Liszt Academy Concert Magazine 2018/1 by Zeneakadémia

LISZT ACADEMY CONCERT MAGAZINE JANUARYâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;JUNE 2018

Music is our most complex artistic branch, the abstract manifestation of our emotions and motivations, to which the cultural heritage of millennia is connected. During this first half of 2018 we offer a wide range of concerts that promise to be soul-enriching and memorable experiences for music-loving audiences. I feel that we have managed to compile a concert programme worthy of the significance and tradition of our fine institution. Audience favourites, tried and tested series such as Talent Obliges, Here and Now and Complete Works Live are to be found in all genres, but some new ones like Competition Winners and The Piano Twice also await your discovery. A novelty this season is the series by resident ensembles of the Liszt Academy in the At Home in the Liszt Academy season ticket. Brilliant stars such as Julia Lezhneva, Mischa Maisky, Janine Jansen, Colin Currie, Zoltán Rácz, Miklós Perényi, Kim Kashkashian, László Fenyő, Duo Koroliov, Capella Gabetta and Kammerorchester Basel appear in our series Orchestra in the Centre, Chamber Music – Tuned for Grand Hall and Chamber Music, So Close. Those world-class soloists and ensembles appearing in front of full houses at our concerts at the Liszt Academy do so in the company of our own young artists, meaning that megastars who are magnets for audiences share the stage with our gifted young talents, who can thus learn from first-hand experience about the backstage secrets of professional concert life. Musical talent is multifaceted; it requires charismatic personalities and teachers capable of passing on not only knowledge but emotions, so that these are recognized, understood and nurtured. It is no coincidence that each and every one of the classical music stars in Concert Magazine remember their erstwhile instructors, those who inspired them, with gratitude. A unique feature of the Liszt Academy is that it has produced and maintained exactly the same world-beating quality since the day of its foundation. After the passage of 142 years, the status of the Liszt Academy today remains as luminous as it was in outstanding periods of the past century. In the mutually-enriching process of tradition and talent nurture, certain periods can last for decades, and they can differ depending upon historical circumstances, but our special place in global music remains rock solid. We continue to be regarded as a major global power in music. I believe that audiences capable of connecting with music have a better chance of overcoming the challenges they face and of navigating a way out of the labyrinths of modern day life. Dr Andrea Vigh President of the Liszt Academy 1

CONTENTS

GREETING FROM THE PRESIDENT

CATHARSIS ON A DAILY BASIS – INTERVIEW WITH TAMÁS FREUND, BRAIN RESEARCHER

JANUARY PROGRAMME CHRONOLOGY

TALENT IN ITSELF IS NOT ENOUGH – A FEW THOUGHTS FROM SALVATORE ACCARDO

JANUARY CONCERT GUIDE

GLIMPSE INTO THE HISTORY OF THE 2017 BARTÓK WORLD COMPETITION AND FESTIVAL

FEBRUARY PROGRAMME CHRONOLOGY

FEBRUARY CONCERT GUIDE

MARCH PROGRAMME CHRONOLOGY

TALENT DAY 2018

MARCH CONCERT GUIDE

“THERE IS ALWAYS A RIGHT APPROACH, WE JUST HAVE TO FIND IT – THIS IS THE MOST DIFFICULT TASK FOR EDUCATORS” – JOEL SMIRNOFF ON NURTURING TALENT

APRIL PROGRAMME CHRONOLOGY

PARITY – THE QUEST FOR TRUE ART – INTERVIEW WITH JÁNOS ROLLA AND LÁSZLÓ G. HORVÁTH

APRIL CONCERT GUIDE

MAY – JUNE PROGRAMME CHRONOLOGY

LET’S CONNECT WITH MUSIC! – ADVICE FROM PINCHAS STEINBERG

MAY – JUNE CONCERT GUIDE

PAINTINGS ABOUT MUSIC

PARADISE IS JUST A FEW STEPS AWAY – INTERVIEW WITH VILMOS SZABADI

DIPLOMA CONCERTS

CELESTIAL TONES OF HEAVENLY MUSIC FULL OF PRIDE – Q&A ABOUT LISZT

LISZT MUSEUM MATINÉE AND EVENING CONCERTS

LISZT KIDZ ACADEMY

TICKET MAP AND INFORMATION

‘Talent obliges!’ This exhortation of Ferenc Liszt is the motto of one of our concert series in which we show off our best students to the public. From the talent perspective, this maxim represents the utmost dedication and the immense amount of practice required by our students, together the appropriate management by the academy of their talent. As the concert organizer working in the background, it is our duty to provide every opportunity for this to come to pass, by providing opportunities for students to practice, to perform in concerts, to enter competitions, and to take part in courses run by top professionals, as well as offering help in managing their talent. Perhaps the most important – and indeed uplifting – part of our work is seeing talent become ever stronger and take on a more defined form. We send invitations to many young artists from Hungary and abroad, competition winners and others. We watch as the new generation take their rightful place on stage as audiences demand new stars. It is a matter of great pride that very many in the galaxy of talented artists can call the Liszt Academy their alma mater, that so many leading figures of international music, renowned and sought-after stars, were once our students. We can never know for certain who of those taking to the stage today in Liszt Academy concerts or heard in their diploma concerts will become big attractions at top venues the world over in just a few years’ time. Not long ago during an international conference, we discussed the issue of developing talent with colleagues from many different areas. The question was raised as to what is the greatest danger with regards the emergence of talent. István Várdai’s answer surprised many: Success. But the fact is that success, particularly that which comes too early and without sufficient work behind it, can become a danger; there is no progress without hard practice, and tempting possibilities that suddenly spring up can quickly prove to be mirages. At the same time, success is the greatest motivator and without it all effort could end up being in vain. This is why it is important that emerging talents remain well cared for by experienced hands until the point at which the value of success can be properly judged and appreciated. It is our job, in the background, to help talented young musicians acquire their initial successes and provide opportunities to showcase talent. I would encourage all of you to come to the concerts we stage that feature our most talented young artists, and then decide for yourselves who are those musicians you really want to hear again, who are the greats of tomorrow. We provide the opportunity for you to choose. András Csonka Programme Director of the Liszt Academy 2

What is the secret of – indeed is there anything more insoluble than – talent, that capability to enthral an audience? We put this very question to several of the illustrious jury members of the Bartók World Competition and Festival organized in autumn 2017, and their varied responses are revealed in interviews in this Concert Magazine. Those we asked concede that the sometimes circuitous and bumpy road in the development of a talented artist is shaped by numerous decisive, serendipitous meetings. Nonetheless, a great deal still depends on the educational system and artistic upbringing of the artist in providing an environment in which a charismatic and authentic mentor can pick out those individuals with outstanding abilities and accompany the student in question down that road – which is precisely what the professor interviewed for our Parity column did for one grateful young student. Internationally-renowned violinists warn us that in a world built on strong stimuli and instant responses, young people must be taught according to a different framework and using a different approach. These artists are convinced that music becomes unforgettable for both listener and performer only when emotions are infused into the music and the performance. It is encouraging to hear that everyone still believes in tenacity, patience, the power of the sincere transmission of a piece of themselves – and that there is always a path that leads to talent, even when finding this path is the teacher’s most difficult task. The expression of the profundity of emotions gives a moving and yet liberating experience of everyday catharsis for those seated in the auditorium, who themselves belong to different generations. Perhaps it is no coincidence that our Széchenyi and Brain Prize winner researcher, who is also of international repute, discovers the possibility of living through rich emotions in music, and considers that this is, the pledge of acquirable positive thinking, fuels in the long term a desire to learn in other areas of our lives. To conclude, I have great pleasure in recommending this latest edition of Concert Magazine, which examines the topic of musical talent through unconventional interviews with performers capable of creating and maintaining an exceptional atmosphere at our concerts. Júlia Torda Editor-in-Chief/ Director of Communications and Media Content Development, Liszt Academy 3

CATHARSIS ON A DAILY BASIS What is the secret of musical success? Is there anything more enigmatic than talent? What is the defining characteristic that enables a musician to enchant his or her audience? We interviewed the Széchenyi Award-winning neuroscientist Professor Tamás Freund, who himself used to play the clarinet and who is still an active choir member, on the discernible yet unfathomable nature of talent.

