organizer: Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra THURSDAY 17 NOVEMBER 2016, 19.00 GRAND HALL

MÁV SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Brahms: Variations on a Theme by Haydn, Op. 56 Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58 Brahms–Schoenberg: Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor (orchestral version) 52

Dezső Ránki (piano) MÁV Symphony Orchestra Conductor: Péter Csaba

Page 62 SATURDAY 19 NOVEMBER 2016, 17.00 CAFÉ

TURNING POINT KAMARA.HU/BETWEEN THE FOUR OF US CONVERSATION ON LITERATURE AND MUSIC Page 62

Page 64 MONDAY 21 NOVEMBER 2016, 19.45 GRAND HALL

BUDAPEST FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA Berlioz: The Corsair – Overture Hindemith: Violin Concerto Beethoven: Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 36 István Kádár (violin) Budapest Festival Orchestra Conductor: Gergely Dubóczky

Tickets: HUF 2 700, 3 700, 4 600, 6 600, 11 000 Organizer: Budapest Festival Orchestra TUESDAY 22 NOVEMBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

HUNGARIAN RADIO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA & CHOIR Haydn: Symphony No. 45 in F-sharp minor, Hob. I:45 (‘Farewell’) R. Strauss: Morgen!, Op. 27/4 Haydn: The Desert Island – Overture Gergely Vajda: The Cloak, the Boat, and the Shoes–song on William Butler Yeats’ poem, for Soprano and Orchestra (Premiere) R. Strauss: For Last Songs Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra Conductor: Gergely Vajda Tickets: HUF 2 000, 3 000, 4 000, 5 000 Organizer: Hungarian Radio Music Ensembles WEDNESDAY 23 NOVEMBER 2016, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

TALENT OBLIGE BÁLINT KRUPPA & ZOLTÁN FEJÉRVÁRI CHAMBER MUSIC RECITAL Page 68

WEDNESDAY 23 NOVEMBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

WE ARE FREE DANUBIA ORCHESTRA ÓBUDA ANGEL FROM HEAVEN Beethoven: Egmont Overture, Op. 84 Kodály: Psalmus Hungaricus Shostakovich: Symphony No. 11 in G minor (‘The Year 1905’) Attila Fekete (tenor) National Choir Danubia Orchestra Óbuda Conductor: Máté Hámori Tickets: HUF 2 500, 3 200, 3 800, 4 700 Organizer: Danubia Orchestra Óbuda

THURSDAY 24 NOVEMBER 2016, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

ON THE SPOT BRASS INSTRUMENTS

Tickets: HUF 1 900, 2 300, 2 700 Organizer: Dohnányi Orchestra Budafok

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SUNDAY 27 NOVEMBER 2016, 11.00 SOLTI HALL

FRIDAY 25 NOVEMBER 2016, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

LISZT KIDZ ACADEMY MUSIC-MAKING BIRDS FOR 10–15-YEAR-OLDS

JAZZ IT! JÚLIA KAROSI’S GERSHWIN RECITAL ‘BIDIN’ MY TIME’ Page 72 FRIDAY 25 NOVEMBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

PURE BAROQUE JORDI SAVALL & CONCERTO COPENHAGEN ‘EARTH, WIND & FIRE’ 1674–1764 Page 72 SATURDAY 26 NOVEMBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

MVM CONCERTS – THE PIANO RICHARD GOODE PIANO RECITAL Bach: Partita in C minor, BWV 826 Janáček: In the Mists Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 28 in A major, Op. 101 Debussy: Preludes – Book 2

Page 74 MONDAY 28 NOVEMBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

ENDRE HEGEDŰS PIANO RECITAL J. S. Bach: French Suite No. 6 in E major, BWV 817 Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 27 in E minor, Op. 90 Schubert: Rondo in A major, D. 438 Schubert: Allegro (‘Lebensstürme’) in A minor, D. 947 Rachmaninoff: Suite No. 2 for Two Pianos, Op. 17 Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue (piano solo version) Endre Hegedűs, Katalin Hegedűs (piano) Tickets: HUF 2 500, 3 500, 4 500 Organizer: Studio Liszt TUESDAY 29 NOVEMBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

FOUR BY FOUR LÁSZLÓ FENYŐ & PHILHARMONIA QUARTET BERLIN

Richard Goode (piano)

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Tickets: HUF 4 000, 5 000, 6 000, 8 000, 10 000 Organizer: Jakobi Concert

WEDNESDAY 30 NOVEMBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

SUNDAY 27 NOVEMBER 2016, 11.00 GRAND HALL

UNDERSTANDABLE MUSIC DOHNÁNYI ORCHESTRA BUDAFOK FLUTTERS OF THE HUMAN SOUL – THE KEYS OF SOUL

CHAMBER MUSIC FOR GRAND HALL PÉTER BÁRSONY, PÉTER FRANKL & ILDIKÓ KOMLÓSI Page 74

Bartók: Bluebeard’s Castle, BB 62 Andrea Meláth (mezzo-soprano); Péter Kálmán (bass) Dohnányi Orchestra Budafok Narrator and conductor: Gábor Hollerung 53

WEDNESDAY 2 NOVEMBER, 19.00

FRIDAY 4 NOVEMBER, 19.30

SATURDAY 5 NOVEMBER, 11.00

SOLTI HALL

GRAND HALL

ROOM XXIII

SÁRIK PÉTER TRIO X BEETHOVEN RECORD RELEASE CONCERT CHAMBER MUSIC, SO CLOSE GERGELY ITTZÉS & HIROKO SASAKI Karg–Elert: Sonata in B-flat major, Op. 121 Pijper: Sonata Pierné: Sonata da camera, Op. 48 Debussy: Preludes (excerpts) Debussy: Syrinx, for solo flute Debussy: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (arrangement by Gustave Samazeuilh) Debussy: Sonata in G minor (arrangement

by Gergely Ittzés) Gergely Ittzés (flute) Hiroko Sasaki (piano) Ditta Rohmann (cello) Liszt Prize laureate Gergely Ittzés is not only a superb master of contemporary flute play but a researcher and tutor in the field, and indeed he even composes for the instrument. He is equally at home in the classical repertoire and the world of modern experimental pieces; he holds master classes all over the world, and his art is documented in 15 recordings.

The Japanese Hiroko Sasaki debuted in Europe when she was 16, since when she has become a recognized performer in international concert life both as soloist and chamber musician (she is a frequent guest in Canada, Japan and the United States). Her piano style is fascinating; authoritative critics enthuse over her refined sense of proportion and radiant performance style.

On this occasion, the tight-knit duo present a collection of pieces created at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries.

Tickets: HUF 1 900, 2 500 54

Jazz arrangements of Beethoven works Péter Sárik (piano) Tibor Fonay (bass guitar, bass) Attila Gálfi (drums)

LISZT KIDZ ACADEMY JAZZ PLAYGROUND FOR 6–15-YEAR-OLDS

The Sárik Péter Trio not only create their own compositions but have for many years made a speciality out of playing genre-independent jazz arrangements. This Beethoven programme is a continuation of the popular Jazz on Request series, evoking the time when improvisation was an integral part of classical music. Péter Sárik had this to say about the concert featuring excerpts from Beethoven symphonies and piano sonatas: “It is an honour and a huge challenge to develop the works of a seminal composer such as Beethoven.

Just as in every rethink, so too here I considered it vital to preserve the original message and mood of the compositions. Furthermore, I tried to imagine the Master alive today: how would he have reorchestrated his own works? I reckon that he would have been daring, characterful and innovative in spirit today, too. We also follow this line in arrangements. We openly utilize fashionable rhythms, the new stylistic nuances of modern jazz and pop. Truly great works withstand not only the test of time but, embedded in a contemporary environment, they are reborn and give one the feeling that they have just been written.”

Kristóf Bacsó (saxophone) Márton Fenyvesi (guitar) Narrator and percussion: András Dés

Tickets: HUF 1 400, 2 100, 3 500, 4 900 Organizer: Innovative Artist Management, Liszt Academy Concert Centre

There are no swings, slides, climbing frames or sandpits in the Jazz Playground. So what is there to play with?

Of course, there are ideas, emotions and above all else, sounds and rhythms, as explored here by András Dés, Kristóf Bacsó and Márton Fenyvesi. The fact is our presenters recognize that joint improvisation, like all truly serious play, is first and foremost about attention and having an awareness of others.

These three fine musicians – together with the kids – examine the subject of improvisation and build the music cooperatively. András Dés put it like this: “Playing jointly with the children, improvisation, is all about us, the jazz musicians, and the children giving something to each other. They supply the innovation, an openness free of preconceptions, the carefree enjoyment of play, and we provide what we have learned about how this can be transplanted into music – making the melody, harmony and rhythm; how we have learned to pay attention to each other, to enjoy, love and respect the playing of each other.”

Tickets: HUF 1 200 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

SATURDAY 5 NOVEMBER, 19.30

THURSDAY 10 NOVEMBER, 19.00

GRAND HALL

SOLTI HALL

BLACK AND WHITE COLOURS GÁBOR FARKAS PIANO RECITAL

HERE AND NOW JUDIT RAJK & CLASSICUS QUARTET MUSICA CONSOLATIONIS

Händel: Chaconne in G major Händel–Liszt: Sarabande and Chaconne from Almira Bach–Busoni: Partita No. 2 in D minor – Chaconne Schumann: Papillons, Op. 2 Schumann: Arabesque in C major, Op. 18 Schumann: Carnival, Op. 9 Gábor Farkas (piano)

Liszt–Géza Gémesi: Sancta Caecilia Brahms–Aribert Reimann: Ophelia Lieder, WoO. 22 Dvořák – Péter Tornyai: Biblical Songs, Op. 99 Gubaidulina: Ein Engel Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 7 in F-sharp minor, Op. 108 Shostakovich–Lera Auerbach: Six Songs to Poems by Marina Tsvetaeva, Op. 143

“There are very many excellent pianists in Gábor Farkas’s generation but few about whom I would say that they are poets. He is one!” So said Tamás Vásáry of the Liszt and Junior Prima Prize artist.

Farkas exploded onto the concert scene with his overwhelming Liszt interpretations, he has toured the world and collected shelf-fuls of top awards and prizes.

The leitmotif of the programme is the series, the suite; the genre of ‘chaconne’ should also be understood this way in the Baroque, that is, it does not solely refer to the Spanish national dance.

Accordingly, Händel’s ravishing Chaconne in G major is a series of exciting variations, even if these reinterpre­ta­tions are not as daring as Liszt’s trans­criptions from the opera Almira. Ferruccio Busoni’s popular and lively Bach trans­cription is followed

by Schumann’s short movements (Papillons), which are loosely linked in musical terms.

After a lyrical, near feminine detour (Arabesque in C major ), the Schumann pieces are concluded with a further variation series (Carnival). The suite nature of the latter is far more obvious than Papillons: it tells a complete tale.

Judit Rajk (contralto) Horia Dumitrache (clarinet) Csaba Fervágner (double bass) Classicus Quartet: József Rácz, Réka Baksai (violin); Péter Tornyai (viola); Tamás Zétényi (cello)

Tickets: HUF 1 200, 1 700, 2 800, 3 900 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

Tickets: HUF 1 300, 1 900 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

For her solo recital titled Musica consolationis, Judit Rajk, senior lecturer in the Church Music Department of the Liszt Academy and authority on contemporary music, has compiled a superbly structured programme rich in intercon-nections.

We can enjoy three song cycles: Brahms’s miniatures, Dvořák’s rarely performed Biblical Songs and Shosta-kovich’s late work for voice. These are not only closely associated in terms of mood but also in that all three are in arrangements with string quartet accompaniment. The three cycles are joined by Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 7 written in memory of his first wife. The two parts of the concert start with emblematic works: a late Liszt-song arranged by Géza Gémesi, and Sofia Gubaidulina's composition Ein Engel (An Angel, 1994) for voice and double bass.

