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6–19 May
2014
Our World War I Centenary Events will transport you back in time to the vibrant cultural, intellectual and artistic scene of the early twentieth-century. We will recreate the atmosphere of the famous Hungarian coffee houses where everything was happening at the time by turning the Hungarian Cultural Centre into the Grand Budapest Café of Covent Garden. Early twentieth-century Budapest boasted a plethora of coffee houses where writers, editors, artists, journalists and intellectuals met, exchanged thoughts and ideas, and often worked. As the internationally renowned Hungarian writer Sándor Márai put it ‘people do not come here for a coffee but to live their lives’. At our Grand Budapest Café you will be able to relive some of this experience, and while you are sipping your coffee and sampling Hungarian delicacies, you will be able to
explore Hungarian fine art, literature, music and the history of the pre-war era with the help of our most distinguished speakers. 2014 marks an important milestone in HCC’s history too as the institute turns 15 this year. We are celebrating the anniversary on 15 May with founding director H.E. Ms Katalin Bogyay FRSA, FWAA, Ambassador and Permanent Delegate of Hungary to UNESCO, President of the 36th Session of UNESCO General Conference, who opened the Hungarian Cultural Centre in 1999. Please come and join us in celebrating history and making history together. Dr. Beata Pászthy Gyöngyi Végh Barbara Révész Andrea Kós Fruzsina Kováts
Our WWI Centenary Event Series have been made possible with the generous support of the WWI Centenary Memorial Committee in Hungary.
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Tuesday | 6 May | 7pm (Private view) ≥ Hungarian Cultural Centre ✉ 10 Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, London WC2E 7NA
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hungarian cultural centre • london
e EXHIBITION wwi centenary event
One of The Eight — Róbert Berény Works from a private collection During the era preceding the First World War, the most progressive group of painters and the quickest in adapting international trends was the Eight. Despite the fact that the three exhibitions they had – at the turn of 1909–1910, in 1911 and in 1912 – mark only a short period of time in the history of Hungarian modernism, their significance cannot be emphasised enough given that their appearance resulted in the birth of avantgarde in Hungary. The youngest and perhaps the most talented painter of them all was Róbert Berény, who had a very successful career in Paris before the group was formed: at the age of 19–20, he had a joint exhibition with Henri Matisse and the Fauves. During the three exhibitions of the Eight, most of the works displayed were his: when their second exhibition took place
in 1911, he had 49 oil paintings shown, more than his fellow painters combined. Berény’s versatility did not solely manifest itself in the different genres of painting and graphic designing; besides visual arts, he was very much engaged in music too. As a friend of Béla Bartók, the great Hungarian composer of whom he painted a portrait in 1913, not only did he write music reviews and accounts of the most modern musical events, but Berény also played the violin, the viola and the piano, and he even composed music.
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Since then he has curated exhibitions on fauvism and Hungarian modernism in Hungary: Magyar Vadak Párizstól Nagybányáig (Hungarian Fauves from Paris to Nagybánya) 1904–1914, Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest, 2006. A Nyolcak– Cézanne és Matisse bûvöletében (The Eight: Enchanted by Cézanne and Matisse) Museum Janus Pannonius, Pécs, 2010. A Nyolcak (The Eight), Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, 2011, in France (Fauves Hongrois, Céret, Musée d’art moderne, Le Cateau Cambrésis, Musée Matisse, Dijon, Musée des beaux-arts, 2008–2009) and in Belgium (Dialogue de fauves – Fauvisme hongrois 1904–1914), L’ho ˆtel de ville de Bruxelles, 2010. He also curated a Europe-wide travelling show dedicate to the first Hungarian modernist artists’ group, The Eight. The first venue was in Austria: „DIE ACHT – Ungarns ‘Highway’ in die Moderne”, Kunstforum, Vienna, 2012. Recently he curated Allegro barbaro – Béla Bartók et la modernité hongroise, 1905–1920 at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris (2013–2014). Exhibition open: 7 May–13 June Opening hours: Mon–Thurs 10am–5pm, Fri 10am–2pm Δ Free but booking is required. Please call 020 7240 8448 or email bookings@hungary.org.uk To keep up-to-date please join the event on our Facebook page www.facebook.com/HCCLondon
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Gergely Barki is a PhD candidate in Art History at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest and a research fellow at the Research Centre for the Humanities – Hungarian Academy of Sciences – Institute of Art History (RCH-HAS-IAH). His dissertation is the monograph and catalogue resumé of Róbert Berény, one of the most prominent figures of Hungarian modernism. After earning his Master’s degree in art history from Eötvös Loránd University (2002), Gergely became the research fellow of the MTA-ELTE University Research Institute for Art History and since 2006 he works for the RCH-HAS-IAH.