Is it possible that a child is talented, let’s say in music, but this talent never manifests itself? Yes, it might happen, let’s say, if music is not part of the daily routine of family life at all, and so there is absolutely no chance for the child to whistle the melody, for example, of an aria they heard on the radio. Or they don’t have a music teacher who asks the students to sing regularly or gets them to try to play an instrument. In other words, the circumstances are not ‘right’ for their talent to manifest itself. Thank God, it is quite rare, as already in primary school there are conscious efforts made to find where pupils’ talents lie. You once claimed that learning to play an instrument is not really possible in adult years. What is the explanation and neuroscientific basis for this claim? If someone plans to become a professional musician, they must be availed with certain manual skills whose acquisition is much better facilitated by the brain plasticity of childhood. If a young man of twenty starts to learn to play the piano, neither the cerebellum nor other functional areas of the brain can make the same progress – as to their storage- or processing capacity – as would be the case if he had begun his piano studies in early childhood. The background of this is that although the neurons themselves cannot reproduce – they only die with time – the synaptic connections between them can be recreated. The strength of the synapses between the neurons keeps changing, and if someone uses this network very intensively, the synapses become reinforced. First, the synapses get strengthened, but when they cannot become any stronger, they grow further dendritic branches so that the connectivity becomes even more extensive. The growing number of dendrites will result in an increase in brain volume. This is why it has been experimentally observed that in orchestra musicians both the cerebellum (which plays an important role in motor control) and the language centre are larger than in an average person. Dendritic growth or neuroplasticity is much more efficient in childhood than in adulthood. To play a musical instrument, refined finger movements, highly skilled motor coordination and exceptional speed are crucial skills. These all require plastic reorganisation of a well-developed cerebellum and other brain areas, and this can only be achieved by early development. Musical talent can manifest itself at an early age, while a gift for science becomes apparent only later. Why is this?

TAMÁS FREUND © TAMÁS SZIGETI 4

A scientific bent can also become obvious at quite an early age. Some children prefer playing football, whereas others on seeing a beetle

immediately start counting its legs and explore why and how they fly. So, I believe that a gift for physics, biology or chemistry manifests itself already in primary school. A good educator, of course, takes note of it. What’s more, an able teacher doesn’t only notice such an interest but stimulates it. We may be talented in many ways, but of all potential career paths, we tend to pick the one that was conveyed by the teacher with the most charismatic personality. Parents are often advised to have their children study music in the belief that other competencies will also be developed simultaneously, and the children will then learn other school subjects more effectively. How are these skills interconnected?

ACTIVE INTERACTION WITH ART IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT Professor Tamás Freund suggests that children should have as many arts experiences as possible: ‘Without catharses on a daily basis, kids have insufficient emotional wealth to draw from for effective learning and studying. Furthermore, it is vital that the information should be stored in a way that is easily accessible and recallable for conscious mental processes. Arts are crucial for this, for it is through the various art forms that we can develop our world of emotions, positive thinking and a quest for knowledge. Immerse in music: if you don’t play an instrument, sing, or go to film clubs, drama circles, poetry evenings, art camps. Active interaction with art can lead to wonderful, cathartic adventures. Our children should be provided with these opportunities, so that they can make the most of their talent in arts, science, or any other area.’

The neural network of our cerebral cortex stores memory traces. This storage capacity is virtually inexhaustible. Practically everything that has ever happened to us has left a kind of long-lasting trace in our brain. Yet we don’t remember everything. Our creativity and our mental competencies depend on our life experiences that we have come to store, but even more importantly, on how easily we are able to recall these. If we are unable to address these memory traces appropriately and make use of them in our conscious mental processes, they will simply rest there for good and be of no practical use. In order to learn effectively, that is, to put ‘handles’ on these memory parcels so that we can get hold of them and recall them, it is necessary to have a rich inner world that consists of our emotions and motivations, as well as the multi-millennial cultural heritage of mankind, which has a profound impact on these. If our inner world ‘marks’ the memory parcels coming from the external world, we will be able to recall them with more ease. I often use an metaphor here to make this process easier to imagine: our inner world is like the mortar which covers bricks of information; so as these bricks are placed next to and on top of each other, it is the mortar that keeps them together so that we can build a house of knowledge. The thicker the mortar that sticks the bricks together, the wider ranging is our associative capacity; while the more individual and unique this mortar is, representing our inner world, the surer it is that things will evoke thoughts in us that don’t occur to others. This is one of the requirements of creativity. We could also call it originality, couldn’t we? Yes, we could. It is our original way of thinking, our mental competence, which reflects our unique and individual inner world. The impulses of our inner world trigger a wave activity via special trajectory systems in our cerebral cortex, and this wave activity harmonises the operation of the neurons in the middle of the coding process. This in turn reinforces their connectivity, and thus the information gets ‘burned’ on the brain. This is how the information parcels of the outer world are sealed through the impulses of our inner world. If these trajectories are not regularly made use of, or there is no emotional or motivational impulse they can transmit, then we cannot learn effectively and no original ideas pop up from superficially stored information. To generate creativity in young people, it is primarily arts that should be focussed on at secondary school. 5

CONCERT CHRONOLOGY JANUARY Concerts organized by Liszt Academy Concert Centre Hosted concert

SATURDAY 6 JANUARY 2018, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

TUESDAY 9 JANUARY 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

TRANSPARENT SOUND NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL – OPENING CONCERT

HUNGARIAN RADIO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

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Classical Jazz Opera World / Folk Junior

CONCERTO BUDAPEST PERÉNYI 70 Dvořák: Silent Woods, Op. 68 Dvořák: Rondo for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 94 Schumann: Cello Concerto in A minor, Op. 129 Dvořák: Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95 (‘From the New World’)

THURSDAY 4 JANUARY 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

FÉLIX LAJKÓ Miklós Perényi (cello) Concerto Budapest Conductor: András Keller

Tickets: HUF 3 900, 4 900, 7 500, 9 900, 12 500 Organizer: Fonó Music Hall

Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Op.55 (‘Eroica’) Beethoven: Mass in C major, Op. 86 Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir (choirmaster: Zoltán Pad) Conductor: Tamás Vásáry Tickets: HUF 3 000, 4 300, 5 500, 6 500 Organizer: Hungarian Radio Music Ensembles SATURDAY 13 JANUARY 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

THE PIANO TWICE KATIA & MARIELLE LABÈQUE KATIA & MARIELLE LABÈQUE

Tickets: HUF 2 700, 3 600, 4 400, 5 300, 6 400 Organizer: Concerto Budapest

FÉLIX LAJKÓ

SATURDAY 6 JANUARY 2018, 22.00 GRAND HALL

CONCERTO BUDAPEST PREMIER I. – ÁDÁM KONDOR Ádám Kondor: Piano Concerto Gábor Csalog (piano) Conductor: Zoltán Rácz

FRIDAY 5 JANUARY 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

Tickets: HUF 1 000 Organizer: Concerto Budapest SUNDAY 7 JANUARY 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

ANDREI KOROBEINIKOV PIANO RECITAL MVM CONCERTS – THE PIANO

MONDAY 15 JANUARY 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

Miklós Perényi (cello) Concerto Budapest Conductor: András Keller Tickets: HUF 2 700, 3 600, 4 400, 5 300, 6 400 Organizer: Concerto Budapest 6