JUDIT RAJK © LENKE SZILÁGYI

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FRIDAY 11 NOVEMBER, 19.00

SATURDAY 12 NOVEMBER, 11.00

MONDAY 14 NOVEMBER, 19.30

SOLTI HALL

GRAND HALL

GRAND HALL

MARVELLOUS MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE INSTRUMENTS RÓBERT MANDEL’S HISTORY OF INSTRUMENTS SERIES Works by medieval and Renaissance composers Baptiste Romain (rebek, vielle, crwth, bagpipes) Ensemble Leones (artistic director: Marc Lewon) Ensemble Geneamus (artistic director: Róbert Mandel)

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LISZT KIDZ ACADEMY MUSIC-MAKING ANGELS FOR 10–15-YEAR-OLDS Dufay: Imperatrix Angelorum Schütz: Sei gegrüsset, Maria, SWW 333 Messiaen: Les anges Webern: In Gottes Namen aufstehn, Op. 15/3 Mozart: Grabmusik, K. 42 Messiaen: Vocalise pour l’ange qui annonce la fin du temps J. S. Bach: Sanctus, BWV 237 Mahler: Das himmlische Leben Symphonia Angelorum Conductor and narrator: János Bali

MASTERS OF THE ORCHESTRA JÁNOS KOVÁCS & LISZT ACADEMY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Dohnányi: Festive Overture, Op. 31 Dohnányi: Concert Piece in D major, Op. 12 Bartók: Bluebeard’s Castle, BB 62 Eszter Karasszon (cello); Andrea Meláth (mezzo-soprano); Péter Fried (bass) Liszt Academy Symphony Orchestra Conductor: János Kovács

We come across many more marvels of music in the course of this evening, in the company of interesting, exotic dances and music from all nations. Two ensembles are required to achieve all this. In 2008, the year of their foundation, Ensemble Leones set themselves the task of authentically representing medieval and early Renaissance German-language music and Renaissance dances. Their leader, Marc Lewon, is one of the acknowledged specialists and most accomplished performers of medieval Germanlanguage secular music, and who attends Oxford University as both a performance artist and music historian. Baptiste Romain from Switzerland is similarly well known as a player of instruments dating back several hundred years, including the vielle and early bagpipes; his authentic copies of these instruments allow him to conjure up the dance music of the Renaissance period. Host for this varied, entertaining and informative programme is the series’ artistic director, Róbert Mandel, who recently established his new group, Ensemble Geneamus, to take up the challenges of the age.

Nobody knows how music arose, but many believe that at some point in the distant past humanity discovered the beauty of nature’s voice and tried to copy it with instruments that were to hand. Whatever the truth, nature has always played an important role in so-called ‘classical’ music, as has the question of how we can evoke the world around us with the help of music. The relationship between music and nature is examined in the autumn semester of the Liszt Academy’s series for young people, the Liszt Kidz Academy. For this concert, the second in the series, the lead actors are perhaps the strangest beings in nature, the interceders between heaven and earth, the angels. Many composers have attempted to grasp the singing of angels and more generally their very essence, and as becomes apparent very quickly in this concert compiled by Liszt Prize winner János Bali, which spans more than 500 years of music, angels are far from being the goody-goody figures that Christmas shop windows would have us believe.

Since the autumn of 2014 students of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music have had the opportunity of working under the baton of leading, internationallyacknowledged conductors, thereby sampling what it is really like being involved in professional music. Among the list of ‘orchestra masters’ who have directed the young musicians are the likes of György Vashegyi, Ken-Ichiro Kobayashi and Zoltán Kocsis. Thanks to the huge success of the series, it continues once more this year. For this occasion they are conducted by Kossuth Prize holder and Artist of Merit János Kovács, with Hungarian classics of the first half of the 20 th century on the programme. Ernő Dohnányi’s energetic Festive Overture and lyrical Concert Piece for violoncello and orchestra are followed by the single-movement masterpiece by Béla Bartók, Bluebeard’s Castle. Young cellist Eszter Karasszon is instrumental soloist, while two Liszt Prize laureates, mezzo-soprano Andrea Meláth (head of department at the Liszt Academy) and bass Péter Fried, are enlisted to sing in Bluebeard.

Tickets: HUF 1 900, 2 500 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

Tickets: HUF 1 400 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

Tickets: HUF 1 200, 1 700, 2 800, 3 900 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

IS DUKE BLUEBEARD MALE? There would be nothing easier than to write a feminist critique of Bartók’s opera Bluebeard’s Castle. Accor­ding to the traditional interpretation, Judith has a primitive, back­ward soul. She arrives at the castle of her husband (‘his soul’) and demands that he open the secret chambers of the castle (the seven doors). but she is driven solely by curiosity and not a desire for deeper understanding.

When the fifth door is opened, re­ve­aling a window onto the brightly lit, vast kingdom of Bluebeard, Judith is not consoled. She spends just a few minutes in the sunlight before deman­ding the last two keys, the keys to Bluebeard’s darkest secrets. The woman’s forced entry into the man’s soul results in the death of their love.

Even on a first reading of the story of Bluebeard, suspicions are raised: something is not quite right with the traditional interpretation. Or more precisely, nothing is right. Are there really good doors and bad doors, and should Judith only open the good? But if there are doors opening onto good secrets, those (like the fifth) that Bluebeard happily and proudly opens to Judith, then why does he not do this of his own free will? One could go on listing these contradictions in interpretation, but the dramatic situation serves as the decisive counterargument. It is apparent from the libretto of Béla Balázs that in his drama the castle is the symbol of Bluebeard’s emotional world, or more precisely, his soul. This is the starting point for all interpretations. Yet if this is the case, then Bluebeard and indeed Judith are not persons but metaphors for the forces at work in the soul. Bluebeard and Judith are lines of force clashing in the soul of the dramatic ‘hero’ that we never see on stage, a superior being that stands above these two and is an integral part of both of them. Even if we were to interpret this ‘hero’ as being none other than Bluebeard himself, Judith and Bluebeard appearing on the stage are, in the elevated sense, equal and identical elements of the Bluebeard soul. There again, what if this unnamed hero – the keeper of the castle of the soul – is not Bluebeard but in fact Judith? Perhaps then things could happen differently: Judith could be the keeper of the castle and, in this case, Bluebeard would open the doors. In the year prior to the birth of the work, Balázs described in his diary a dream. He saw himself (the man) as if wandering in a mysterious landscape, entering forests and caves, until he comes to the realization that this secret landscape is actually the soul of his lover (the woman’s).

Every scene and every phrase of Bartók’s music penetrates into the layers of the subconscious, into the depths where emotions have not yet become separated, where they encompass in themselves their own antitheses in a stem cell-like state. The final dramatic turning point of the work is when Judith, in a desperate frenzy, demands the key to the final door. Yet it is not Judith who is delirious here but the ego desirous of knowing the depths of man: to reach the point of realization even at the cost of self-destruction. At the climax of the ‘aria’, in the knowledge of her victory and her loss, Judith falls silent, leaving the orchestra playing on.

The dissonant ‘blood motif’ resounds for six beats like the last judgement.

However, a passionate melody grows increasingly powerful over this proclamation; it is the same motif that earlier was curiosity’s motif.

Nevertheless, here the motif is merged with another, which right from the start of the opera appears as the symbol of the passionate movement of embracing and love.

The end: victory over secrets; the bloody conquest of the darkness of the soul, in which man is destroyed; the triumph of love that is capable of revealing all (because only love is capable of revealing all); the final, never-ending embrace.

Judit Frigyesi 57

WEDNESDAY 16 NOVEMBER, 19.00

THURSDAY 17 NOVEMBER, 19.00

FRIDAY 18 NOVEMBER, 19.00

SOLTI HALL

SOLTI HALL

SOLTI HALL

TURNING POINT KAMARA.HU/2 CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL OF THE LISZT ACADEMY

ACOUSTIC, AUTHENTIC ROMENGO Romengo: Mónika Lakatos (vocals) Mihály "Mazsi" Rostás (vocals, guitar, vocal contrabass); János "Guszti" Lakatos (demijohn, dance, vocal contrabass) Misi Kovács (violin); Csaba Novák (double bass) Given that without exception all the members of the Romengo Ensemble, who play traditional Hungarian OláhGypsy music, learned their music as their mother tongue, the title of the Liszt Academy folk music series – Acoustic, Authentic – perfectly encapsulates what we hear from them on stage. Although the world of Gypsy folk songs forms the core of their repertoire, they are very happy to play their own songs, and these are just as authentic ‘folk music’ pieces as anything else they turn their skills to.

As they put it in one interview: “Some of our songs are based on our own lives and naturally they express our feelings.

But what Gypsies have lived through is also in the background of traditional songs and this can only be passed with total commitment. This has all happened to one or another of us.”

Founded ten years ago, the orchestra have given concerts in more than 20 European countries and won many prizes, which is not surprising since their music making releases so much energy and primeval power that it counts as something truly special – and even within a Liszt Academy that has already witnessed so much.

Tickets: HUF 1 900, 2 500 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre 58

Works by Debussy, Suk, Schulhoff and Schubert

TURNING POINT KAMARA.HU/1 CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL OF THE LISZT ACADEMY Works by Schubert, Dvořák, Janáček, Bartók and Henning Kraggerud

Artistic directors: Izabella Simon and Dénes Várjon Izabella Simon, Dénes Várjon (piano); Viviane Hagner (violin); Steven Isserlis (cello); István Kovács (bass)

Turning Point – this is the subtitle of this year’s kamara.hu chamber festival organized by Izabella Simon and Dénes Várjon, which last year finally found a true home in the Liszt Academy – and we trust a home for ever. Last year, the Firsts and Lasts series was on the programme, which featured many international artists; this year, the festival brings together compositions that proved to be true turning points in the life of the composer, or in the history of music, or in the genre. The first concert spans the distance from Schubert to Bartók and features the two artistic directors together with several other exceptional artists who are old chamber partners of Izabella Simon and Dénes Várjon, as well as being great friends of theirs.

For this their second recital in the kamara.hu festival, artistic directors Izabella Simon and Dénes Várjon have created a programme out of master­ pieces by two well-known and two lesserknown composers in line with the subtitle of the event. After all, the violin sonata

by Debussy, his last major work, proved to be a turning point in the history of 20 th century music: the piece goes far beyond Impressionism and points towards a new type of abstract music.

The violin part is taken by dedicated chamber musician Viviane Hagner of Germany, soloist with some of the greatest conductors, such as Barenboim, Mehta and Abbado. Schubert’s song cycle Winterreise (Winter Journey) is also a late work and a turning point in the genre. It is performed here by István Kovács, who is a worthy spiritual heir to László Polgár, the greatest Hungarian Schubert singer. Steven Isserlis, of world renown and a regular visitor to Hungary, plays the cello part in Suk's and Schulhoff's works. He considers three of his most important teachers to be Ferenc Rados, György Kurtág and Sándor Végh.

Tickets: HUF 3 400, 4 100 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

Tickets: HUF 3 400, 4 100 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

Artistic directors: Izabella Simon and Dénes Várjon Izabella Simon, Dénes Várjon (piano) Sarah Shafer (soprano); Carolin Widmann, Henning Kraggerud (violin) Christoph Richter (cello) Csaba Klenyán (clarinet)

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THE JOY OF FREEDOM “Strings in the earth and air / Make music sweet; / Strings by the river where / The willows meet.” One could imagine a Monteverdi madrigal melody accompanying this verse from the Chamber Music cycle by James Joyce.

The poem’s delicate flute and lute parts evoke in my mind the open-eyed wonder of infants on discovering something new: the world is still full of gods; branches and clouds live; a caress has a taste; sight has a sound: sensation is still whole and free, not broken into fragmentary experiences.

I look on chamber music as a kind of unbounded space – all in a singularity.

Just as the body is incapable of sealing within it emotions, so, too, musical notes always leak from an enclosed space, through gaps in the doors and windows, flowing out onto the street. For many years I passed houses out of which the constant sound of music filtered: pianos and wind instruments of the Óvár music school in Cluj-Napoca, or later on the mystery of snatches of arias wafting from behind the closed windows of the Budapest Opera House. Even today they live in my ear, conjuring up smells, places, tastes.

The memory of the Cluj-Napoca school chamber choir, conducted by a most excellent headmistress, evokes even stronger sensations and emotions.

There I could gratify the turbulent sentiments of adolescence. Joy, love and weltschmerz reverberated and whispered in the heart-piercingly beautiful madrigals. We lived through a brutal dictatorship, frequently we had no electricity, but during choral rehearsals the arches of the old school building glimmering in the candlelight took us back several centuries to an age when it was permitted to sing freely in Hungarian.

Later on, in Budapest, I learned the motto of another fine school in Eötvös College: ‘The spirit serves freely’. I sensed this free service in Cluj-Napoca as well, where earthbound humility and discipline are required for the pure sounding and the heavenly joy of singing, but humility and discipline of a kind totally different from that demanded of us by the harsh military system. In the choir, form was not the purpose but rather a means in the interest of the total enjoyment of a joint creation. Amidst the severe walls where by day we lived in distress and at the mercy of others, we found true freedom in the afternoons because we were surrounded by love, and love directed us. In the end, the awful sounding brass and tinkling cymbal of marches did not dominate, but rather heavenly harmony. (Goethe’s choir of young boys comes to mind: “Hands now entwining, / Joyfully circling round, / Soaring and singing / With sacred feeling’s sound.”) To live something voluntarily and for joy was a rare gift at that time. My life was filled with much, much more music after this: there was the King’s Singers mania, the municipal choir in Szombathely (I sang with them for three years), a bit of Mozart, headphones-Walkman, later cassette music in America (where we discovered the Chanticleer chamber choir and Mexican Baroque church music, which we listened to a thousand times), a ton of Telemann (primarily musique de table; Telemann was also in evidence at our wedding), then back in Hungary the totally amateur, improvised home music for recorder, Irish flute, guitar, tambourine, shaman drum and even synthesizer. But everything I know about the joy and freedom of chamber music I learned in Cluj-Napoca, in the marvellous madrigal choir of Katalin Halmos.