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The exhibition presents selected works, chiefly graphic pieces, from the private collection of Róbert Berény’s monographist and wife, many of which were on display at the time of the exhibition of the Eight. The exhibition will familiarise those present with Berény’s works done in cubist, fauvist or expressionist style. Moreover, the rarest pieces of his oeuvre, his applied artistic productions, connected to the embroideries designed by him in 1912, will also be introduced.
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Tuesday | 13 May | 7pm
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e TALK
≥ Hungarian Cultural Centre
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10 Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, London WC2E 7NA
wwi centenary event
Early Twentieth-century Hungarian Fine Art Dancing on the Volcano: Hungarian Artists on the Brink of the Great War Professor Peter Vergo, University of Essex During the 1890s and early 1900s, only a few Hungarian painters enjoyed a genuinely international reputation, among them Mihály Munkácsy and József Rippl-Rónai. But from about 1905 onwards, a number of younger artists began to set an overtly internationalist agenda, looking to Paris in particular for inspiration. The most important of them belonged to the so-called ‘Group of Eight’, an exhibiting society founded in Budapest in 1909–10.
In Hungary, as in the German-speaking countries, the outbreak of war had initially been greeted with a degree of patriotic fervour. But, as defeat loomed, the work of many Hungarian artists increasingly began to reflect pacifist, left-wing or openly revolutionary leanings. Several of the most important of those artists belonged to the circle around Lajos Kassák, whose periodical Ma (‘Today’) was a focus for radical movements not just in painting but in all the arts, including music and literature.
dead horses by jános vaszary, after 1914
self-portrait with soldier’s hat by hugó scheiber, 1917
This lecture looks at the activities of some prominent members of this group, including their reaction to the work of important French painters such as Cézanne and Matisse. It also considers how the outbreak of war put an end to this fruitful period of artist exchanges, and how artists responded to the war, in some cases as official war artists, in others as simple soldiers creating a vivid and often moving record of what they saw and experienced.
Peter Vergo is Professor of Art History and Theory at the University of Essex. He has published widely, including his book Art in Vienna 1898–1918 (new edition due in 2015); Kandinsky, Complete Writings on Art; and The ThyssenBornemisza Collection: 20th Century German Painting. His exhibition Vienna 1900 was the centrepiece of the 1983 Edinburgh Festival, for which he was awarded the Austrian Golden Order of Merit. More recently, he has been working on early twentieth-century Hungarian art, literature and music. Δ Free but booking is required. Please call 020 7240 8448 or email bookings@hungary.org.uk. To keep up-to-date please join the event on our Facebook page www.facebook.com/HCCLondon
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Poster design, one of the high points of Hungarian visual art of this period, played a central role during the years of defeat, revolution and the establishment of the ‘Republic of Councils’. Several members of the ‘Group of Eight’, including figures such as Róbert Berény and Bertalan Pór, experimented with this genre, putting their considerable talents at the service of the short-lived Hungarian revolution. The talk ends with a brief look at the counter-revolutionary backlash, the establishment of the ‘White Terror’ and the exodus of so many Hungarian artists, who quit their native land for destinations such as Vienna, Berlin and Moscow.
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seine by lajos tihanyi, 1908
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Wednesday | 14 May | 7pm ≥ Hungarian Cultural Centre ✉ 10 Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, London WC2E 7NA
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e TALK wwi centenary event
Hungarian Literature in the Early Twentieth Century Professor Mihály Szegedy-Maszák (Indiana University, Bloomington and Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest) What are the lasting achievements of the literary culture of early twentieth-century Hungary? Modernism became institutionalised with the publication of four journals. Huszadik Század (Twentieth Century, 1900–1919) was edited by the political scientist Oszkár Jászi (1875–1957). Nyugat (West, 1908–41) became associated with the poets Endre Ady (1877–1919), Mihály Babits (1883–1941), Dezsô Kosztolányi (1885–1936), and Milán Füst (1888–1967), the author of the novel The Story of My Wife (1942). A Szellem (Mind, 1911) was the organ of a group of intellectuals that included Béla Balázs (1884–1919), the librettist of Bartók, the art critic Lajos Fülep (1885–1970) and the philosopher György Lukács (1885–1971).