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ISTVÁN VÁRDAI & FRIENDS

ANDREI KOROBEINIKOV

Ligeti: Cello Sonata Chopin: Sonata for Cello and Piano in G minor, Op. 65 Dohnányi: Serenade in C major, Op. 10 Mozart: Piano Quartet in E-flat major, K. 493

TUESDAY 16 JANUARY 2018, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

OPERA EXAM FESTIVAL TANG XIANZU SHANGHAI CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC Page 15 TUESDAY 16 JANUARY 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

AT HOME IN THE LISZT ACADEMY NILS MÖNKEMEYER & KELEMEN QUARTET

OPERA EXAM FESTIVAL THE MEDIUM JERUSALEM ACADEMY OF MUSIC AND DANCE

VERONIKA HARCSA & FRIENDS FRANCISCAN CHARITY NIGHT FOR PEOPLE WITH AUTISM

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THURSDAY 18 JANUARY 2018, 19.00 GRAND HALL

MÁV SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Dohnányi: Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 5 Rachmaninov: Symphonic Dances, Op. 45 Sofja Gülbadamova (piano) MÁV Symphony Orchestra Conductor: Dmitri Jurowski Tickets: HUF 3 500, 4 000, 4 500 Organizer: MÁV Symphony Orchestra

NILS MÖNKEMEYER

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FRIDAY 19 JANUARY 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

VERONIKA HARCSA

Tickets: HUF 4 400, 5 400, 6 900 Organizer: Filharmónia Hungary

THURSDAY 18 JANUARY 2018, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

DMITRI JUROWSKI

István Várdai (cello), Eldar Nebolsin (piano), Lars-Anders Tomter (viola), Guy Braunstein (violin)

SATURDAY 20 JANUARY 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

HUNGARIAN NATIONAL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA Beethoven: Coriolan – Overture, Op. 62 Mozart: Oboe Concerto in C major, K. 314 Schubert: Symphony No. 4 in C minor, D. 417 (‘Tragic’)

WEDNESDAY 17 JANUARY 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

MITSUKO UCHIDA PIANO RECITAL MVM CONCERTS – THE PIANO

Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra Oboe and conductor: François Leleux

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MITSUKO UCHIDA

Tickets: HUF 3 000, 4 500, 6 000 Organizer: Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra

FRIDAY 19 JANUARY 2018, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

OPERA EXAM FESTIVAL ARMIDA LISZT FERENC ACADEMY OF MUSIC Page 16

HUNGARIAN NATIONAL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

SUNDAY 21 JANUARY 2018, 11.00 SOLTI HALL

THURSDAY 25 JANUARY 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

LISZT KIDZ ACADEMY THE ‘SUPERFLUOUS’ SCORE FOR 10–15 YEAR OLDS

DANUBIA ORCHESTRA ÓBUDA MACHINES Honegger: Pacific 231 Honegger: Mouvement symghonique, No. 3 John Williams: Star Wars Suite Gabriel Prokofiev: Turntable Concerto John Adams: Short Ride in a Fast Machine

Page 17 SUNDAY 21 JANUARY 2018, 19.00 SOLTI TEREM Acoustic, Authentic

SÁRA TÍMÁR RECORD RELEASE CONCERT WHAT SHALL I CALL YOU?...

SÁRA TÍMÁR

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János Balázs (piano) Dohnányi Orchestra Budafok Performer and conductor: Gábor Hollerung Tickets: HUF 1 900, 2 300, 2 700 Organizer: Dohnányi Orchestra Budafok SUNDAY 28 JANUARY 2018, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

OPERA EXAM FESTIVAL THE RAPE OF LUCRETIA DUTCH NATIONAL OPERA ACADEMY

Featuring: DJ Quick Danubia Orchestra Óbuda Conductor: Gergely Vajda

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

MONDAY 29 JANUARY 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

SATURDAY 27 JANUARY 2018, 15.30 GRAND HALL

ORCHESTRA IN THE CENTRE MATTHIAS GOERNE & KAMMERORCHESTER BASEL

VILMOS SZABADI

ZUGLÓ PHILHARMONICS BUDAPEST

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CHAMBER MUSIC, SO CLOSE MOBILIS SAXOPHONE QUARTET & ERZSÉBET SELELJO Page 19 TUESDAY 30 JANUARY 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

BUDAPEST STRINGS CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

TUESDAY 23 JANUARY 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

ÖDÖN RÁCZ & FRANZ LISZT CHAMBER ORCHESTRA Rossini: Sonata No. 6 in D major (‘La Tempesta’) Bottesini: Double Bass Concerto No. 2 in B minor Britten: Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, Op. 10 Ödön Rácz (double bass) Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra (concertmaster: Péter Tfirst) Tickets: HUF 2 900, 4 200, 5 500, 6 900 Organizer: Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra 8

Dukas: The Sorcerer's Apprentice Hubay: Concerto for Violin No. 3 in G minor, Op. 99 Franck: Symphony in D minor Vilmos Szabadi (violin) Zugló Philharmonics Budapest Conductor: Gergely Ménesi

Tchaikovsky: Souvenir de Florence, Op. 70 Bizet–Shchedrin: Carmen Suite Amadinda Percussion Group Budapest Strings Chamber Orchestra (concertmaster: János Pilz, artistic director: Károly Botvay)

Tickets: HUF 2 300, 2 500, 2 900 Organizer: Zugló Philharmonics Budapest

Tickets: HUF 2 800, 3 800, 4 800, 5 800 Organizer: Budapest Strings Chamber Orchestra

SUNDAY 28 JANUARY 2018, 11.00 GRAND HALL

WEDNESDAY 31 JANUARY 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

UNDERSTANDABLE MUSIC DOHNÁNYI ORCHESTRA BUDAFOK ROMANTHIC AVANTGARDE

JÁNOS BALÁZS PIANO RECITAL MVM CONCERTS – THE PIANO

László Dubrovay: Concerto Romantico

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FEDEZD FEL VELÜNK A MEGÚJULT MARIECLAIRE.HU-T!

online mindennap marieclaire.hu

TALENT IN ITSELF IS NOT ENOUGH The globally recognised violinist Salvatore Accardo visited the Liszt Academy twice this year: most recently, this autumn, last as leader of the Quartetto Accardo, while some weeks earlier he was here as chair of the jury at the Bartók World Competition and Festival. As one the most celebrated violin virtuosos of our time – and someone considered to be the most authentic interpreter of Niccoló Paganini’s works – Maestro Accardo has been a professor of music for several decades. He holds the opinion that today’s young musicians are in a much more difficult position than their predecessors should they plan to pursue a career in music.

“I have been teaching for quite some time, and I can assure you that, in my own music career, it is not the concerts or the stage that is closest to my heart, but teaching. I love working with my students. Over the years, I have had hundreds of them from all over the world. I find teaching a fantastic thing, I am simply captivated by it. During the instruction process, it is not only the student who is enriched but also the teacher himself. In the education of the young generation, you must approach those different talents in different ways. The collaboration of the student and the teacher is a miracle.” “There is a vast array of talented young musicians today. Indeed, there are many more fantastic young violinists presently than there were in my youth. The current number of Asian students is remarkable; they are almost all outstanding young musicians, and whichever country of the world they come from, they play their instruments wonderfully, perfectly in a technical sense. The youth of today must be instructed with a different approach and according to different criteria. “The technical skills and aptitude of young musicians today enable them to play a repertoire at a much higher level than their predecessors of twenty or twenty-five years ago. However, these skilled musicians must learn that playing an instrument well and performing a piece with faultless technique does not necessarily mean making music; music is different, music is more: it requires a soul. I recall talking about this issue with my friend David Oistrakh. He also told me about his own conviction: ‘You know, I think technique is crucial but it is just as crucial to forget about it. In fact, if we concentrate on technique, we don’t complement nor put anything extra into the music. Clearly, technique is essential, if only for making the instrument actually sound. But this is too little. Understanding and learning this truth is one of the most essential responsibilities for the talented youth of our time.’” Maestro Accardo, the Head of Jury at the first Bartók World Competition, agrees with those who proclaim that generations Y and Z, who we might call ‘the digital generation’, live according to a new value system; they receive external stimuli in different ways because of a completely altered, post-modern environment. He believes that this equally applies to musicians. “As I see it, the digital generation is hardly, or not at all, familiar with the culture of sound. I am convinced that that today’s youth doesn’t listen to music in the right way. Mp3, the audio coding format currently used, is a highly compressed digital format; however, this compression is not good for the sounds. Thus, if someone listens to music in mp3 format, they hear something else than what we used to hear and listen to. This digital sound is less full, so even if we talk about the same work, the same concert, we cannot