Anna Szabó T.

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LISZTEN!

LISZT ACADEMY CONCERTS WITH STUDENT TICKET Whip out your student card and for just HUF 500 (less than â‚Ź2) you can buy a student ticket for vacant seats in the auditorium or for standing places in the 2nd floor student upper circle of the Grand Hall one hour before the concert.

Only one student ticket available for each student card per performance.

FRIDAY 18 NOVEMBER, 19.30

SATURDAY 19 NOVEMBER, 10.30

SATURDAY 19 NOVEMBER, 17.00

GRAND HALL

CUPOLA HALL

CAFÉ

ON THE SPOT CHURCH MUSIC DEPARTMENT MUSIC OF ECCLESIASTICAL FESTIVALS FROM GREGORIAN TO THE 21ST CENTURY Vocal and instrumental music of several centuries – Gregorian movements, medieval polyphony, Renaissance, Baroque, Romantic and contemporary works – associated with Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday Featuring students and teachers of the Church Music Department This programme from the Church Music Department focuses on the most outstanding and, musically speaking, richest part of the ecclesiastical year. Holy Week, starting with Palm Sunday and culminating in the Easter festivities, was always the most important moment of the year for those engaged in music service for the church. The programme – following the Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday ceremonial order – includes the most important move­ ments of each day. The compilation not only presents the specificities of the festive period but it also serves as a journey into the history of church music, since it includes rich and varied material from the vocal and instru­ mental music (primarily organ music) of several centuries.

Tickets: HUF 1 600 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre 62

TURNING POINT KAMARA.HU/THE LITTLE RED VIOLIN (AND THE BIG, BAD CELLO) JOURNEY INTO THE MAGICAL EMPIRE OF FAIRY TALES AND MUSIC Editor-host Izabella Simon, featuring artists of kamara.hu Following last year’s Babar the elephant, this year the small red violin and big evil cello come out to enchant children (and parents) attending the kamara.hu matinee programme. The compilation, based on the Grimm fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood, is the work of two great artists: the music is by Oscar winner Anne Dudley, while the words spring from the mind of the extraordinarily multifaceted cellist Steven Isserlis, who actually participates in several of the festival concerts. Just like last year, Izabella Simon is the editor and narrator of the programme as well as brainchild behind the magic carpet that transports young and old alike into the wonderful world of fairy tales and music. As an artist fluent in the language of children, Simon guides them through the different events of the matinee. Children can also be active participants in the programme, discovering the magic of music and the fellow arts together with selected musicians of kamara.hu.

Tickets: HUF 900 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

TURNING POINT KAMARA.HU BETWEEN THE FOUR OF US CONVERSATION ON LITERATURE AND MUSIC Hosts: Izabella Simon and Dénes Várjon Guests: Anna Szabó T. and György Dragomán At last year’s kamara.hu literary-music soiree, Izabella Simon and Dénes Várjon moved between works at ease with György Spiró, in the process uncovering the world of ‘firsts and lasts’. The artistic directors of the festival have revived an old tradition in which literary programmes played an important role in the life of the Liszt Academy following the inauguration the Academy building on Liszt Ferenc Square in 1907. During the afternoon programme Between the Four of Us, the pianist couple chat with Anna Szabó T. and György Dragomán, two of the most exciting figures in modern Hungarian literary life, with topics covering ‘turning points’ in music, literature and life. These four sensitive artists conduct a relaxed dialogue at this afternoon event in the Liszt Academy Café.

Tickets: HUF 600 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

ENTRY IN THE GUEST BOOK OF LISZT ACADEMY JULIA LEZHNEVA (9 APRIL 2016)

SATURDAY 19 NOVEMBER, 19.00

SUNDAY 20 NOVEMBER, 11.00

SOLTI HALL

SOLTI HALL

TURNING POINT KAMARA.HU/3 CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL OF THE LISZT ACADEMY Works by Schumann, Brahms and Jörg Widmann Artistic directors: Izabella Simon and Várjon Dénes Izabella Simon, Dénes Várjon (piano) Sarah Shafer (soprano); Henning Kraggerud (violin); Tabea Zimmermann (viola); Steven Isserlis (cello); Jörg Widmann (clarinet)

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TURNING POINT KAMARA.HU/4 CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL OF THE LISZT ACADEMY

SUNDAY 20 NOVEMBER, 19.30 GR AND HALL

Works by Satie, Liszt and Ravel

TURNING POINT KAMARA.HU/5 CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL OF THE LISZT ACADEMY

Artistic directors: Izabella Simon and Dénes Várjon

Works by Beethoven, Schumann, Dvořák, Berio and György Kurtág

Fülöp Ránki, Zoltán Fejérvári (piano); Viviane Hagner (violin); Christoph Richter (cello)

Artistic directors: Izabella Simon and Dénes Várjon

Fairy tales and stories are related in the language of instrumental and vocal chamber music at this the third evening of the kamara.hu festival. The programme includes two Schumann works, Fairy Tales for clarinet, viola and piano, plus the song cycle on the fate of women; the Piano Quartet in C minor by Brahms, which was a secret love note to Clara Schumann; and contemporary German composer Jörg Widmann’s staggeringly beautiful and profound five-movement cycle, which incidentally uses the same three instruments as in the Schumann composition. The clarinet parts in these two pieces are played by Jörg Widmann himself. Widmann is among the most in-demand artists of our day, not only as a composer but also as a clarinettist. The viola part is taken

by Tabea Zimmermann, who studied under Sándor Végh in Salzburg and is currently professor at the Hans Eissler School of Music in Berlin. Other performing artists need no intro­ duction since we have already had a chance to meet them in earlier concerts in the festival series.

We enjoy unbounded talent and explore composers pushing boundaries. Despite his youth, Fülöp Ránki is an experienced concert performer. Besides appearing at events with his family, he increasingly frequently takes to the stage ‘in his own right’ as a pianist. Fellow pianist Zoltán Fejérvári is a winner of several major competitions in the UK, Spain and Italy and, like Ránki, has considerable stage experience. He has worked with such greats as Iván Fischer and Zoltán Kocsis.

The German violinist Viviane Hagner has also achieved significant international success. The Washington Post wrote of her: “Her rich and bright tone, crystalclear articulation and precise expressive method leave a deep impression on the listener.” Christoph Richter is one of Europe’s most sought-after concert cellists, on top of which he is a teacher of chamber music, holds master classes and is a regular guest on juries the world over. The exciting menu comprises Satie’s revolutionary piano miniatures, a pair of Liszt’s more rarely performed works, which stretch the musical boundaries of Romanticism, plus Ravel’s rich-toned chamber trio, which prefers applying the lesser-used registers of the three instruments – all turning points in music.

Tickets: HUF 3 400, 4 100 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

Tickets: HUF 2 500, 3 200 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

Sarah Shafer (soprano); Izabella Simon, Dénes Várjon (piano); Viviane Hagner (violin); Tabea Zimmermann (viola); Steven Isserlis, Christoph Richter (cello); Aurél Holló (percussion) The programme for the closing concert of kamara.hu, the chamber music festival realized under the artistic direction of Izabella Simon and Dénes Várjon, arcs from late Beethoven all the way to Kurtág. It includes such rarities as Naturale (1985), composed for viola, percussion and Sicilian folk music by Luciano Berio, and the almost unheard Dvořák song cycle of Schumann-like profundity, Love Songs. On this occasion the star cast of kamara.hu is joined by Aurél Holló from Amadinda Percussion Group; he is also active as a composer and arranger. And although the subtitle of the festival (Turning Point) refers primarily to the works and their place in the history of music, the most important lesson of the closing concert – and perhaps the entire kamara.hu festival – is that those works that can be heard in the performance by this company of superbly gifted musicians can truly be an experience of a lifetime, in other words, a chamber music festival may itself represent a turning point in our own lives.

Tickets: HUF 1 400, 2 100, 3 500, 4 900 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

T UDÁ S LENYŰGÖZŐ VILÁGA

GEOszkóp

A Kilimandzsáró utolsó jege

Will Gadd 5800 méter magasságban mászik meg egy leheletvékony jégfalat: a kép szimbolikus, amellyel a hegymászó Afrika legmagasabb hegyén a gleccser eltűnésére szeretné felhívni a figyelmet. Az elmúlt 100 évben a Kilimandzsáró csúcsát borító jégtömeg mintegy 85 százalékkal csökkent. A szakértők feltételezése szerint a csúcs a közeli jövőben teljesen jégmentessé válik

8 16/02

16/02 9

TUDÁS KALAND INSPIRÁCIÓ A GEO kíváncsi, közérthető és sokszínű.

Ismeretterjesztő magazin azoknak, akik nyitottak a világra...

Keresse az újságárusoknál vagy rendelje meg most! (+36-40) 202-112 helyi tarifával hívható telefonszám (munkanapokon), ugyfelszolgalat@ringieraxelspringer.hu, www.ringieraxelspringer.hu/elofizetesek

Az ismeretterjesztő magazin

“IT’S FAR EASIER WITH FEMALE SOPRANOS” Anna Magdalena Bach, Johann Sebastian Bach’s second wife, has given an exclusive interview to the Liszt Academy Concert Magazine. Topics of conversation included the position of women in the 18th century, the difficulties involved in copying sheet music and the significance of drinking coffee.

Last year there was some astonishing news: According to the hypothesis of an Australian musicologist, it was not your husband, Johann Sebastian, who actually wrote the cello suites, but you. While music historians battle over the matter, could you please tell us the truth?

At home, my husband and I enjoyed cursing the world, and this is what I would like to do now. I would like to state once and for all that I did not write the cello suites; rather they were composed by my late husband, Johann Sebastian Bach. How exactly could I have written them? Has this upstanding Australian gentleman ever brought up 13 children as an 18th-century woman?

Like so much else, when it was necessary, for whatever reason, I would copy these suites down on paper, but writing and copying are two different things.

Your daughters were usually married off to musicians. How much was this their own decision and how much paternal expectations?

That is difficult to say because at the time it was completely natural for the boys to remain in the guild and for the girls to marry somebody who was a member of the guild. We had a constant stream of good-looking (and not so good-looking) young musicians visiting us, taught by my husband. A few of them even stayed with us for board and lodging, so it was only natural that they should occasionally get involved with the girls. I’m not saying that my husband was always very pleased about this, but if he started getting steamed up about such matters, I would quickly shoo him into his study to compose.

On the other hand, he had excellent relations with a good few musician sons-in-law and students. And just so that you don’t think my husband was dismissive of women, I’ll tell you about the story of how the Coffee Cantata was written. I’m sure you’ve never heard it. You have to know that at that time Leipzig was reckoned to be an extremely modern city. The two fairs every year attracted all sorts of people from every corner of Europe, book publishing flourished, and many books were specially published for women: cookery books, travel descriptions, devotional stories, or what is most important for me, books on gardening (I love flowers, you know). When we moved there [in 1723; ed.], there were eight coffeehouses in the city, and just a few years later there were ten. Naturally, only men could go there, but coffee was important to women as well. We didn’t drink the type of coffee then that is around today; it was a far weaker, more tea-like beverage, called Blümchenkaffee [floral coffee; ed.], because it was possible to see the flowers painted on the bottom of the delicate Meissen porcelain coffee cups through the coffee. But I digress. Now where was I?

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Coffee was important to women …

Thank you. So, coffee drinking was of particular significance in those days, there was something seductive, a frisson about it because many considered it a dangerous stimulant. I well remember my father pressing a pamphlet by a French doctor into my hand when I was young in which the physician wrote about the hazards associated with drinking tea and coffee. Of course, many couldn’t care less, and I loved coffee. When my husband took over the direction of Collegium Musicum, he regularly performed secular cantatas, sorts of mini operas. I am aware that these days the so-called Coffee Cantata is known, just that it is not common knowledge what a twist my husband inserted at the end of the work. The libretto was written by the famous librettist Picander, and several besides my husband set it to music, just that he livened up the piece with two extra stanzas. The Picander libretto is about a father who is unable to wean his daughter off coffee drinking and finally manages to persuade her by saying that if she does not give up coffee, she cannot get married. The daughter replies, fine, but she wants to see the husband immediately. This is how the work would have finished, or at least according to the original libretto, when we could all say to ourselves, just look at that, the father forced his own decision on the poor girl, tut, tut, what a terrible thing! The only thing is that with my husband the story continues, with the girl revealing to the audience (once her father has left) that there is a clause in the marriage contract allowing her to drink coffee whenever she wants. The work concludes with the father and daughter making their peace: since mothers and grandmothers also drank coffee, let’s not deny this to the girls.

Wasn’t there ever a possibility of you, as a great soprano, taking part in performances of your husband’s cantatas at services in Leipzig?