gyula krúdy zsigmond móricz mihály babits endre ady dezsô kosztolányi
A Tett (Action, 1915–16) and its successor Ma (Today, 1916–25), edited by the free-verse poet and visual artist Lajos Kassák (1887–1967), a close friend of the painters known as ”The Eight” and Moholy-Nagy, were the journals of the Hungarian avant-garde movement. Among these authors Kosztolányi occupies something of a unique position in Hungarian literature. He is the only Hungarian author to have succeeded not only in writing first-rate lyric verse, essayistic prose, and narrative fiction (novels and short stories), influenced by Chinese and Japanese poetry and psycho-
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Mihály Szegedy-Maszák is Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies at Eötvös Loránd University, Professor Emeritus of Central Eurasian Studies at Indiana University, a member of Academia Europaea (London) and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He is the author of Literary Canons: National and International (2001), sixteen books in Hungarian (among them monographs on the authors Zsigmond Kemény, Sándor Márai, Géza Ottlik and Dezsô Kosztolányi), editor-in-chief of a three-volume history of Hungarian literature (2007) and the journal Hungarian Studies, co-author of Théorie littéraire (1989), Epoche –Text – Modalität (1999), A Companion to Hungarian Studies (1999), Angezogen und abgestoßen: Juden in der ungarischen Literatur (1999), The Phoney Peace: Power and Culture in Central Europe 1945–49 (2000), National Heritage – National Canon (2001) and Der lange, dunkle Schatten: Studien zum Werk von Imre Kertész (2004). He has published articles on the culture of the Habsburg Monarchy, the theory of the novel, Romanticism, modernism, postmodernism, translation and inter-art studies, Richard Wagner, Henry James, Gustav Mahler, Béla Bartók, Ezra Pound, Wilhelm Furtwängler and Buster Keaton in English, French, German, Polish, Chinese and Hungarian. Δ Free but booking is required. Please call 020 7240 8448 or email bookings@hungary.org.uk
To keep up-to-date please join the event on our Facebook page www.facebook.com/HCCLondon
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analysis, but also in producing a wide range of translations of lasting value. A priest of the art of writing in his lifetime, he is one of the most widely read authors in contemporary Hungary, and a figure of international reputation to whom numerous other writers have paid homage, from Thomas Mann to Miroslav Krleža, from Danilo Kiš, Deborah Eisenberg, Sándor Márai, and Attila József to Péter Esterházy, whose work Esti (2010) is based on Kosztolányi's anti-novel Kornél Esti (1933).
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Thursday | 15 May | 6.30pm ≥ Hungarian Cultural Centre ✉ 10 Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, London WC2E 7NA
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e PRESENTATION & BOOK LAUNCH
The Art of Cultural Diplomacy H.E. Ms Katalin Bogyay FRSA, FWAA Ambassador and Permanent Delegate of Hungary to UNESCO President of the 36th Session of UNESCO General Conference, Founding director of the Hungarian Cultural Centre Opening words by Dr. Dezsô Szabó, Director, International Directorate, Balassi Institute Katalin Bogyay remembers… We are all different from each other. But diversity is the source of strength and beauty of our planet. For me, diversity is not a burden but a source of inspiration. “You are not a drop in the ocean” sang the 13th century Persian poet, Rumi, “you are the entire ocean in a drop.” It is with such mindset, that we must look to our future – seeing every human being as an ocean of feelings, hopes and aspirations. Promoting cultural diversity has been my life-long occupation – I have devoted my professional career to connecting people of diverse cultural backgrounds through the universal language of music, art and communication. To “build the defenses of peace in the minds of men and women,” as UNESCO’s constitution declares, is the very essence of the Organization. “With our thoughts we make the world,” teaches us Buddha. But in isolation, no matter how powerful, the ideas within individual minds will not improve the lives of others. We must unite across the existing national, ethnic, and social boundaries to give our ideas a chance to cross-pollinate and spread for a truly global impact. And the most effective tool towards this end is the soft power of cultural, scientific and sports diplomacy. I remember the time I started to set up the Hungarian Cultural Centre in Covent Garden. I wanted to create a “fashionable Hub” where ideas, cultures, religions, thoughts, artists and different people can meet each other. And where Hungarian culture can act as a real bridge and as a source of inspiration. That was the base of the journey which started in 1999 in Maiden Lane…