SALVATORE ACCARDO 11

possibly mean the same thing, for compression inevitably brings about a loss in sound quality. When my friends and I listened to music on vinyl records, we were part of a much warmer, fuller musical experience, which – with time and with the advent of digitalisation – has become more meagre and poorer.” Salvatore Accardo continues: “Young people today get an utterly different, if you will, colder, much less emotional musical experience, which will then influence their own performance, and this effect is unfortunately not beneficial. Progress in technology results in the loss of expression, which they could otherwise benefit from in their own musical performances. “The stage presence of the members of today’s young generation differs from that of their predecessors in other ways too: young people today put a much greater emphasis on the ‘show factor’ during a concert. I keep telling my students to watch and listen to the recordings of the musicians of the past because they will learn a lot from them. In those days, musicians were gentlemen on stage – Oistrakh, Milstein, Francescatti, and Grumiaux – they never came up with a show during the concert, they didn’t need to. Today, however, violinists often consider visual effects while preparing for their recitals. I strongly believe that today’s young musicians don’t need a ‘show’ either, for they are fantastic artists as it is. In my opinion, it is all due to the negative impact of the media on the performing arts and artists. Anyway, those students who come to study with me are very much aware of the fact that I’d rather they didn’t put on a show. “I have encountered an incredible number of highly gifted musicians thanks to my many-decade-long career dedicated to teaching. Young people today have a very hard time because they must stand out from a great number of hugely talented musicians, create their own following, and become more widely known. Nevertheless, it seems to me that it is neither visual effects nor the faultlessly played repertoire performed with a perfect technique that makes a concert beautiful, but the emotions put into the music and the performance itself. Then and only then is an emotional bond established with the audience, something which is the heartfelt desire of all performing artists.” Salvatore Accardo was only three years old when he took his first violin lesson, and at the age of five he was already a student of Luigi D’Ambrosio in Naples. He gave his first professional concert, featuring Paganini’s 24 Caprices, when only thirteen. He was first-prize winner at the Geneva and Paganini International Violin Competitions at the age of fifteen. Talent development has always been dear to his heart; more than thirty years ago, he was one of the founders of the Accademia Walter Stauffer in Cremona, and today he holds a teaching position at the Chigiana Musical Academy in Siena.

Family background often plays a decisive role in the birth and development of talents. Whoever is born into a musical family will probably soon be given an instrument to play. These children often walk in the footsteps of their ancestors and turn into highly acclaimed musicians in their own right. “As far as I’m concerned,” Accardo adds, “I don’t intend to be a strict musician father to my daughters, someone who commands them to practise long hours every single day. I let them make music with love. My wife is also a violinist but our daughters are learning to play the piano. In fact, one of them told us that there were too many violinists in the family already, and this why they both preferred the piano. We didn’t want to interfere with this decision. It is quite natural, though, that as our life is centred around music, it is important to us that music should become an integral part of the life of our children too. But no matter what, it should be a labour of love.”

ENTRY IN THE LISZT ACADEMY GUEST BOOK SALVATORE ACCARDO (16 SEPTEMBER 2017) 13

SATURDAY 6 JANUARY 2018, 19.00

SUNDAY 7 JANUARY 2018, 19.30

SATURDAY 13 JANUARY 2018, 19.30

SOLTI HALL

GRAND HALL

TRANSPARENT SOUND NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL – OPENING CONCERT Ravel–Péter Tornyai: Ma mère l'Oye (transcription for chamber ensemble) Bálint Laczkó: Parallels Bálint Horváth: DEAC Nos. 3 & 4 Marcell Dargay: Sound Memories 1985 Grisey: Vortex temporum – Movements 1–2 THReNSeMBle Conductor: Balázs Horváth In this concert the THReNSeMBle performs pieces by 20th-century ‘classics’, ‘contemporary classic’ and other ‘contemporary’ composers. Gérard Grisey, who died in 1996, can certainly be considered a classic of contemporary music. He was not only an outstanding artistic personality and instructor of the post-Messiaen French composer generation, but thinking on music and tonality continue to this day to be defined by his ideas. Due to his unexpected early death, Vortex Temporum is regarded as his ‘late’ work, and is viewed as an iconic composition by a modern-day composer. Young composer Bálint Laczkó, who was born around the time that Grisey died, presented his Liszt Academy diploma work Parallels a few months ago; its structure matches almost exactly that of the Grisey work. Laczkó’s work represents the present in this programme, while Marcell Dargay’s piece rethinks alternative pop music of the 1980s. The ‘classics’ are performed in a somewhat new form, in versions orchestrated for chamber ensemble. The concert is preceded by a workshop at which performers initiate the audience – in an interactive way – into the secrets of the works on the programme. Ticket: HUF 1 200 Organizers: Liszt Academy Concert Centre, Transparent Sound New Music 14

ANDREI KOROBEINIKOV PIANO RECITAL MVM CONCERTS – THE PIANO Schubert: Impromptu in B-flat major, D. 935/3 Schubert: Impromptu in F minor, D. 935/1 Schubert: Impromptu in E-flat major, D. 899/2 Rachmaninov: Elegie, Op. 3/1 Rachmaninov: Variations on a Theme of Corelli, Op. 42 Liszt: Zwölf Lieder von Franz Schubert – 1. ‘Sei mir gegrüsst’; 2. ‘Auf dem Wasser zu singen’; 4. ‘Erlkönig’ Liszt: Sonata in B minor Andrei Korobeinikov (piano) Born in Dolgoprudny, just north of Moscow, Andrei Korobeinikov began playing the piano at the age of five. His remarkable abilities led to his giving his first solo recital at the Baku State Academy of Music in Azerbaijan when just eight years old. In 2006, aged 19, he graduated from the Moscow Tchaikovsky State Conservatoire; no one in his age group had reached such heights in the final exam since Rachmaninov himself more than a century earlier. He pursued a postgraduate course at the Royal College of Music in London, on completion of which he was awarded the special prize established by the President of the Academy, Prince Charles. Andrei has given acclaimed concerts, both solo and chamber, in 45 countries on four continents, in the company of top conductors and musicians. Tickets: HUF 3 000, 4 000, 5 000, 6 000, 8 000, 10 000 Organizers: Besszer Concert, Liszt Academy Concert Centre

THE PIANO TWICE KATIA & MARIELLE LABÈQUE Bryce Dessner: El Chan (transcription by Katia and Marielle Labèque for two pianos) Bartók: Five Pieces from Mikrokosmos for Two Pianos, BB 120 Brahms: Hungarian Dance No. 1 in G minor Brahms: Hungarian Dance No. 20 in E minor Brahms: Hungarian Dance No. 5 in F-sharp minor Bartók: Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, BB 115 Katia Labèque, Marielle Labèque (piano) Simone Rubin, Andrea Bindi (percussion) “The expression ‘sprezzatura’ – a Renaissance term denoting the performance artist ideal of lightness and studied carelessness” – sprang to the mind of the critic of The Times when he was considering a recording by Katia and Marielle Labèque. The siblings have tried out virtually every genre that exists: they have worked together with the major European and American symphony orchestras and Baroque ensembles, not to mention leading contemporary composers, including Pierre Boulez, György Ligeti, Thomas Adès, Louis Andriessen and Olivier Messiaen. Tickets: HUF 1 400, 2 100, 3 500, 4 900, 5 600 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