No. Due to the children and the fact that at that time women were not permitted to sing in church. In one of his letters St Paul writes: “Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law.” [First letter to the Corinthians, 14:34; ed.]. Luther profoundly agreed with this. Today, perhaps I can reveal that, irrespective of St Paul and Luther, the better musicians suffered enormously from this ban in everyday practice, and there were occasions when women were smuggled into the choir. My husband often related at home a story of when he was young, still living in Arnstadt, when he once took a soprano into the church and for which he was admonished by the city council. I could also tell you about Mattheson – I’m sure you know him [Johann Mattheson, important early 18th century theorist; ed.] – who as choirmaster in Hamburg frequently had women sing instead of boy sopranos, although he positioned them in the loft so that from below it was impossible to see who was singing. You have to put an enormous amount of work into young boys in order that they can sing more complicated figural music well, and there is only a very short period between the time they become sufficiently mature musically speaking and when their voice starts breaking. Believe me, it’s far easier with the female sopranos. Just ask my husband! [Laughs.]

Gergely Fazekas 67

WEDNESDAY 23 NOVEMBER, 19.00

THURSDAY 24 NOVEMBER, 19.00

SOLTI HALL

SOLTI HALL

TALENT OBLIGE BÁLINT KRUPPA VIOLIN RECITAL Stravinsky: Elegy for Solo Violin J. S. Bach: Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004 György Kurtág: Tre Pezzi for Violin and Piano, Op. 14e Beethoven: Sonata No. 9 for Violin and Piano in A major, Op. 47 (‘Kreutzer’) Bálint Kruppa (violin) Zoltán Fejérvári (piano)

BÁLINT KRUPPA © MISI KONDELLA

It is always a great pleasure to see the career of a promising young music talent burgeoning in front of our eyes. Over the past few years violinist Bálint Kruppa has won a whole raft of music prizes. He won the silver medal at the 5th Telemann International Violin Competition in Posnan, and first prize and the grand prix at the Balassagyarmat International Contemporary Music Competition; he was winner in his age group at the International Youth Violin Competition in Zagreb, and in 2013 he swept up three prizes (one with his own string quartet) at the Weiner Leó National Chamber Music Competition. To add to this, last year he was awarded the Junior Prima Prize. And if it is ‘Talent oblige!’, then Bálint Kruppa sets the bar high at his own solo recital. Stravinsky’s – for him unusually – sombre Elegy is followed by Bach’s solo partita, the marvellous closing movement of which was characterized

by Yehudi Menuhin as being quite simply the most perfect piece ever written for the instrument. After the break Krupa demon­ strates his sensitivity to contemporary music with a Kurtág duo (with piano accompaniment by Zoltán Fejérvári), before closing the programme with Beethoven’s marathon, highly emotional Kreutzer Sonata, a piece demanding extraordinary technical skills.

Tickets: HUF 1 900 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

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ON THE SPOT BRASS INSTRUMENTS Works by Vivaldi, Gabrieli, Beethoven, Dukas, Britten, R. Strauss, Vaughan Williams, Hübler, Stevens, Tibor, József Sári, Frigyes Hidas, Britten, Miklós Kocsár and László Dubrovay Featuring students of the Brass Department of the Liszt Academy; Ágnes Szelcsányi, Teréz Szabó (piano) Conductor: Mátyás Antal This concert, which introduces the extremely varied works of 14 composers, provides a chance to glimpse into the past of brass instruments capable of creating the most amazing sounds, as well as learn something of their present – all with marvellous music and musicians. There are curiosities such as Fanfare by Dukas, an arrangement of Beethoven’s Egmont Overture, the four-horn composition of the Dresden court horn player that was inspired by Schumann, in addition to superb pieces by Frigyes Hidas, one of the most-performed 20th century Hungarian composers thanks to his splendid works for brass instruments.

All these can be enjoyed in this performance by young musicians of the Brass Department of the Liszt Academy, which has turned out so many players for world famous orchestras, here under the baton of Mátyás Antal, conductor and flautist, who has been active on the domestic music scene for over quarter of a century.

Tickets: HUF 1 600 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

GYÖRGY KURTÁG & MÁRTA KURTÁG © JUDIT MARJAI 69

DOES JAZZ HURT? Too right, good jazz hurts! It must hurt! Jazz touches us personally: it can often feel as though the songs are about us, stirring in us sensations that are sometimes not beautiful and good. Jazz was the first mass cultural phenomenon; its performers often had to struggle with the burdens of a new kind of fame and the red carpet was not always rolled out in front of the greatest exponents of the genre. Particularly if they were women.

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Thumbing through the CVs of legendary musicians, a common starting point is their dire, hopeless circumstances: virtually all of the greats suffered difficulties in childhood. This is especially true of female Afro-American performers, who from their multiply disadvantaged positions turned revolutionaries. We regard them as divas of epochal significance not just because of their musical achievements but for the roles they played in society.

Dancer and singer Josephine ‘Black Pearl’ Baker wanted nothing more than to cheer up an impoverished society during the Great Depression.

Born in Saint Louis two years after the World’s Fair in 1904, the city was then enjoying a golden age, though black people continued to suffer injustice and oppression. Josephine’s father left his family early on and the talented young girl, fleeing hunger, joined the La Revue Nègre, with which she travelled throughout Europe (including a stop in Budapest) as soloist dancer-singer. This is when she fell in love with Paris; later she took on French citizenship, and de Gaulle was to bestow on her the Légion d’honneur for her heroic stand in the French Resistance. She was the first coloured woman to star in a Hollywood film; she was promised huge fees for her appearances, though in the end she was deprived of a portion of these fees when clients found out that she was demanding, in the spirit of ending racial prejudice, cinema entry rights for black audiences. As is all too common, the juggernaut-size entertainment business effectively steamrollered the lives of divas, many of whom couldn’t find happiness even after divorces. Baker went through four marriages, but she finally found contentment in her 12 adopted children, who she brought up in the spirit of freedom, according to their own culture and in religious pluralism.

Qualities such as understanding and the open spirit were far from the accepted social norms of the day, and her openly-avowed relations with women – for instance, with Frida Kahlo – also contributed to Baker’s ostracization. After her husband, Martin Luther King, died, Coretta Scott asked Baker to head the civil rights movement in recognition of her activities for racial equality, though the artist subsequently refused. Her life was framed by the contradictions of the scorn and the love she received in exchange for her devotion.

Mahalia Jackson’s songs could not avoid the subject of the achievements of Martin Luther King. At the time the famous “I have a dream ...” speech was given, Jackson sang the spiritual I've been buked; five years later she sang at the funeral of the murdered minister. As a participant of the Rosa Parks historical bus boycott and a figure accompanying King on the road to his eventual death, Jackson must have felt inconsolable pain; however, we know that the sacredness of jazz and spirituals absolved her of her burdens, and her deeply inspired songs have become a part of history.

There have been few tougher female singers than Nina Simone. Her life was recently explored in two documentaries (there are other films about her, as well). What Happened, Miss Simone?, which was made with the participation of her daughter and the inclusion of many archive recordings, was nominated for an Oscar in the documentary film

category. In the film we are faced with her shocking life, from her childhood when no one understood her, through her life with an abusive managerhusband, to her refusal to pay tax due to her freedom fighter attitude, and her subsequent exile. Having achieved astounding successes and right at the peak of her career, Simone wrote the protest song Mississippi Goddam in memory of four young girls murdered in a Baptist church in Birmingham, Alabama. This was the moment when she left all the glitter behind to formulate in her songs the goals of the freedom fight and of the women’s rights movement. It is worth listening to and watching as she sings the arrangement Ain’t got no – I got life from the musical Hair. It is simply awe-inspiring.

Alabama also inspired John Coltrane, but his wife, Alice Coltrane, did not play the composition of the same name with him. Alice replaced McCoy Tyner in one of the greatest quartets in jazz history, though she was only to spend 18 months in this new, groundbreaking formation. After two years of marriage and several reconciliations, her husband died, leaving behind three common children and one fostered child, while Coltrane himself moved into the pantheon of the greatest jazz musicians. Alice could not fulfil her promise as one of the best avant-garde pianists of her generation, partly as a result of the death of their child John Jnr. She was also the first to use the harp in jazz. Gato Barbieri heard how this instrument, which still today has an unusual impact in jazz, colours the impulsive music process. Though Alice was not a singer, her career as one of the greatest instrumentalists ended after a short but defining period.

It is as if jazz’s greatest female performers were predestined for a tragic fate. There is Billie Holiday, who could not escape the bonds of heroin; Dinah Washington, who died young as a result of an overdose of dieting pills, crushed by the music industry; Bessie Smith, who after a car crash was refused treatment by hospitals on racial grounds; and just to show that this process continues to this day, we have Nathalie Cole, weighed down by the burden of her father’s greatness: these women – and of course many more – have changed jazz, music, public attitudes, culture, and our relationship to each other.

Zoltán Végső

71

FRIDAY 25 NOVEMBER, 19.00

FRIDAY 25 NOVEMBER, 19.30

SOLTI HALL

GRAND HALL

JAZZ IT! JÚLIA KAROSI’S GERSHWIN RECITAL ‘BIDIN' MY TIME’ Gershwin songs Karosi Júlia Quartet: Júlia Karosi (vocals); Áron Tálas (piano); Ádám Bögöthy (double bass); Bendegúz Varga (drums) RTQ String Quartet: Balázs Bujtor, Erika Kovács (violin); Boglárka Hundt (viola); Béla Gál (cello) Instrumentation: Márton Fenyvesi

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PURE BAROQUE JORDI SAVALL & CONCERTO COPENHAGEN ‘EARTH, WIND & FIRE’ 1674–1764 Works by Locke, Vivaldi, Telemann, Rebel and Rameau Concerto Copenhagen Conductor: Jordi Savall

“It has been a long road to a career as a jazz singer”, said Júlia Karosi on the occasion of the release of her first album. With a degree in aesthetics and philosophy, she later graduated from the Liszt Academy’s jazz singing department. She published her first album, Stroller of the Streets, in 2012, which contained exclusively her own numbers, and the uniquely vocalized material generated extremely positive reviews. At the end of the same year, Whereabouts Records released the work in Japan, in the company of a single with four tracks containing adaptations; however, Karosi’s fame went beyond the Far East and on to many other places around the world.

Her second record, Hidden Roots, which bravely conducts a dialogue between Hungarian folk music and the Bartók tradition, was released by Dot Time Records in New York in 2014. For Karosi, who came to jazz as an outsider (before studying singing she played classical piano), Gershwin represents a kind of bridge between written and purely improvisational music – or put another way, between classical and jazz – and at the same time it is an excellent springboard for experimentation.

As soloist and ‘Columbus’ of the viola da gamba, Jordi Savall discovered and mapped out the instrument’s canon; later as conductor the now 75-year-old maestro presented in his concerts unknown gems of music, together with new facets of known gems dating back several hundred years. On this occasion he conducts one of Scandinavia’s most dynamically developing chamber orchestras, founded exactly 25 years ago and who play on period instruments, works inspired by the elements by British, Italian, French and German Baroque composers.

The opera by Matthew Locke, which debuted in 1674, is based on Shakes­ peare’s The Tempest; the suite per­ formed at this concert contains some of the finest extracts from this work.

Two other popular works, the Vivaldi concerto, which describes with near film-like vividness a storm at sea, and Rebel’s suite rich in astonishing sounds (Rebel served as court musician for the Sun King), are joined by a relatively unknown piece of aquatic music by Telemann. A compilation of storm and earthquake scenes from operas by Jean-Philippe Rameau, closes what promises to be one of the most significant Liszt Academy concerts of the season.

Tickets: HUF 1 900 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

Tickets: HUF 4 800, 6 500, 9 200, 11 900 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

JORDI SAVALL © ZOLTÁN TUBA

JÚLIA KAROSI © JÓNÁS MÁTYÁSSY 73

SUNDAY 27 NOVEMBER, 11.00

TUESDAY 29 NOVEMBER, 19.30

WEDNESDAY 30 NOVEMBER, 19.30

SOLTI HALL

GRAND HALL

GRAND HALL

FOUR BY FOUR LÁSZLÓ FENYŐ & PHILHARMONIA QUARTETT BERLIN LISZT KIDZ ACADEMY MUSIC-MAKING BIRDS FOR 10–15-YEAR-OLDS Daquin: The Cuckoo Rameau: The Hen Liszt: St Francis of Assisi Preaching to the Birds Ravel: Sad Birds Messiaen: Bird Catalogue (excerpts)

László Fenyő (cello) Philharmonia Quartett Berlin

CHAMBER MUSIC FOR GRAND HALL PÉTER BÁRSONY, PÉTER FRANKL & ILDIKÓ KOMLÓSI Schumann: Fairy Tale Pictures, Op. 113 Brahms: Sonata for Viola and Piano in F minor, Op. 120/1 Brahms: Two Songs for Alto, Viola and Piano, Op. 91 Brahms: Sonata for Viola and Piano in E-flat major, Op. 120/2

Nobody knows how music arose, but many believe that at some point in the distant past humanity discovered the beauty of nature’s voice and tried to copy it with instruments that were to hand. Whatever the truth, nature has always played an important role in so-called ‘classical’ music, as has the question of how we can evoke the world around us with the help of music.