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She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (UK) and of the World Academy of Art and Science (US). She is an International Advisor and the President of Cultural Diplomacy & The Arts program to the Institute of Cultural Diplomacy (Berlin, Germany) and to the Institute for Global and European Studies, IGES (Corvinus University, Budapest). She is an honorary member of the London-based Imago-International Psychoanalytical Society. Katalin Bogyay is an active promoter of music as the medium of intercultural cooperation and understanding. She is a founding member of the Liszt Academy Network , based in London, and a board member of the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra, the oldest Orchestra of Hungary, founded by Ferenc Erkel. She is a recipient of several high honors, including the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of Hungary for her outstanding contribution to Hungarian culture and cultural diplomacy, Nehru Gold Medal of UNESCO (2013), Special Trophy of Fair Play for promoting sports diplomacy from the International Fair Play Committee (2013), the Chain Bridge Award by Hungary for her services to Hungarian foreign affairs (2013), the Grand Cross of the Order of Sahametrei by King Norodom Sihamoni of Cambodia for intercultural cooperation (2013), Officer of the Order of Leopold by King Albert II of Belgium (2008), Aphelandra, the humanitarian prize for her work performed internationally building bridges between people( 2009) and the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary for her contribution to international culture (2005). The Balassi Institute at a glance Dr. Dezsô Szabó, director for international relations will provide a short overview of the Balassi Institute and its strategic goals. The Balassi Institute plays a key role in the professional direction of Hungarian cultural affairs as its main objective is to project a quality-oriented image of our nation, thereby increasing Hungary’s prestige internationally and strengthening and preserving all facets of Hungarian culture both within and outside of Hungary’s borders. Please note this event is by invitation only.
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She is a firm believer of cultural diplomacy based on intercultural dialogue, as demonstrated in setting up the Hungarian Cultural Centre in London Covent Garden, and masterminded Magyar Magic (2003-2004), the Hungarian Cultural Season in the U.K. introducing 2000 artists in 500 events in collaboration with more than 300 British partners.
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Katalin Bogyay has served as Hungarian Ambassador and Permanent Delegate to UNESCO since 2009 and in the capacity of the President of the General Conference of UNESCO (2011-2013). A tireless and committed cultural bridge-builder throughout her multifaceted professional life, she has occupied the posts of Hungary’s State Secretary for International Affairs for Education and Culture (2006-2009) and the Director of the Hungarian Cultural Centre in Covent Garden, London, UK (1999–2006). She has also led a career of international television broadcaster, film producer and writer.
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Thursday | 15 May
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e CONCERT
≥ Hungarian Cultural Centre
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10 Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, London WC2E 7NA
Early Twentieth-century Hungarian Music Tamás Vásáry › piano | Zsuzsa Vámosi-Nagy › flute Tamás Vásáry needs no introduction to UK audiences. He rose to prominence as a virtuoso pianist in Hungary, but flourished internationally in the 1960s and 70s following his departure to the West. In the late 70s he turned to conducting and toured extensively in that role, especially in the U.S. Tamás Vásáry was born in Debrecen, Hungary, on 11 August 1933. He was a child prodigy, debuting at eight in a performance of Mozart’s D major Concerto, K. 107. In 1956, the year of the failed Hungarian Revolution, he fled Hungary and settled in Switzerland.