TUESDAY 16 JANUARY 2018, 19.00

TUESDAY 16 JANUARY 2018, 19.30

SOLTI HALL

GRAND HALL AT HOME IN THE LISZT ACADEMY NILS MÖNKEMEYER & KELEMEN QUARTET Schubert: String Quartet Movement in C minor, D. 703 (‘Quartettsatz’) Beethoven: String Quartet No. 15 in A minor, Op. 132 Brahms: String Quintet No. 2 in G major, Op. 111 Nils Mönkemeyer (viola) Kelemen Quartet: Barnabás Kelemen, Katalin Kokas (violin); Gábor Homoki (viola); László Fenyő (cello)

OPERA EXAM FESTIVAL TANG XIANZU SHANGHAI CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC Xu Jianqiang: Tang Xianzu Producer/Libretto: Lin Zaiyong Students of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music The Liszt Academy hosts not only European performances at the 5th Opera Exam Festival but, in a ground-breaking move, a Chinese production as well. True to the spirit of the festival, audiences can again reckon on a genuine one-off performance. Here, contemporary opera presents uplifting episodes from the life of Tang Xianzu, one of the most famous dramatists working around the same time as Shakespeare. After Tang retired as an administrator in 1598, he devoted his life to writing. Peony Pavilion is considered his most famous piece; it was also published in the volume of his dramas, Four Dreams. The biographical opera is staged by the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, one of China’s oldest conservatories of music. Composer of the production and proponent of Chinese traditions, Xu Jianqiang, is also a teacher of the Shanghai students. Ticket: HUF 1 200 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

Since forming in 2010, Kelemen Quartet have piled success on success; they have given concerts all over the world and collected many prominent prizes internationally. As the Liszt Academy’s ‘resident orchestra’ this year, the quartet are giving a series of concerts under the title At Home in the Liszt Academy, in the course of which audiences can enjoy string quartet compositions alongside many other works featuring fascinating instrument line-ups. The concert gets off the ground with Schubert’s String Quartet Movement in C minor, a piece which saw the light of day as the opening movement of an uncompleted composition. The String Quartet in A minor, a late work by Beethoven, is a core composition of the chamber repertoire. Brahms’ String Quintet in G major was originally intended to be his final work, serving as a summary of his career. There are Hungarian-style motifs in the closing movement. Kelemen Quartet are joined in the performance as this quintet by viola player Nils Mönkemyer, professor at the Musikhochschule in Munich.

KELEMEN QUARTET © TAMÁS DOBOS

Tickets: HUF 1 400, 2 100, 3 500, 4 900, 5 600 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre 15

WEDNESDAY 17 JANUARY 2018, 19.30

THURSDAY 18 JANUARY 2018, 19.00

FRIDAY 19 JANUARY 2018, 19.00

GRAND HALL

SOLTI HALL

MITSUKO UCHIDA PIANO RECITAL MVM CONCERTS – THE PIANO

OPERA EXAM FESTIVAL THE MEDIUM JERUSALEM ACADEMY OF MUSIC AND DANCE

Franz Schubert: Piano Sonata No. 19 in C minor, D. 958 Piano Sonata No. 13 in A major, D. 664 Piano Sonata No. 18 in G major, D. 894 “It’s not enough to play the piano – it takes a lifetime to understand music.” These are the words of world-famous pianist Mitsuko Uchida, who although having pursued a music career for more than 40 years, still always takes to the stage with incredible vitality. As she put it: “My back and shoulders get tired, but my mind and fingers, never.” Uchida fascinates her audience and the profession with her purity of touch and nuanced phrasing; at the same time critics are universal in their enthusiasm for how she creates a balance between perfect precision and spontaneity. The pianist enjoys close ties with the world’s finest orchestras and concert venues: she is resident artist with the Cleveland Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonics, Vienna Konzerthaus, Salzburg Mozart Week, and the Lucerne Festival, while Carnegie Hall dedicated an entire series to her under the title Mitsuko Uchida: Vienna Revisited. Mitsuko Uchida, who recently gave an enormously popular recital together with mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožena at the Liszt Academy, this time appears in front of a Hungarian audience with a special solo evening consisting of three extraordinary sonatas from the pen of Schubert. Tickets: HUF 5 000, 6 000, 7 000, 9 000, 12 000, 14 000 Organizers: Besszer Concert, Liszt Academy Concert Centre 16

Gian Carlo Menotti: The Medium Monica: Ayelet Kagan Baba: Noa Hope Mrs Gobineau: Ellinor Grinberg Mrs Nolan: Khen Rodnizky Mr Gobineau: Netanel Silverman Toby: Ohad Letko Conductor and music director: Yuval Zorn Director: Shirit Lee-Weiss Stage and costume design, lighting: Eli Wildmann-Kaplan Piano accompaniment: Uri Brenner

OPERA EXAM FESTIVAL ARMIDA LISZT FERENC ACADEMY OF MUSIC Opera-patchwork based on operas by Händel, Rossini, Gluck, Haydn, Lully and Dvořák, with contemporary music reflections

Madame Flora struggles with serious alcohol dependency, she exploits her daughter and abuses her mute servant boy. She supports herself by holding bogus seances; her daughter is forced to play out the role of the deceased to gullible guests. Grief, desire, love, anger, anxiety and murder – just like in a verisimo opera. The Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance present this two-act opera by Gian Carlo Menotti, which debuted in 1946 and has appeared in several film versions. Production coordinators are experienced artists, so the audience can once again expect a high standard ‘exam’. Conductor Yuval Zorn has appeared at London’s Covent Garden Opera and worked as conductor with the Frankfurt Opera for four years. The production is directed by the distinguished Shirit Lee-Weiss, who specializes in pieces for musical theatres.

ARMIDA, sorceress: Judit Farkas / Erika Estefanía Avilés Fernández / Ildikó Megyimórecz / Tímea Molnár RINALDO, paladin knight: Ninh Duc Hoang Long / András Farkas THE HATE: Tímea Molnár ARGANTE, pagan warlord: Lam Chun Ting GOFFREDO, paladin knight: Róbert Erdős UBALDO, paladin knight: András Farkas Choir: Anna Fürjes, Gabriella Fenyvesi, Ágoston Cser, Bence Gulyás, Lóránt Katona, Hiroko Katoh, Laura Topolánszky Orchestration: Ákos Lustyik Intermezzos: Composer students of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music (head of department: Gyula Fekete) Scenery: students of the Metropolitan University (supervising teacher: Lili Izsák) Choreographer: Eszter Lázár Hungarian subtitle: Éva Lax, Anikó Hegedűs Accompanist associates: Mónika Baja, Zsolt Balog Director: András Almási-Tóth Head of department: Andrea Meláth Featuring: Students of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music Budapest Strings Chamber Orchestra (concertmaster: Tamás Rónaszéki, artistic director: Károly Botvay) Conductor: Szabolcs Sándor

Ticket: HUF 1 200 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

FRIDAY 19 JANUARY 2018, 19.30

SUNDAY 21 JANUARY 2018, 11.00

GRAND HALL

SOLTI HALL

LISZT KIDZ ACADEMY THE ‘SUPERFLUOUS’ SCORE FOR 10–15 YEAR OLDS VERONIKA HARCSA & FRIENDS FRANCISCAN CHARITY EVENING FOR PEOPLE WITH AUTISM Veronika Harcsa (vocals); Bálint Gyémánt (guitar); Anastasia Razvalyaeva (harp)