The relationship between music and nature is examined in the autumn semester of the Liszt Academy’s series for young people, the Liszt Kidz Academy. At this the third concert in the series, multiple prize-winning pianist József Balog and Liszt Academy music history teacher Gergely Fazekas treat the audience to a glimpse into the musical world of birds – or rather we should say a glimpse into the bird world of classical music, since they do not undertake an analysis of birdsong but rather present how composers from different ages, from the Baroque to the 20th century, represent in their works the finest singers in nature.

“Consistent, pure intonation”; “a dense and yet multifaceted sound”; “a thorough exploration and unfolding of the layers of the composition”. These are just some of the comments of a critic a few years ago. And the truth is that Germany-based cellist László Fenyő really does handle – indeed dominate – the instrument in a most dazzling manner. He first caught the attention of the world in 2004 with his virtuoso and suggestive performance style when coming first at the Internati­ onal Pablo Casals Violoncello Competi­ tion in Kronberg. The Philharmonia Quartet Berlin were formed over 20 years ago from members of one of the world’s best ensembles, the Berlin Philharmonic, and they went on to gain a strong repu­ tation in their own right among chamber formations. The programme could equally have been titled ‘The drama and pathos of passing’. Beethoven’s late iconic string quartet is the shocking expression of the mental agony associated with death, in a similar vein to the contemporary German composer Wolfgang Rihm’s Grave, and which expressively presents alternation between furious action and silent resignation. The grandiose Schubert masterpiece, the String Quintet in C major, was created barely two months before the death of the composer, making it perhaps the most touching musical elegy to life’s end.

Fairy Tale Pictures is a late sonata from Schumann with a somewhat misleading title. At face value, we might well asso­ ciate it with airy charm and a dainty fairy retreat, but the tone is deeper than this, sometimes even dark, because the work recalls the often sinister overtones of the 19th century fairy tale. The sonatas in F minor and E-flat major of Brahms are similarly late works from the composer’s oeuvre and were inspired by a visit to Meiningen in 1891. It was here that the composer fell in love with the veiled tones of the clarinet and when he started composing for the instrument. This is the background to the birth of the two sonatas in 1894; a year later he had reorchestrated them for the similarly warm-toned viola. The Viola Songs work is similarly poetic. It is an ethereal adaptation for piano, viola and mezzosoprano of poems by Friedrich Rückert and Lope de Vega. Liszt Prize-winning violist Péter Bársony is accompanied by 81-year-old pianist legend Péter Frankl and singer Ildikó Komlósi, who has herself entranced audiences on numerous opera stages around the world.

Tickets: HUF 1 400 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

Tickets: HUF 1 400, 2 100, 3 500, 4 900 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

Tickets: HUF 1 400, 2 100, 3 500, 4 900 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

József Balog (piano) Narrator: Gergely Fazekas

74

Beethoven: String Quartet No. 16 in F major, Op. 135 Wolfgang Rihm: Grave Schubert: String Quintet in C major, D. 956

Péter Bársony (viola); Péter Frankl (piano); Ildikó Komlósi (mezzo-soprano)

CONCERT CHRONOLOGY DECEMBER Concerts organized by Liszt Academy Concert Centre Hosted concert Classical Jazz Opera World / Folk Junior Other THURSDAY 1 DECEMBER 2016, 19.00 GRAND HALL

MÁV SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Tickets: HUF 3 500, 4 000, 4 500 Organizer: MÁV Symphony Orchestra FRIDAY 2 DECEMBER 2016, 19.45 GRAND HALL

BUDAPEST FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA Schubert: The Magic Harp, D. 644 – Overture Bartók: Violin Concerto No. 2, BB 117 Bartók: Hungarian Sketches, BB 103 Schubert: Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major, D. 485 Leonidas Kavakos (violin) Budapest Festival Orchestra Conductor: Iván Fischer

SATURDAY 3 DECEMBER 2016, 19.45 GRAND HALL

BUDAPEST FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA Schubert: The Magic Harp, D. 644 – Overture Bartók: Violin Concerto No. 2, BB 117 Bartók: Hungarian Sketches, BB 103 Schubert: Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major, D. 485 Leonidas Kavakos (violin) Budapest Festival Orchestra Conductor: Iván Fischer Tickets: HUF 2 700, 4 800, 6 200, 8 800, 14 300 Organizer: Budapest Festival Orchestra SUNDAY 4 DECEMBER 2016, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

COMPLETE WORKS LIVE KELEMEN QUARTET BARTÓK STRING QUARTETS/2

Tickets: HUF 2 700, 4 800, 6 200, 8 800, 14 300 Organizer: Budapest Festival Orchestra TUESDAY 6 DECEMBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

ADVENT GREETINGS AROUND THE WORLD Works by J. S. Bach, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Saint-Saëns, Reger and Gershwin Greek-Byzantine, old Russian, Spanish, South African, American Gospel, Georgian, Ruthenian, Roma and Hungarian songs

Page 80

Szilvia Vörös (mezzo-soprano) József Balog, Norbert Káel (piano) Saint Ephraim Male Choir Budapest Saxophone Quartet

SUNDAY 4 DECEMBER 2016, 19.45 GRAND HALL

Tickets: HUF 3 900, 4 900, 5 400, 6 500 Organizer: Convention Budapest

BUDAPEST FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA Schubert: The Magic Harp, D. 644 – Overture Bartók: Violin Concerto No. 2, BB 117 Bartók: Hungarian Sketches, BB 103 Schubert: Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major, D. 485

WEDNESDAY 7 DECEMBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

VERONIKA HARCSA & BÁLINT GYÉMÁNT TELL HER RECORD RELEASE CONCERT

Leonidas Kavakos (violin) Budapest Festival Orchestra Conductor: Iván Fischer

Page 84

SATURDAY 3 DECEMBER 2016, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

Tickets: HUF 2 700, 4 800, 6 200, 8 800, 14 300 Organizer: Budapest Festival Orchestra

FRANZ LISZT CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

COMPLETE WORKS LIVE JERUSALEM QUARTET BARTÓK STRING QUARTETS/1

MONDAY 5 DECEMBER 2016, 19.45 GRAND HALL

Tickets: HUF 2 700, 4 800, 6 200, 8 800, 14 300 Organizer: Budapest Festival Orchestra

Page 80

BUDAPEST FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA Schubert: The Magic Harp, D. 644 – Overture Bartók: Violin Concerto No. 2, BB 117 Bartók: Hungarian Sketches, BB 103 Schubert: Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major, D. 485

76

Leonidas Kavakos (violin) Budapest Festival Orchestra Conductor: Iván Fischer

THURSDAY 8 DECEMBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

Haydn: Symphony No. 88 in G major, Hob. I:88 Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 17 in G Major, K. 453 Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58 Péter Frankl (piano) Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra Tickets: HUF 2 900, 4 200, 5 500, 6 900 Organizer: Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra

FRIDAY 9 DECEMBER 2016, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

MARVELLOUS BAROQUE INSTRUMENTS RÓBERT MANDEL’S HISTORY OF INSTRUMENTS SERIES

Dénes Várjon (piano) Concerto Budapest Conductor: András Keller

Page 84

Tickets: HUF 2 200, 3 100, 3 900, 4 800, 5 900 Organizer: Concerto Budapest

FRIDAY 9 DECEMBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

SUNDAY 11 DECEMBER 2016, 11.00 SOLTI HALL

MVM CONCERTS – THE PIANO JÁNOS BALÁZS PIANO RECITAL PROGRAMME OF GYÖRGY CZIFFRA’S 1962 BBC CONCERT

LISZT KIDZ ACADEMY MUSIC-MAKING GAME FOR 10–15-YEAR-OLDS

Bach–Busoni: Prelude and Fugue in D major, BWV 532 Scarlatti: Sonata in C major, K. 159 Scarlatti: Sonata in A major, K. 533 Schumann: Toccata, Op. 7 Chopin: Berceuse, Op. 57 Chopin: Polonaise in A-flat major, Op. 53 (‘Heroic’) Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6 in D-flat major Liszt: Polonaise No. 2 in E major Liszt: Grand Galop Chromatique Liszt: Liebestraum No. 3 (‘Oh Lieb, so lang du lieben kannst’) Vecsey–Cziffra: Valse triste J. Strauss–Cziffra: The Blue Danube Waltz

SUNDAY 11 DECEMBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

János Balázs (piano)

Page 86

CONCERTO BUDAPEST

LISZT KIDZ ACADEMY JAZZ PLAYGROUND FOR 6–15-YEAR-OLDS Page 84 SATURDAY 10 DECEMBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

CONCERTO BUDAPEST Weiner: Concertino for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 15 Dohnányi: Variations on a Nursery Tune, Op. 25 Brahms–Schoenberg: Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor (orchestral version)

Andrea Vigh (harp); István Várdai (cello); Vilmos Szabadi (violin) Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra Conductor: Gergely Vajda Tickets: HUF 2 000, 3 000, 4 000, 5 000, 6 000, 8 000 Organizer: Jakobi Concert THURSDAY 15 DECEMBER 2016, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

Weiner: Concertino for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 15 Dohnányi: Variations on a Nursery Tune, Op. 25 Brahms–Schoenberg: Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor (orchestral version)

TALENT OBLIGE LILLA HORTI, JUDIT ANNA KISS & ANNA MOLNÁR SELECTION OF 19TH AND 20TH CENTURY VOCAL CHAMBER WORKS

Dénes Várjon (piano) Concerto Budapest Conductor: András Keller

Page 86

Tickets: HUF 2 200, 3 100, 3 900, 4 800, 5 900 Organizer: Concerto Budapest

FRIDAY 16 DECEMBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

KODÁLY 134

Page 88

SUNDAY 18 DECEMBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

Tickets: HUF 2 000, 3 000, 4 000, 5 000, 6 000, 8 000 Organizer: Jakobi Concert SATURDAY 10 DECEMBER 2016, 11.00 ROOM XXIII

Saint-Saëns: Fantaisie for Harp, Op. 95 Fantaisie for Violin and Harp, Op. 124 Concert Piece for Harp and Orchestra, Op. 154 Allegro Appassionato for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 43 Cello Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 33

DOHNÁNYI ORCHESTRA BUDAFOK

GÁBOR TAKÁCS-NAGY

TUESDAY 13 DECEMBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

Mozart: Symphony Mo. 39 in E-flat major, K. 543 György Selmeczi: Saint Orpheus Fragments J. S. Bach: Magnificat, BWV 243

Page 86

Dohnányi Orchestra Budafok Budapest Academic Choral Society (choir master: Csaba Tőri) Cantemus Mixed Choir (choir master: Soma Szabó) Conductor: Gábor Hollerung

WEDNESDAY 14 DECEMBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

Tickets: HUF 3 000, 3 500, 4 000 Organizer: Dohnányi Orchestra Budafok

MASTERS OF THE ORCHESTRA GÁBOR TAKÁCS-NAGY & LISZT ACADEMY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

MVM CONCERTS – MASTERPIECES IN THREE MOVEMENTS SAINT-SAËNS EVENING FANTASIES AND CONCERTOS 77

TUESDAY 20 DECEMBER 2016, 16.00 GRAND HALL

CHRISTMAS CONCERT OF THE HUNGARIAN RADIO CHILDREN’S CHOIR Selection from choral works of European and Hungarian composers (especially Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály) related to the Christmas Festivities Hungarian Radio Children’s Choir (choir master: László Matos) Conductor: Katalin Körber, László Matos Featuring: Zsuzsanna Arany (piano) Tickets: HUF 2 000, 3 000, 4 000, 5 000 Organizer: Hungarian Radio Music Ensembles TUESDAY 20 DECEMBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

HUNGARIAN RADIO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, CHOIR AND CHILDREN’S CHOIR Bach: Orchestral Suite No. 1 in C major, BWV 1066 Péter Tóth: Christmas Cantata János Vajda: Christmas Concerto Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Choir and Children’s Choir Conductor: János Kovács Tickets: HUF 2 000, 3 000, 4 000, 5 000 Organizer: Hungarian Radio Music Ensembles WEDNESDAY 21 DECEMBER 2016, 19.30 GRAND HALL

WE ARE FREE DANUBIA ORCHESTRA ÓBUDA CHRISTMAS CAROL Mozart: The Magic Flute – Overture Mozart: Bella mia fiamma, K. 528 Mozart: The Clemency of Titus – Overture Mozart: Ch'io mi scordi di te?, K. 505 Tchaikovsky-Duke Ellington: The Nutcracker Suite Orsolya Sáfár (soprano) Budapest Jazz Orchestra 78

Danubia Orchestra Óbuda Conductor: Tamás Pál Reciting Mihály Babits’s poem: Pál Mácsai

István Várdai (cello) Budapest Festival Orchestra Conductor: Gábor Takács-Nagy

Tickets: HUF 2 500, 3 200, 3 800, 4 700 Organizer: Danubia Orchestra Óbuda

Tickets: HUF 2 700, 4 800, 6 200, 8 800, 14 300 Organizer: Budapest Festival Orchestra