programme Poulenc: Sonata Taffanel: Fantasy on ‘Der Freischütz’ by Weber Beethoven: Moonlight Sonata Op. 27, No. 2 Kodály: Marosszék Dances Chopin: Chopin Andante spianato et Grande polonaise Op.22 Liszt: Legend No. 2 ‘St. Francis of Paola Walking on the Waves’ Liszt: Dreams of Love S.541 Liszt: Rigoletto Fantasy Paraphrase
Tamás Vásáry debuted at the Royal Festival Hall of London in 1961, which performance started off his international career. From that year on, he was given thousands of concerts at the most prestigious musical centres of the world located in London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Rome, Madrid, Lisbon, Luxemburg, Stockholm and Oslo. In 1962 György Széll introduced him to New Yorkers during a concert at the Carnegie Hall. Tamás Vásáry has collaborated with the world’s most prominent orchestras and most acknowledged conductors on a regular basis – for instance Ernest Ansermet, André Cluitens, Paul Kletzki, Ferenc Fricsai, André Previn,
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Zsuzsa Vámosi-Nagy graduated from the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music (Budapest) in 2006 as a student of Professor Lóránt Kovács. She also studied in the Hague with Emily Beynon. Afterwards, on full scholarship, she attended the postraduate course at the Royal Academy of Music in London and was tutored by Professor William Bennett. In 2008, she was awarded the prestigeous Queen's Commendation for Excellence prize by the Academy and received her diploma with distinction. She attended several international flute master classes (Michel Debost, Peter Lloyd, William Bennett, Aurele Nicolet, András Adorján, Jiri Valek, Jaime Martin, Emily Beynon, Lorna McGhee) and international flute competitions with great success (two 1st and three 2nd prizes in different categories of competitions at the Summer Academy of Music in Semmering, winner of the International Flute Competition in Bukarest and the 11th International Flute Competition in Timisoara). In 2008 and 2009, she received the Fischer Annie scholarship, and in 2009 she was awarded the highly ranked Junior Prima prize. Zsuzsa Vámosi-Nagy is an active orchestral player as well: she has been principal flutist of the Ventoscala Symphony Orchestra since 2003 and the Solti Chamber Orchestra since 2008. From 2006 to 2008, she was principal flutist of the Royal Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra in London. She has regurarly been invited as a guest principal flutist in the Fundación Excelentia Symphony Orchestra of Madrid since September 2013.
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As a conductor, Vásáry has worked with over a hundred orchestras including the Berlin Philharmoniker, the New York Philharmonic, the Dallas Philharmonic, the Detroit Philharmonic, the Houston Philharmonic, the Baltimore Philharmonic, the Denver Philharmonic, the London Philharmonic, the London Symphony, the Royal Philharmonic, the Philharmonia, the Orchestre National de France, the Santa Cecilia (Rome), the Torino Rai and the Spanish National. Furthermore, he was director and first conductor of two English orchestras; the Northern Sinfonia (1979-1982) and the Bournemouth Sinfonietta (1989-1997). Between 1993 and 2004, he was director of music of the Symphony Orchestra of the Hungarian Radio. He has been honorary director of music of the orchestra since 2004.
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Claudio Abbado, Simon Rattle, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Eugen Jockhum, Erick Leinsdorf, Antal Doráti, Bernard Haitink, Kurt Sanderling, György Solti, Rudolf Kempe, Neville Marriner and Adrian Boult. Moreover, he is a frequent guest of the most notable festivals taking place in Salzburg, Edinburgh, Berlin, Granada, Aldeburgh, Tanglewood (USA), Cleveland Blossom, Stresa, Hong Kong, London or Budapest.
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In 2008 and 2010, Zsuzsa was a teaching assistant of William Bennett at his International Flute Summer Schools. She appeared as a soloist of international flute conventions in Manchester and New York. Moreover, she regularly gives solo and chamber music concerts in Hungary and abroad. Zsuzsa is currently attending the doctoral course of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, being also a teacher of the Weiner Leó Conservatory. Please note this event is by invitation only. HCC’s 15th Anniversary events have been made possible with the generous support of Nemzeti Kulturális Alap (NKA).
Monday | 19 May | 6–8pm ≥ Embassy of Hungary London
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35 Eaton Place, London SW1X 8BY
e SYMPOSIUM wwi centenary event
An Evening of History Hungary and the UK in World War I The audience of this symposium will be transported back in time with the help of Sir Bryan Cartledge, former British diplomat and author of The Will to Survive, Professor Norman Davies, history lecturer at the University of Oxford and Professor Géza Jeszenszky, historian and former Foreign Minister of Hungary, who will give their insights into the goings on behind the scenes.
sir bryan cartledge, professor norman davies, professor géza jeszenszky, mátyás sárközi
The discussion will be moderated by the writer Mátyás Sárközi, who will share with us some anecdotes about his grandfather, the world famous playwright Ferenc Molnár, who also served as a war correspondent. During the discussion you will be able to enjoy drinks and contemporary Hungarian delicacies prepared by the chef of the Embassy of Hungary. This WWI Centenary Event has been organised in partnership with the Embassy of Hungary in London, the Hungarian Cultural Centre and St Anthony’s College of Oxford University.
Please note this event is by invitation only.