BÁLINT GYÉMÁNT

In the first half of her concert, Veronika Harcsa, the popular singer with multifaceted musical interests, takes to the stage with her latest partner, harpist Anastasia Razvalyaeva. Following the intermission she goes on to perform old and new songs with Bálint Gyémánt, perhaps her closest creative partner. Their instrumentalization has been carried out with boldness and innovative inspiration worthy of the composer himself. Veronika Harcsa and jazz guitar virtuoso Bálint Gyémánt show, through their own compositions and reworkings, the very many ways in which classical music and jazz are connected, from the history of improvisation, rooted all the way back to Baroque music, right up to the indisputable role played by classical music in contemporary jazz. The patron of the evening is Anita Herczegh, wife of the President of the Republic. Tickets: HUF 1 400, 2 100, 3 500, 4 900, 5 600 Organizers: Franciscan Order of Our Lady of Hungary, Liszt Academy Concert Centre

Alleluja. Non vos relinquam orphanos – Gregorian chant Alleluja. Non vos relinquam orphanos – organum duplum Viderunt omnes – organum quadruplum (excerpt) Schubert: Die Advokaten (‘The Advocate’), D. 37 Webern: Drei kleine Stücke (‘Three Little Pieces’), Op. 11 György Kurtág: Signs, Games and Messages – Message-consolation à Christian Sutter György Kurtág: Games (excerpts) György Déri (cello) András Kemenes (piano) A:N:S Choir Conductor and narrator: János Bali What is the role of the score in classical music when many music cultures (folk music, jazz, Gregorian, etc.) have managed without it? This is one of the questions tackled this season by the Liszt Academy’s series for younger audiences. For this, the first occasion, János Bali, recorder player, teacher and leader of A:N:S Choir, who play a medieval and Renaissance repertoire, initiates children into the mysteries of European scores. The programme covers those strange dots and lines that first appeared about 1,200 years ago in various Gregorian manuscripts, and which over many centuries have evolved into the sheet music we recognize today. Ticket: HUF 1 400 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre 17

SUNDAY 21 JANUARY 2018, 19.00

SUNDAY 28 JANUARY 2018, 19.00

MONDAY 29 JANUARY 2018, 19.30

SOLTI HALL

GRAND HALL

OPERA EXAM FESTIVAL THE RAPE OF LUCRETIA DUTCH NATIONAL OPERA ACADEMY Britten: The Rape of Lucretia, Op. 37

ACOUSTIC, AUTHENTIC SÁRA TÍMÁR RECORD RELEASE CONCERT WHAT SHALL I CALL YOU?... Ferenc Sebő, Erzsébet Dúcz, Ágnes Enyedi, Emese Égető, Sára Horváth, Johanna Orbán, Julianna Paár, Réka Soós (vocals); Máté Kalász, Attila Mihó (violin); Márton Fekete (viola); András Lelkes (bass); Dániel Szabó (cimbalom, vocals); Zoltán Juhász (flute); Lehel Halászi (flute, kaval, dance); Orsolya András (ütőgardon, vocals); Tázló ensemble: Lídia Draskóczi (violin); Csaba Sófalvi Kiss (flute); László Németh (koboz); Félix Benke (drums) Sára Tímár undertook a performer and teacher diploma in the Department of Folk Music of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music; however, her interests extend beyond the boundaries of folk music. Kodály’s early research suggested that variations found in native folk music could be important sources for the authentic performance of notated music history memories. Sára Tímár regularly communicates this proposition in practice in various formations that play historical music. She came into contact with the world of sung poetry as a member of Sebő Ensemble, while she seeks the creative opportunities of the folk vocal sound as a founder of the vocal ensemble Dalinda. This concert features material from her first solo album, accompanied by many of the top performers in Hungarian folk music. Ticket: HUF 1 600 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre 18

Libretto: Ronald Duncan Libretto: Ronald Duncan Costumes: Sanne Oostervink Director: Maria Riccarda Wesseling Piano accompaniment: Mirsa Adami, Marta Liebana Conductor: Karel Deseure Collatinus, Roman general: Alexander de Jong (bass) Junius, Roman general: Tony Butiurca (baritone) Tarquinius, Etruscan prince: Jasper Leever / Raoul Steffani (baritone) Lucretia, wife of Collatinus: Deborah Saffery / Nina van Essen (contralto) Bianca, Lucretia’s nurse: Serena Perez (mezzo-soprano) Lucia, Lucretia’s maid: Judith Weusten (soprano) Male chorus: Stefan Kennedy / Zachery VanderMeulen (tenor) Female chorus: Helena Koonings / Stephanie DesJardins (soprano) In the chamber opera by Britten, which premiered in 1946, these events are assessed by two commentators, a woman and a man, from a Christian perspective. The two-act work is presented at this year’s festival by the Dutch National Opera Academy. The two-year master’s course arranged through the collaboration of the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and Royal Conservatory of The Hague – and which is headed by sinwger Maria Riccarda Wesseling, who appears here as director – focuses on the musical and acting development of young opera singers. Ticket: HUF 1 200 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

ORCHESTRA IN THE CENTRE MATTHIAS GOERNE & KAMMERORCHESTER BASEL Mozart: Serenade No. 9 in D major, K. 320 (‘Posthorn’) – Movements 1–4 Schubert: Des Fischers Liebesglück, D. 933 Schubert: Das Heimweh, D. 851 Schubert: Ganymed, D. 544 Schubert: Abendstern, D. 806 Schubert: Pilgerweise, D. 789 Schubert: Alinde, D. 904 Mozart: March in D major, K. 335 Mozart: Serenade No. 9 in D major, K. 320 (‘Posthorn’) – Movements 5–8 Matthias Goerne (baritone) Kammerorchester Basel (concertmaster: Daniel Bard) Even though Matthias Goerne takes to the stages of foremost opera houses, from the Metropolitan Opera and Vienna Opera to Covent Garden and the Madrid Teatro Real, and sings the roles of the like of Wotan, Amfortas, Bluebeard and Wozzeck, the general public primarily consider him to be a superb lieder singer. In the past few years he has exhibited an increasing willingness to experiment with non-traditional performances of Schubert songs; for instance, in 2016 he recorded a few of the composer’s compositions in the company of a string quintet. For this recital he is accompanied by a string orchestra, his partner being the chamber orchestra of Basel, established in 1984, who carry on the heritage of their legendary patron-conductor, Paul Sacher. The ensemble consider it their mission to create a harmonious balance of early and new music. Tickets: HUF 3 700, 5 100, 6 500, 7 900, 8 600 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

TUESDAY 30 JANUARY 2018, 19.00

WEDNESDAY 31 JANUARY 2018, 19.30

SOLTI HALL

GRAND HALL

JÁNOS BALÁZS PIANO RECITAL MVM CONCERTS – THE PIANO CHAMBER MUSIC, SO CLOSE MOBILIS SAXOPHONE QUARTET & ERZSÉBET SELELJO Vivaldi: Concert Overture Ligeti: Six Bagatelles Theodor Burkali: Decoder P. M. Dubois: Quatour Thierry Escaich: Le Bal Karen Street: Tango Planel: Burlesque Piazzolla: Café 1930 Mobilis Saxophone Quartet: Michael Krenn (soprano saxophone); Janez Ursej (alto saxophone); Yukiko Krenn (tenor saxophone); Goran Jurković (baritone saxophone) Erzsébet Seleljo (saxophone)

MOBILIS SAXOPHONE QUARTET © HOROWITZ

The Mobilis Saxophone Quartet was established in Austria in 2009 Thanks to their differing cultural backgrounds, their repertoire is extremely broad, so that as well as compositions for saxophone quartet, they also deal with plenty of arrangements from the classical repertoire. For their Liszt Academy concert they take to the stage with Erzsébet Seleljo, who completed her classical saxophone studies as a student of the London Royal College of Music and Konservatorium Privatuniversität Wien. Their programme starts with a Vivaldi piece and is followed by popular and lighter works by 20th-century and contemporary composers.