THURSDAY 22 DECEMBER 2016, 19.30 SOLTI HALL

CONCERTO ARMONICO BUDAPEST THE APPROACH OF CHRISTMAS WITH VIOLINS AND ORGAN Page 88 MONDAY 26 DECEMBER 2016, 19.45 GRAND HALL

BUDAPEST FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA Beethoven: Leonora Overture No. 3, Op. 72b Grieg: Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Op. 46 Tchaikovsky: Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33 Saint-Saëns: Bacchanalia from Samson and Delila Dukas: The Sorcerer's Apprentice Ravel: Mother Goose Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 3 in A minor (‘Scottish’) – 4 th Movement István Várdai (cello) Budapest Festival Orchestra Conductor: Gábor Takács-Nagy

WEDNESDAY 28 DECEMBER 2016, 19.45 GRAND HALL

BUDAPEST FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA Beethoven: Leonora Overture No. 3, Op. 72b Grieg: Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Op. 46 Tchaikovsky: Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33 Saint-Saëns: Bacchanalia from Samson and Delila Dukas: The Sorcerer's Apprentice Ravel: Mother Goose Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 3 in A minor (‘Scottish’) – 4 th Movement István Várdai (cello) Budapest Festival Orchestra Conductor: Gábor Takács-Nagy Tickets: HUF 2 700, 4 800, 6 200, 8 800, 14 300 Organizer: Budapest Festival Orchestra SATURDAY 31 DECEMBER 2016, 22.45 GRAND HALL

Tickets: HUF 2 700, 4 800, 6 200, 8 800, 14 300 Organizer: Budapest Festival Orchestra

NEW YEAR’S EVE CONCERT OF THE AMADINDA PERCUSSION GROUP AND GÁBOR PRESSER

TUESDAY 27 DECEMBER 2016, 19.45 GRAND HALL

Gábor Presser (piano, vocals) Amadinda Percussion Group: Károly Bojtos, Aurél Holló, Zoltán Rácz, Zoltán Váczi

BUDAPEST FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA Beethoven: Leonora Overture No. 3, Op. 72b Grieg: Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Op. 46 Tchaikovsky: Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33 Saint-Saëns: Bacchanalia from Samson and Delila Dukas: The Sorcerer's Apprentice Ravel: Mother Goose Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 3 in A minor (‘Scottish’) – 4 th Movement

Tickets: HUF 9 000, 10 000, 12 500, 15 000, 17 500 Organizer: Unisono

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79

JERUSALEM QUARTET © FELIX BROEDE

80

SATURDAY 3 DECEMBER, 19.00

SUNDAY 4 DECEMBER, 19.00

SOLTI HALL

SOLTI HALL

COMPLETE WORKS LIVE JERUSALEM QUARTET BARTÓK STRING QUARTETS/1

COMPLETE WORKS LIVE KELEMEN QUARTET BARTÓK STRING QUARTETS/2

Béla Bartók: String Quartet No. 1, BB 52 String Quartet No. 3, BB 93 String Quartet No. 5, BB 110

Béla Bartók: String Quartet No. 2, BB 52 String Quartet No. 4, BB 95 String Quartet No. 6, BB 119

Jerusalem Quartet: Alexander Pavlovsky, Sergei Bresler (violin); Ori Kam (viola); Kyril Zlotnikov (cello)

Kelemen Quartet: Barnabás Kelemen, Katalin Kokas (violin); Gábor Homoki (viola); László Fenyő (cello)

“The Jerusalem is one of the most exciting string quartets to emerge for many years, its members’ outstanding technical accomplishment and musical insight belying their youth,” wrote a leading journal about the quartet. The Israeli formation has toured and con­ quered North America and Europe, regularly winning over audiences with their harmony, virtuosity and expressi­ vity. The quartets of Béla Bartók presen­ ted here are known for their particular complexity. They represent in them­selves a type of radical redefinition of the genre: a summing up of the achieve­ments of those who have gone before and a marking out of new trends. As far as the String Quartet No. 1 goes, it was Bartók’s clear endeavour to elevate folk music motifs into the canon of composed music while, at the same time, create a new interpretation of the fugue genre. The String Quartet No. 3 is far tighter, more disso­nant and experimental not only as regards tonal systems but also in the field of perfor­ mance technique modalities. The New York Times was particularly gene­rous in its praise of the Jerusalem Quartet’s interpretation of the String Quartet No. 5 earlier this year: it is a piece alive with structural and form bravura, and must be performed in an extraor­dinarily complex rhythmic medium.

“The most electrifying string-quartet concert in recent memory.” This is the conclusion of an American music critic, otherwise notorious for his fault-finding, concerning the remarkable qualities of the ensemble. Founded in 2010, the Kelemen Quartet have reaped conside­ rable success in the United States, as well as in Europe and China. The deep commitment of the artists is evident in a programme comprising three works that all demand extraordinary levels of concentration. It is widely acknowledged that the string quartets of Béla Bartók are milestones in 20th century classical music. The confessional, sometimes philosophical, sometimes meditative recitatives of the String Quartet No. 2 strongly resembles the voice of the classic tragedy genre. The structure of the String Quartet No. 4, built with mathematical precision, represented a kind of creative turning point in the life of the composer and at the same time marked an even more varied and original repertoire of performance technique. In the final tring Quartet No. 6, a cheery enthusiasm for life and irony descends into a grotesque struggle, with the increasingly feeble, ever-more faint lyricism broken by a motto-like constantly-repeating melody, to ultimately crumble to nothing.

Tickets: HUF 3 400, 4 100 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

Tickets: HUF 3 400, 4 100 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

DITTA PÁSZTORY & BÉLA BARTÓK © KATA KÁLMÁN / HUNGART (2016)

“THE MUSIC OF BARTÓK IS MY MOTHER TONGUE” Barnabás Kelemen and Katalin Kokas are launching a chamber music festival combined with master classes under the title 'Festival Academy' at the Liszt Academy. The Concert Magazine spoke to Barnabás Kelemen about this and about the Bartók string quartets being performed by the Kelemen Quartet and Jerusalem Quartet on two successive days at the Liszt Academy in December. The conversation also turned to the Hungarian chamber music tradition, the great masters and even why it is dangerous to ‘overcomplicate’ music.

Where did the idea of the Festival Academy come from?

I included the idea of a festival like this on my job application for teacher of violin that I submitted to the Liszt Academy 11 years ago. The fundamental concept is extremely simple. In order to create a great festival, one needs three factors at the same time (all organizers of major festivals are in agreement with this): there has to be a unique venue, an impressive host and plenty of fine musicians. We already have the venue, and we are extremely grateful that the leadership of the Liszt Academy has adopted the festival. What’s more, since the renovation there is no longer any need to swelter in the summer heat while inside this magical building. I would be exaggerating only slightly if I were to say that for 100 years the Liszt Academy stood idle every summer, even though it actually has an even more inspiring atmosphere than the venues for esteemed chamber music festivals, such as Aspen, Kronberg and Verbier.

What is different about the concept for this festival?

The Festival Academy embodies the essence of the Liszt Academy: it stands on two feet, offering both concerts to the public and music tuition to students.

World-class artists who we have invited will teach students that have applied for the courses, and each evening these artists will give concerts. What’s more, we would like teachers and students from establishments at all levels of music education to join us, and all master classes are open to the public.

How would you describe the tradition of Hungarian chamber music to which you yourself are an heir?

KATALIN KOKAS & BARNABÁS KELEMEN © SZILVIA CSIBI 82

The core of the trend hallmarked by Leó Weiner, Albert Simon, András Mihály, Ferenc Rados and György Kurtág is analysis: breaking the work down into the smallest components, seeking meaning behind every note, mapping out the system of relationships between the notes and the various sections of the form, interpreting, if possible, every motif and musical theme as question and answer, action and reaction, and trying to work out why this comes after that and not something else. Whether it is possible to put this disassembled music together again, whether from the many tiny parts it is possible to create a single whole meaning, well, this is the question, the thing that perhaps separates a good musician from a great musician. Anyone who learnt at the feet of the aforementioned masters had to go through a sort of baptism of fire – and not all stood the test. Those who did, however, were endowed with incredible energy, and in this ‘school’ everything is about music. By the way, it is interesting that although we often talk about the ‘Hungarian school of chamber music’, it’s not that simple to grasp what is

common in the performance technique of those brought up in this tradition.

For instance, in the case of Kurtág, I would say that it is perhaps possible to hear in certain parts of some works that the performers studied under him, precisely because his approach is very music- and human-centric – but in the end everyone will develop their own interpretation. Or if we go back in time, then the same thing could be said of Jenő Hubay, who taught not chamber music but violin. We’ll find a good few international greats from among his students, but there is no similarity in their play: the only commonality is that Hubay encouraged everyone to discover their own individual sound. As a teacher, that too is my goal: I don’t want to hear my violin playing in performances by my students. This does not mean that my students wouldn’t recognize my violin playing from just a few notes.

When you play string quartets or other types of chamber music, to what extent do you fix your own version?

Not excessively, I hope. We think that music speaks of human problems.

Since music is an abstract language, it can express the widest assortment of emotions – pain, joy, despair, happiness – and there is something that makes people feel that it is more credible than words. Neither life nor masterpieces are predictable. I am in complete agreement with Nikolaus Harnoncourt when he writes about the speech-like aspect of music. And if music is a kind of speech, then a natural concomitant of this is that it changes. A person always speaks depending on the given state, mood, medium; and we try to do exactly the same thing with music. Of course, everything I’ve said should be taken with a pinch of salt and I don’t want to belittle the intellectual approach, but I’ve experienced – we’ve experienced – that the brain frequently holds a person back. One shouldn’t ‘overcomplicate’ pieces.

Where would you position the Bartók quartets in your musical universe?

Somewhere in the centre. The six quartets are the essence of the Bartók oeuvre, just as with Beethoven and Haydn. What’s more, I live in the very environment where these works were born. Truly the music of Bartók is my mother tongue, because as members of the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra, my parents frequently played the Music and Divertimento, and I was brought up in this. Of course, I don’t think that only Hungarians are able to play Bartók faithfully, but I do think that one has to know the language, culture and Bartók recordings (or Kocsis recordings, which are sometimes more Bartók than Bartók himself) in order to play Bartók authentically. Put another way, I am certain that the Bartók of the Jerusalem Quartet will be at least as interesting and valuable as ours, and naturally totally different. We are on great terms, we like them a lot, and I trust that the two concerts will divide the audience. It would be best if one half of the audience felt their Bartók was better, and the other half felt ours was better. After all, this is the essence of art, that we can show how we think differently through the presentation of great works, just as we can demonstrate that to think in a different way is not a sin; quite the contrary, the world is all the richer for this, this is what art is all about.

Gergely Fazekas 83

WEDNESDAY 7 DECEMBER, 19.30

FRIDAY 9 DECEMBER, 19.00

SATURDAY 10 DECEMBER, 11.00

GRAND HALL

SOLTI HALL

ROOM XXIII

MARVELLOUS BAROQUE INSTRUMENTS RÓBERT MANDEL’S HISTORY OF INSTRUMENTS SERIES Michel Corrette: Bagpipe Concerto, Op. 4.

Michel Corrette: ‘La belle Vielleuse’ J. S. Bach: Prelude in C major, BWV 999 Jacques Hotteterre: Pieces for Transverse Flute

VERONIKA HARCSA & BÁLINT GYÉMÁNT TELL HER RECORD RELEASE CONCERT Veronika Harcsa (vocals) Bálint Gyémánt (guitar)

84

Róbert Mandel (Baroque hurdy-gurdy); Márton Borsányi (lute-harpsichord and theorbo-harpsichord); Pál Németh (Baroque flute) Savaria Baroque Orchestra (artistic director: Pál Németh)

LISZT KIDZ ACADEMY JAZZ PLAYGROUND FOR 6–15-YEAR-OLDS Kristóf Bacsó (saxophone) Márton Fenyvesi (guitar) Narrator and percussion: András Dés

Chanteuse Veronika Harcsa and guitarist Bálint Gyémánt were once classmates in the Jazz Department of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music.

One went on to study in Brussels, the other in Oslo, and yet they ended up becoming each other’s most important music companions. So far six albums as well as countless concerts in Hungary and abroad have been born out of their collaboration. In the wake of their first duo recording, Lifelover, which achieved a huge following in Western Europe, they now present their new Tell Her album at the Liszt Academy. The two worked up the material for the new release from ideas and lyrics by Veronika Harcsa, after which New York-born producer Jeremy Friedman was their creative associate in finalizing the work. The songs are personally inspired and each bears within it a depth, a sense of freedom and humour. All who attend this concert will be ‘earwitnesses’ to a unique meeting of contemporary jazz and improvised pop.

For many decades Róbert Mandel has been an active figure in Hungarian music circles as a performer, instru­mentalist, researcher of the history of instruments and even rediscoverer of long-forgotten instruments. It comes as no surprise, therefore, to find that his numerous series on the history of instruments have attrac­ted consi­derable interest over the years.

This evening’s performance gives the audience the opportunity to meet instru­­ ments very rarely heard live; for instance, the lute-harpsichord (lautenwerck), which combines two different instruments and was much admired by Bach, or its big brother, the ‘near extinct’ theorbo-harp­ sichord, which was only redisco­vered in the 20th century. Both instru­ments are played here by Márton Borsányi, who studied in one of the bastions of early music schools, the Schola Cantorum in Basel. On top of that, the hurdy-gurdy, an instrument that we know primarily from folk music but which became a highly fashionable French instrument in the period of Louis XV, is played on a stage that also includes among its lumi­ naries one of the pioneers of Hungarian early music performance, Pál Németh.

There are no swings, slides, climbing frames or sandpits in the Jazz Playground. So what is there to play with?

Of course, there are ideas, emotions and above all else, sounds and rhythms, as explored here by András Dés, Kristóf Bacsó and Márton Fenyvesi. The fact is our presenters recognize that joint improvisation, like all truly serious play, is first and foremost about attention and having an awareness of others.

These three fine musicians – together with the kids – examine the subject of improvisation and build the music cooperatively. András Dés put it like this: “Playing jointly with the children, improvisation, is all about us, the jazz musicians, and the children giving something to each other. They supply the innovation, an openness free of preconceptions, the carefree enjoyment of play, and we provide what we have learned about how this can be transplanted into music – making the melody, harmony and rhythm; how we have learned to pay attention to each other, to enjoy, love and respect the playing of each other.”

Tickets: HUF 1 400, 2 100, 3 500, 4 900 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

Tickets: HUF 1 900, 2 500 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

Tickets: HUF 1 200 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

GIOVANNI SOLLIMA © GIAN MARIA MUSARRA

SEASON TICKETS 2016/17 MUSIC SO CLOSE

ZENEAKADEMIA.HU/EN/SEASON-TICKETS 85

SUNDAY 11 DECEMBER, 11.00

TUESDAY 13 DECEMBER, 19.30

THURSDAY 15 DECEMBER, 19.00

SOLTI HALL

GRAND HALL

SOLTI HALL TALENT OBLIGE LILLA HORTI, JUDIT ANNA KISS & ANNA MOLNÁR SELECTION OF 19TH AND 20TH CENTURY VOCAL CHAMBER WORKS

LISZT KIDZ ACADEMY MUSIC-MAKING GAME FOR 10–15-YEAR-OLDS

MASTERS OF THE ORCHESTRA GÁBOR TAKÁCS-NAGY & LISZT ACADEMY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Works by Beethoven, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Liszt and Bartók

Haydn: Symphony No. 94 in G major, Hob.I:94 (‘Surprise’) Mozart: Flute Concerto No. 1 in G major, K. 313 Schumann: Symphony No. 4 in D minor, Op. 120

Piano and narrator: Gábor Eckhardt

86

Works by J. S. Bach, Brahms, Saint-Saëns, Dell'Acqua, De Falla, Stravinsky, Respighi and György Orbán Anna Molnár, Judit Anna Kiss (mezzo-soprano); Lilla Horti (soprano); Imola Pogány, Emese Virág (piano); Miklós Környei (guitar); Annamária Bán, Ágnes Tóth (flute); Csaba Pálfi (clarinet); Péter Tornyai (viola); Mátyás Virág (cello); Augustin Szokos (organ); Attitude String Quartet: Sára Deák, Tamás Szabó (violin); Gergő Fajd (viola); Barnabás Baranyai (cello)

Nobody knows how music arose, but many believe that at some point in the distant past humanity disco­ vered the beauty of nature’s voice and tried to copy it with instruments that were to hand. Whatever the truth, nature has always played an important role in so-called ‘classical’ music, as has the question of how we can evoke the world around us with the help of music.

The relationship between music and nature is examined in the autumn semester of the Liszt Academy’s series for young people, the Liszt Kidz Academy. Having looked at the musical worlds of fish, birds and angels, the final concert ventures into the forest.

Naturally, we are not going to examine the whispering of trees or the roar of the stag, but rather game and hunting music – and there is plenty to choose from. A prominent role is given to the horn, the instrument of hunters, which for a long time was not even used in composed music but solely functioned as a means of communication during a hunt. Narrator for the concert is Liszt Academy teacher of piano Gábor Eckhardt, a well-known figure at youth concerts.

Gábor Takács-Nagy graduated from the Liszt Academy as a violinist and it was through this instrument that he became a much sought-after master and professor of chamber music.

However, these days Hungarian and international audiences primarily celebrate him as a conductor. And it is in this capacity that the symphony orchestra of his alma mater welcomes to this concert the delightful TakácsNagy, who in the first part conducts one work each by two giants of Viennese Classicism. Mozart’s Flute Concerto in G major, written by the composer on the commission of Dutch flautist Ferdinand de Jean, follows the Haydn Symphony No. 94 (from 1791), which is sometimes known as the ‘Surprise Symphony’ and sometimes the ‘Kettledrum Stroke’ for its unexpected kettledrum sound effects. The concert closes with probably the most per­ formed Schumann symphony, the fourth, dating from the mid-19th century.

For the first time in the Talent Oblige series, audiences will this year be intro­ duced to students of the vocal depart­ ment of the Liszt Academy. Lilla Horti, Judit Anna Kis and Anna Molnár, three individuals fascinating in their own ways, take to the stage of the Sir Georg Solti Chamber Hall with a special prog­ram­me.

During an evening spanning music from J. S. Bach and Brahms to Respighi and György Orbán there are works written for the solo voice, as well as unusual pieces written for chamber music compi­ lations, pieces like Stravinsky’s music for Shakespearean songs for mezzosoprano, flute, clarinet and viola, or Saint-Saëns’ Une flûte invisible, which makes fine use of the human voice, flute and piano. Belgium-born Eva Dell'Acqua’s extraordinarily popular coloratura soprano song is followed by Spanish songs by de Falla and Garcia Lorca: each serves to embellish this programme remarkably diverse in terms of both musical periods and performance artists.

Tickets: HUF 1 400 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

Tickets: HUF 1 200, 1 700, 2 800, 3 900 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

Tickets: HUF 1 900 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

Kata Scheuring (flute) Liszt Academy Symphony Orchestra Conductor: Gábor Takács-Nagy

GUIDED TOURS

IN HUNGARIAN EVERY FRIDAY AND SUNDAY, IN ENGLISH EVERY DAY AT 13.30, NO REGISTRATION NEEDED Tours last approximately 50 minutes, in the course of which the guide provided by the Liszt Academy shows groups around the ground floor and first floor foyers, the Grand Hall and the Sir George Solti Chamber Hall.

Tours can be booked with guiding in Hungarian, English, German, Italian, French, Russian, Chinese and Japanese. Minimum group size: 12 persons; maximum group size: 35 persons.

Tour bookings, further information and partnerships with travel agencies: tourism@lisztacademy.hu Further information: http://zeneakademia.hu/en/guided-tours Ticket purchase: Liszt Academy Ticket Office (1061 Budapest, 8 Liszt Ferenc square) The Liszt Academy retains the right to modify the tours.

FRIDAY 16 DECEMBER, 19.30

THURSDAY 22 DECEMBER, 19.30

GRAND HALL

SOLTI HALL

KODÁLY 134 Zoltán Kodály: Serenade Songs The Peacock Evening To Ferenc Liszt Hymn to King Stephen Communiun Anthem Adoration Jesus and the Traders Vilmos Szabadi, Yayoi Nakajima (violin) Péter Bársony (viola); Andrea Rost (soprano); Miklós Harazdy (piano) Váci Vox Humana (choral leader: Bence Sándor) Alma Mater Choir (choir master: Csaba Somos)

88

CONCERTO ARMONICO BUDAPEST THE APPROACH OF CHRISTMAS WITH VIOLINS AND ORGAN Vivaldi: Concerto for Four Violins in D major, Op. 3/1 Händel: Organ Concerto in A major, Op. 7/2 Vivaldi: Concerto for Four Violins in E minor, Op. 3/4 Händel: Organ Concerto in G minor, Op. 7/5 Vivaldi: Concerto for Four Violins in F major, Op. 3/7 Händel: Organ Concerto in G minor, Op. 4/1 Vivaldi: Concerto for Four Violins in B minor, Op. 3/10 Concerto Armonico Budapest Artistic director: Miklós Spányi (harpsichord, organ)

It is now a tradition for the Liszt Academy to pay tribute to one of the most signi­ ficant Hungarian composers of the 20th century, Zoltán Kodály, with a concert on his birthday. Kodály, who alongside being a composer, teacher of music and musicologist was one of the most influ­ en­­tial public figures of the past century, had multiple ties – as student and teacher – to the Liszt Academy. He graduated as a composer from the academy, and from 1907 he taught harmony in his alma mater and then later, for nearly two decades, composition; even after his ‘retirement’ he continued teaching folk music. The evening’s celebration of this great individual includes major choral works by Kodály, together with his Serenade and several songs, all brought to stage – as is traditional for this event – with the input of accomplished artists.

Perhaps the most glittering achieve­ ment of the three-decade-old Concerto Armonico Budapest, which is headed by internationally-renowned harpsi­ chordist Miklós Spányi, is the 20-disc series containing the complete keyboard concertos of Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach. These recordings are considered by both the music profession and critics worldwide as being a milestone in the interpretation of 18 th-century music.

The energetic and precise performance style of the ensemble consistently capti­ vate audiences, in addition to which it is clearly apparent that the musicians themselves always thoroughly enjoy their ‘work’. The programme of the ensemble, which has recently undergone ‘rejuve­ nation’, includes Händel organ concer­ tos interspersed with concertos for four violins by Vivaldi.

Tickets: HUF 1 900 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

Tickets: HUF 2 500, 3 200 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

CONCERTO ARMONICO BUDAPEST © LISZT ACADEMY / LÁSZLÓ MUDRA

SOL GABETTA (14 JANUARY 2016) © LISZT ACADEMY / ZOLTÁN TUBA ORCHESTRA OF THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT (26 NOVEMBER 2015) © LISZT ACADEMY / LÁSZLÓ MUDRA

WROCLAW BAROQUE ORCHESTRA (11 NOVEMBER 2015) © LISZT ACADEMY / LÁSZLÓ MUDRA

CONCERTS AT THE OLD LISZT ACADEMY LISZT MUSEUM MATINÉE CONCERTS 3 SEPTEMBER

11.00

10 SEPTEMBER

11.00

17 SEPTEMBER

11.00

24 SEPTEMBER

11.00

1-29 OCTOBER 5 NOVEMBER

11.00

12 NOVEMBER

11.00

19 NOVEMBER

11.00

26 NOVEMBER

11.00

3 DECEMBER

11.00

10 DECEMBER

11.00

17 DECEMBER

11.00

Alessandra Pompili (piano) Sayaka Kubota (piano) Nikoletta Bolya-Pap (vocals); Éva Hibay (flute); Judit Gábos (piano) István Gulyás (piano) Liszt Anniversary Festival Gábor Eckhardt (piano) Fülöp Ránki (piano) Zsolt Gárdonyi Chamber Recital Giorgos Konstantinou (piano) New Liszt Ferenc Chamber Choir Dénes Várjon & Izabella Simon Choir of the Church Pasarét, choir master: András Déri

ENCOUNTERS WITH FERENC LISZT JOINT CONCERT SERIES OF THE FERENC LISZT SOCIETY & LISZT ACADEMY 23 NOVEMBER

18.00

LISZT & HARMONIUM Introduction and featuring: Balázs Szabó

14 DECEMBER

18.00

LISZT & MOZART Introduction: Mária Eckhardt Featuring: piano students of the Liszt Academy

LISZT ANNIVERSARY FESTIVAL 2016 1 OCTOBER 11.00 SAINT EPHREM MALE CHOIR Choir master: Tamás Bubnó; featuring: Csaba Király (piano) 18.00 BALÁZS SZOKOLAY & DIÁNA SZŐKE PIANO RECITAL 8 OCTOBER 11.00 CHAMBER RECITAL Attila Szűcs (vocals); Trio Duecento Corde: András Tallián (violin); Ibolya Tallián-Nagy (cello); Ferenc János Szabó (piano) 18.00 NEW LISZT FERENC CHAMBER CHOIR Choir master: László Norbert Nemes; featuring: Anikó Novák (piano) 15 OCTOBER 11.00 ALEX SZILASI PIANO RECITAL 18.00 KÁROLY MOCSÁRI PIANO RECITAL 21 OCTOBER 18.00 GÁBOR FARKAS & ZOLTÁN TAKÁCS RECITAL

ORGANIZER & VENUE: LISZT FERENC MEMORIAL MUSEUM AND RESEARCH CENTRE 1064 BUDAPEST, VÖRÖSMARTY UTCA 35.