Rossini–Liszt: Ouverture de l’opéra Guillaume Tell de Gioachino Rossini Donizetti–Liszt: Réminiscences de Lucia di Lammermoor Mozart–Liszt: Réminiscences de Don Juan Schubert–Liszt: Zwölf Lieder von Franz Schubert – 4. Erlkönig Schubert–Liszt: Schwanengesang (Lieder von Franz Schubert) – 7. Ständchen Beethoven–Liszt: Adelaïde Liszt: Grand galop chromatique János Balázs (piano) “We had never heard anything like it before, never been confronted by such a passionate, demoniac genius; at one moment he dashes like a whirlwind, and in the next he drenches in soft beauty and pleasing sound.” This is how Russian critic Vladimir Stasov described the concert by Liszt in St Petersburg on 8 April 1842. Liszt, who by then was a pianist virtuoso of European renown, captivated his Russian audience with arrangements plus one of his own compositions. 175 years later, the exact same programme is revived on the stage of the Grand Hall of the Liszt Academy. This time the artist is János Balázs, winner of numerous international competitions, among them the Liszt Competition (the youngest ever to do so).

Tickets: HUF 2 000, 3 000, 4 000, 5 000, 6 000, 8 000 Ticket: HUF 1 900 Organizers: Besszer Concert, Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre Liszt Academy Concert Centre 19

GLIMPSE INTO THE HISTORY OF THE 2017 BARTÓK WORLD COMPETITION AND FESTIVAL

COSIMA SOULEZ LARIVIÈRE, WINNER OF THE COMPETITION © LISZT ACADEMY / ZOLTÁN ADRIÁN

AFTER THE QUALIFYING ROUND © LISZT ACADEMY / LÁSZLÓ MUDRA

HAPPINESS BEHIND THE CURTAINS © LISZT ACADEMY / LÁSZLÓ MUDRA

ÁGNES LANGER, TAKAGI RIRIKO, COSIMA SOULEZ © LISZT ACADEMY / ZOLTÁN ADRIÁN 20

ÁGNES LANGER AND SALVATORE ACCARDO, CHAIR OF THE JURY © LISZT ACADEMY / LÁSZLÓ MUDRA

TAKAGI RIRIKO BEFORE THE GALA CONCERT © LISZT ACADEMY / LÁSZLÓ MUDRA

THE JURY: BARNABÁS KELEMEN, TIBOR TALLIÁN, QIAN ZHOU, KRZYSZTOF WĘGRZYN, IVAN ŽENATY, VILMOS SZABADI, JOEL SMIRNOFF, SALVATORE ACCARDO, TAKASHI SHIMIZU © LISZT ACADEMY / LÁSZLÓ MUDRA

CONCERT CHRONOLOGY FEBRUARY

WEDNESDAY 7 FEBRUARY 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

BEYOND THE MUSIC… TAMÁS VÁSÁRY’S CONVERSATION ABOUT MUSIC

Concerts organized by Liszt Academy Concert Centre Hosted concert

Beethoven

Classical Jazz Opera World / Folk Junior

Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir (choirmaster: Zoltán Pad) Conductor and pianist: Tamás Vásáry Tickets: HUF 2 000, 3 000, 4 000, 5 000 Organizer: Hungarian Radio Music Ensembles

FRIDAY 2 FEBRUARY 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

Tickets: HUF 1 400, 2 600, 3 100, 4 200 Organizer: Eötvös Art Ensemble SUNDAY 11 FEBRUARY 2018, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

BLACK AND WHITE COLOURS JÓZSEF BALOG PIANO RECITAL Page 26

ORCHESTRA IN THE CENTRE BALÁZS FÜLEI & CAMERATA BERN

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SATURDAY 3 FEBRUARY 2018, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

FRIDAY 9 FEBRUARY 2018, 19.00 GRAND HALL

JÓZSEF BALOG

THURSDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

CHAMBER MUSIC – TUNED FOR GRAND HALL MISCHA MAISKY, JANINE JANSEN, ITAMAR GOLAN & LILY MAISKY

LUKA OKROS PIANO RECITAL

MÁV SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Schubert: Four Impromptus, D. 899 Chopin: Ballade No. 4 in F minor, Op. 52 Rachmaninov: Six Moments musicaux, Op. 16 Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 Luka Okros (piano) Tickets: HUF 2 800, 3 500 Organizer: Molto Group Management

Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet – Fantasy Overture Mozart: Piano Concerto in C major, K. 467 in C major, K. 467 (transcription for harp) Debussy: Danse sacrée et danse profane Dvořák: Symphony No. 7 in D minor, Op. 70

LUKA OKROS

Marie-Pierre Langlamet (harp) MÁV Symphony Orchestra Conductor: Péter Csaba Tickets: HUF 3 500, 4 000, 4 500 Organizer: MÁV Symphony Orchestra SATURDAY 10 FEBRUARY 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

CONCERT OF THE EÖTVÖS ART ENSEMBLE 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF ELTE BARTÓK BÉLA CHOIR, 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF ELTE UNIVERSITY’S CONCERT ORCHESTRA Haydn: The Seven Last Words of Our Saviour on the Cross Zoltán Kovács: Requiem choralis 22

Ágnes Molnár (soprano) Eötvös Loránd University’s Béla Bartók Choir and Concert Orchestra (voice production techniques: Dániel Fülöp) Concertmaster: János Rolla, Éva Dúlfalvy Narrator: Károly Mécs Conductor: László Kovács

SUNDAY 11 FEBRUARY 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

DOHNÁNYI ORCHESTRA BUDAFOK Wagner: Die Walküre – Wotan’s Farewell, Magic Fire Music Ádám Cser: Symphony No. 5 (premiere) Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74, (‘Pathétique’) Krisztián Cser (bass) Dohnányi Orchestra Budafok Conductor: Ádám Cser Tickets: HUF 3 000, 3 500, 4 000 Organizer: Dohnányi Orchestra Budafok

FRIDAY 16 FEBRUARY 2018, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

KONZI CONCERTS MASTERPIECES AND SPECIALITIES FOR TWO AND FOUR HANDS CONCERT OF THE KONZI PIANO DEPARTMENT

JAZZ IT! KÁLMÁN OLÁH: MIDDLE-EUROPEAN QUINTET

Page 27 THURSDAY 15 FEBRUARY 2018, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

MASTERS OF CHAMBER MUSIC ILONA PRUNYI, ÁDÁM BANDA, LÁSZLÓ FENYŐ & ZSOLT MOLNÁR CHAMBER MUSIC RECITAL WHITE NIGHTS

Page 28 SUNDAY 18 FEBRUARY 2018, 10.30 GRAND HALL

SECRETS OF MUSIC FABULOUS EAST Danube Symphony Orchestra Conductor: András Deák Moderator: Szilvia Becze Ticket: HUF 2 500 Organizer: Filharmónia Hungary

ILONA PRUNYI

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TAMÁS VÁSÁRY

WEDNESDAY 14 FEBRUARY 2018, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

SUNDAY 18 FEBRUARY 2018, 15.00 GRAND HALL

WUNDERKIND – WUNDERERWACHSENE! CHARITY CONCERT FOR THE SZENT JÁNOS HOSPITAL GASTROENTEROLOGY DEPARTMENT Works by Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Debussy, Mozart, Paganini and Rossini Éva Marton, Lilla Horti (vocals), Tamás Vásáry (piano), Teo Gertler (violin), Kálmán Berkes (clarinet), Semmelweis String Quartet