WWW.LISZTMUSEUM.HU

22 OCTOBER 11.00 DEZSŐ RÁNKI & EDIT KLUKON TWO PIANO RECITAL 16.00 CONCERT OF THE LISZT ACADEMY’S PIANO DEPARTMENT 29 OCTOBER 11.00 ISTVÁN LAJKÓ PIANO RECITAL 18.00 PÉTER NAGY PIANO RECITAL

LISZT KIDZ ACADEMY YOUTH PROGRAMMES AT THE LISZT ACADEMY Every child is born with music in them.

There is not a single infant who would not be stirred by the music of Mozart or Bach. Or maybe Wellhello, depending on what they hear at home. Naturally, the youth programmes of the Liszt Academy are not intended to acquaint young and old with the values of pop culture, but rather with the three worlds of music that define the academy’s teaching and concert life: classical music, folk music and jazz.

The Liszt Kidz Academy is starting its fourth year, and on this occasion, let us quickly say thank you to everyone who has been with us and who has spread the good news and enhanced our reputation, and let us collectively pat ourselves on our ever more muscular backs. Since the reopening of the Liszt Academy we’ve held more than 60 group sessions and nearly 30 informative concerts in the Solti Hall and Grand Hall; we have organized a Grand Liszt Kidz Day and built the Liszt Academy out of 20,000 LEGO bricks. We’ve also gradually expanded our repertoire, with the Jazz Playground programme, under the direction of András Dés, becoming an integral part of the Liszt Kidz home, and this will continue in the autumn of 2016. Something else that is new is our music drama teaching programme launched for high schools, and we are organising guided tours to introduce the Liszt Academy building to primary school students (see the details on the opposite page).

Our younger group activities continue to be targeted at 6–10-year-olds.

This year the children get a stamp-collecting book, and if they manage to collect the required number of rubber stamps, they receive a present.

Between 6 September and 17 December 2016, we are holding Liszt Kidz sessions at 10 am every Saturday in the Liszt Academy building on Liszt Ferenc Square. Parents cannot take part in the programmes; however, they are welcome to attend the dress rehearsal for that evening’s concert (subject to the approval of the artists).

The relationship between music and nature is examined in the autumn semester of the Liszt Academy’s series of informative concerts aimed at 10–15-year-olds. We reveal a picture of how fish (2 October), angels (12 November), birds (27 November) and game (11 December) are repre­­sented in classical music. Details can be found on previous pages of this concert magazine.

What has not changed is what we believe in. We continue to believe that music is not purely for entertainment but that it has something essential to teach us about who we are, which is why you can never be too young to start finding out. As Shakespeare put it: “The man that hath no music in himself, nor is not moved by concord of sweet sounds, is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils; the motions of his spirit are dull as night, and his affections dark as Erebus. Let no such man be trusted.

Mark the music."

Further details: http://zeneakademia.hu/junior

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MUSIC DRAMA

THEATRE PEDAGOGY PROGRAMME FOR HIGH SCHOOL CLASSES Interactive activities, dress rehearsal, concert.

Creating drama out of a musical composition, actors out of students.

Details and applications: zeneakademia.hu/zeneszinjatek

MUSIC LABYRINTH

GUIDED TOURS AT THE LISZT ACADEMY FOR PRIMARY SCHOOL CLASSES 30-minute tour around the world’s most magical building.

Nooks and crannies, mini concert, LEGO Liszt Academy.

Details and applications: zeneakademia.hu/zenelabirintus 93

2017 SPRING – PREVIEW 16 JANUARY 2017

29 JANUARY 2017

CHANTICLEER

9 FEBRUARY 2017

LONDON SINFONIETTA

16 FEBRUARY 2017

4 MARCH 2017

11 MARCH 2017 18 MARCH 2017

29 MARCH 2017

6 MAY 2017

94

VIKTORIA MULLOVA & VENICE BAROQUE ORCHESTRA

LESZEK MOŻDŻER & HOLLAND BAROQUE SOCIETY DAVID FRAY & ORCHESTRE DE CHAMBRE DE PARIS CUARTETO CASALS PEKKA KUUSISTO, AMY NORRINGTON, GÁBOR CSALOG RICHARD GALLIANO & MIHÁLY DEMENIV KRISTÓF BARÁTI & NIKOLAI LUGANSKY

THE PLACE OF THE LISZT ACADEMY IN EUROPE On 13 April 2016, the Liszt Academy was awarded the European Heritage Label in Brussels. The institution received the award for its outstanding role in European music life, the preservation of traditions, its creativity and innovation, as well as the duality of its university and concert-organizing work.

The European Heritage Label was established by the European Commission in 2011 with the aim of placing greater emphasis on the history of Europe and directing attention to the hidden values of the Old Continent. Moreover, the award selects and recognizes those European heritage venues that are important not just from the aspect of the local community but also from the aspect of European identity and common European history. The first prizes were presented in 2013, since when the jury has selected an increasing number of candidates every year. This year the Heritage Label was given to nine institutions, including the Liszt Academy, taking to 29 the total number of awardees; last year the Pan-European Picnic Memorial Park in Sopron became the first place in Hungary to be honoured.

The list also includes the General Library of the University of Coimbra, Portugal; Robert Schuman’s house in France; the Peace Palace in The Hague; and a Polish World War I cemetery.

In spring 2016 the award-winning institutions introduced themselves to each other at a three-day workshop in Budapest. The final day of the meeting was held at the Liszt Academy, when it was announced officially that the Liszt Academy was a candidate for the award. At the press conference closing the workshop, Imre Szabó Stein, director of communications, presented the Liszt Academy which has jointly functioned as a university and concert centre since 2013. Dr Tibor Navracsics, European commissioner responsible for education, culture, youth and sport, also praised the institution. In her words of thanks for the award, president Dr Andrea Vigh emphasized that the Liszt Academy had always played an important role in the preservation of Hungarian culture through its traditions of the past 140 years, and at the same time it represents the European and cosmopolitan spirit of its founder, Ferenc Liszt.

Gyula Fekete, vice-rector, accepted the prize from Dr Tibor Navracsics in Brussels on the occasion of European Heritage Label Days. A threeminute clip made at the workshop of the EHL was presented about the Liszt Academy, immortalizing the institution’s 140-year tradition, the Liszt heritage, and its multifaceted activities. The film (available at lisztacademy.hu) featured the buildings on Liszt Ferenc Square and in Wesselényi Street, the Kodály Museum, Liszt Museum and the concert life of the Old Academy of Music.

EUROPEAN HERITEAGE LABEL DAYS (BRUSSELS) 95

TICKET MAP GRAND HALL

CHOIR LEFT 10 – 19

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CENTRE-LEFT CENTRE-RIGHT 1–7 1– 7

CENTRE BALCONY

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2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

1

1

I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X XI XII XIII XIV XV XVI XVII XVIII

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

1

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

1

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

1

24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13

ONSTAGE SEATS: 80 SEATS

24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

STAGE

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

1

19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10

V VI III II I

BALCONY LEFT

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13

1 – 12

30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20

24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13

13 – 24

Information on seating arrangements in the auditorium and ticket prices for the given performance can be obtained from the box office and online ticketing.

RIGHT 19 – 10

TICKET MAP SOLTI HALL

CONTACT, VISITOR INFORMATION LISZT FERENC ACADEMY OF MUSIC 1061 Budapest, Liszt Ferenc tér 8.

Central phone number: (+36 1) 462 4600

A Customers can address their inquiries to kozonsegkapcsolat@zeneakademia.hu ZENEAKADÉMIA and we are also available at (+36 1) 462-4680.

KONCERTKÖZPONT SAJÁT SZERVEZÉSÉBEN. TICKETING The ticket office of the Liszt Academy Concert Centre operates adjacent to the main entrance of the restored Liszt Academy at Liszt Ferenc tér 8.

Ticket office general opening times: 10 am–6 pm Monday-Sunday.

Besides these general opening times the ticket office will also be open during concerts, from the hour preceding the start of the performance until the end of the first interval. In the case of afternoon or matinee concerts the ticket office also opens half an hour before the performance.

STAGE A

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

A

B

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

B

I

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

I

II

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

II

III

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

III

IV

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

IV

V

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

V

VI

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

VI

VII 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

VII

VIII 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

VIII

IX

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

IX

X

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

X

XI

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

XI

XII 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

XII

XIII 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 1 2 3 3 2 1

XIV

Ticket office contact details: Tel.: (+36 1) 321 0690 / E-mail: jegy@zeneakademia.hu The staff of the ticket office will be pleased to help if you have any questions concerning Liszt Academy Concert Centre tickets. Further information on ticket purchases is available on the website of the Liszt Academy.

Tickets are sold for HUF 500 one hour before concerts organized in the Grand Hall and Solti Hall with a valid student card.

LISZT ACADEMY OPENING HOURS, GUIDED TOURS The main building of the Liszt Academy can be visited via guided tours lasting approx. 50 minutes. Guides speaking Hungarian, English, German, French, Italian, Russian, Spanish, Chinese or Japanese are provided by the Liszt Academy. Participants can enter the ground floor and first floor foyers, the Grand Hall and the Solti Hall. Tour dates and further information at zeneakademia.hu/en/guided-tours; registration for groups at turizmus@zeneakademia.hu.

Tickets: Guided tour in Hungarian: HUF 1 500 students/concessions: HUF 750 Guided tour in a foreign language: HUF 2 900 students/concessions: HUF 1450

XIII XIV

M3 M2 M1

M1 M2 M3 LEFT 1–7

RIGHT 7–1

STALLS

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

0

14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

1

14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

1

14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

1

8 7 6 5 4 3

2 1

1

2 1

1

8 7 6 5 4 3 LEFT 1–7

RIGHT 8–1

BALCONY

In order to ensure undisturbed teaching conditions, the building is closed to the general public during the day and opens 1 hour prior to the start of concerts.

ACCESS When visiting the building, guests should use the main entrance on Liszt Ferenc Square. The entrance for disabled guests and their companions can be accessed from Király Street. From here it is possible to gain mobility access by lift to the concert halls.

97

LISZT ACADEMY GRAND HALL

PIOTR ANDERSZEWSKI & CHAMBER ORCHESTRA OF EUROPE 17.05.2017.

SUPPORTER OF LISZT ACADEMY

PARTNERS OF THE UNIVERSITY

IMPRESSUM

PUBLISHER:

AUTHORS OF THE CONCERT MAGAZINE:

dr. Andrea Vigh, President of the Liszt Academy

Anna Belinszky – student at Liszt Academy's Musicology and Music Theory Department Gergely Fazekas – musicologist, associate professor of the Liszt Academy György Frauenhoffer – member of staff of the Communications Directorate Judit Frigyesi – musicologist, writer, associate professor of the Bar Ilan and Tel-Aviv University Zsuzsanna Könyves-Tóth – musicologist, member of staff of the Communications Directorate Zsuzsanna Lakatos – student at Liszt Academy's Musicology and Music Theory Department Ferenc László – historian, music critic Máté Mesterházi – musicologist, scholarly member of the library of Liszt Academy Judit Rácz – cultural journalist Zsuzsanna Rákai – musicologist Alex Ross – Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, music critic of The New Yorker Anna Szabó T. – poet, literary translator Tamás Vajna – cultural journalist Zoltán Végső – music critic

EDITOR IN CHIEF: Imre Szabó Stein

MANAGING EDITOR: Gergely Fazekas

ENGLISH PROOFREADER: Andrew Symons

PUBLISHING MANAGER: Ágnes Varga

Concert reviews by Anna Belinszky, Gergely Fazekas, Ferenc László, Szabolcs Molnár and Tamás Várkonyi.

LAYOUT: Allison Advertising Ltd. Gergő Cuba

TRANSLATOR:

PRINT PRODUCTION:

IMAGE PHOTOS:

High Voltage Ltd.

Creative conception: Allison Advertising; Photo: Bálint Barna; Stylist: Angie Pálmai; Hair: Márk Károlyi / Cult Hair; Makeup: Viktória Kovács; Models: Anett Miski and Katalin Süle

PRINTING: Keskeny és Társai 2001 Ltd.

James Stewart

The cover was created using the photo of Judit Marjai.

Published by the Communications Directorate of the Liszt Academy in 1 000 copies.

ARCHIVE AND CONCERT PHOTOGRAPHY, ARTISTS PORTRAITS: Róbert László Bácsi, Zsolt Birtalan, Balázs Böröcz, Felix Broede, Hanya The organizer retains the right to modify Chlala, Szilvia Csibi, István Fazekas, Gábor Fejér, Andrea Felvégi, Leonardo programmes.

Ferri, Tomasz Kaczor, Kata Kálmán, Misi Kondella, Chris Tomas Konieczny, Judit Marjai, Jónás Mátyássy, Jean-Baptiste Mondino, László Mudra, Zsolt Pataky, Wladimir Polak, Wasin Prasertlap, Lenke Szilágyi, Zoltán Tuba, FINALIZED: Patrick Walter, Alex Waterhouse-Hayward, Theresa Wey 2 May 2016