THURSDAY 15 FEBRUARY 2018, 19.00 GRAND HALL

MÁV SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Claude Debussy: Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune Rhapsody for Saxophone and Orchestra Rhapsody for Clarinet and Orchestra La mer Vincent David (saxophone), Pascal Moraguès (clarinet) MÁV Symphony Orchestra Conductor: Péter Csaba

Conversation partner: Dr. György Székely ANDRÁS DEÁK

Tickets: HUF 2 900, 3 500, 4 500, 5 400 Organizers: Dr Kunitzer István Foundation, Liszt Academy Concert Centre SUNDAY 18 FEBRUARY 2018, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

FOUR BY FOUR KUSS QUARTET Page 28

Tickets: HUF 3 500, 4 000, 4 500 Organizer: MÁV Symphony Orchestra 23

PIERRE-LAURENT AIMARD

MONDAY 19 FEBRUARY 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

BUDAPEST STRINGS CHAMBER ORCHESTRA Schubert: String Quartet Movement in C minor, D. 703 (‘Quartettsatz’, transcription for chamber orchestra) Mendelssohn: Concerto for Violin and Piano in D minor Schubert: Quintet in C major, D. 956 (transcription for chamber orchestra) Giovanni Guzzo (violin), Dénes Várjon (piano) Budapest Strings Chamber Orchestra (concertmaster: János Pilz, artistic director: Károly Botvay)

THURSDAY 22 FEBRUARY 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

FRIDAY 23 FEBRUARY 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

CZIFFRA FESTIVAL 2018 BÉLA SZAKCSI LAKATOS, GÁBOR PRESSER & JÁNOS BALÁZS PIANO RECITAL THE IMPROVISATION Piano concert with improvisation – adventures in the realms of sounds and genres Béla Szakcsi Lakatos, Gábor Presser, János Balázs (piano)

CZIFFRA FESTIVAL 2018 PIERRE-LAURENT AIMARD PIANO RECITAL

Tickets: HUF 3 000, 4 000, 5 000, 6 000, 8 000, 10 000 Organizer: Besszer Concert

Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 29 in B-flat major, Op. 106 (‘Hammerklavier’) Prokofiev: Sarcasms, Op. 17 Obukhov: Révélation Scriabin: Sonata No. 10, Op. 70 Scriabin: Sonata No. 5, Op. 53

SATURDAY 24 FEBRUARY 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

WEDNESDAY 21 FEBRUARY 2018, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

Pierre-Laurent Aimard (piano)

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COMPLETE WORKS LIVE BRAHMS’ TRIOS I

SUNDAY 25 FEBRUARY 2018, 11.00 SOLTI HALL

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Tickets: HUF 3 000, 4 000, 5 000, 6 000, 8 000, 10 000 Organizer: Besszer Concert

WEDNESDAY 21 FEBRUARY 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

FRIDAY 23 FEBRUARY 2018, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

HUNGARIAN NATIONAL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

HERE AND NOW STUDIO 5 COMPOSERS’ EVENING BELLA–VIRÁGH–SOLTI–VARGA–KUTRIK

Dvořák: Stabat Mater, op. 58 Zita Váradi (soprano), Szilvia Vörös (mezzo-soprano), Attila Fekete (tenor), István Kovács (bass) National Choir (choirmaster: Csaba Somos) Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra Conductor: Carlo Montanaro Tickets: HUF 3 000, 4 500, 6 000 Organizer: Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra

AT HOME IN THE LISZT ACADEMY ANDREAS OTTENSAMER & KELEMEN QUARTET

LISZT KIDZ ACADEMY THE "SUPERFLUOUS" OPERA DIRECTOR FOR 10-15 YEAR OLD Page 30 SUNDAY 25 FEBRUARY 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

CZIFFRA FESTIVAL 2018 HOMMAGE À CZIFFRA GALA CONCERT

Page 29 JÁNOS BALÁZS

Tickets: HUF 2 800, 3 800, 4 800, 5 800 Organizer: Budapest Strings Chamber Orchestra

Brahms: Sonata for Violin and Piano No.3 in D minor, Op. 108 Liszt: Les Préludes Liszt: Concerto for Piano No. 1 in E-flat major Cosima Soulez-Larivière (violin) János Balázs (piano) Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra Conductor: Tamás Vásáry Host: Ádám Bősze Tickets: HUF 3 000, 4 000, 5 000, 6 000, 8 000, 10 000 Organizer: Besszer Concert

MONDAY 26 FEBRUARY 2018, 19.45 GRAND HALL

BUDAPEST FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA van Wassenaer: Concerto Armonico No. 4 in G major Charles Avison: Concerto Grosso No. 5 in D minor after Domenico Scarlatti Händel: Silete venti – motet, HWV 242 Albinoni: Oboe Concerto in D minor, Op. 9/2 Händel: Concerto Grosso No. 3 in E minor Händel: Piangerò la sorte mia – Aria from the opera Julius Caesar, HWV 17 Händel: Da tempeste il legno infranto – Aria from the opera Julius Caesar, HWV 17 Sophie Junker (soprano) Budapest Festival Orchestra Artistic director: Jonathan Cohen Baroque gesture: Sigrid T’Hooft Tickets: HUF 2 700, 3 700, 4 600, 6 600, 11 000 Organizer: Budapest Festival Orchestra

TUESDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2018, 19.45 GRAND HALL

COMPLETE WORKS LIVE BRAHMS’ TRIOS II Page 30 WEDNESDAY 28 FEBRUARY 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

DANUBIA ORCHESTRA ÓBUDA ÜBERMENSCH Copland: Fanfare for the Common Man Wagner: Tannhäuser – Overture Wagner: Götterdämmerung – Siegfried’s Rhine Journey R. Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30 Danubia Orchestra Óbuda Conductor: Máté Hámori Tickets: HUF 2 500, 3 200, 3 800, 4 700 Organizer: Danubia Orchestra Óbuda SOPHIE JUNKER

FRIDAY 2 FEBRUARY 2018, 19.30

THURSDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2018, 19.30

SUNDAY 11 FEBRUARY 2018, 19.00

GRAND HALL

SOLTI HALL

ORCHESTRA IN THE CENTRE FÜLEI BALÁZS & CAMERATA BERN CHAMBER MUSIC – TUNED FOR GRAND HALL MISCHA MAISKY, JANINE JANSEN, ITAMAR GOLAN & LILY MAISKY Shostakovich: Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67 Tchaikovsky: Piano Trio in A minor, Op. 50 Janine Jansen (violin); Mischa Maisky (cello); Itamar Golan, Lily Maisky (piano)

Mendelssohn: String Symphony No. 7 in D minor J. S. Bach: Piano Concerto in E major, BWV 1053 Liszt: Malédiction Shostakovich-Barshai: Chamber Symphony in C minor, Op. 110a Balázs Fülei (piano) Camerata Bern (artistic director: Antje Weithaas)

This concert by two world-famous soloists dedicated to chamber music, the Dutch violin virtuoso and the Russian-born cellist, holds enormous promise. “His playing combines poetry and exquisite delicacy with great temperament and brilliant technique,” Rostropovich said of Mischa Maisky, the only cellist to have studied with both him and Piatigorsky. During a career of unparalleled richness, he has worked on many occasions with Janine Jansen and also the Israeli pianist Itamar Golan, who in this concert shares the piano with Lily Maisky, daughter of Mischa Maisky. Tchaikovsky composed only a few chamber works and initially could not bring himself to write the Piano Trio in A minor despite the urging of his patron, Nadezhda von Meckto. In the end, it was the death in 1881 of his close friend and mentor Nicolai Rubinstein that triggered a change of heart: the work comprising two grandiose movements was composed in his memory. The loss of another friend of Shostakovich, the polymath Ivan Sollertinsky, inspired the Piano Trio in E minor, dating from 1944.

Founded in 1962 and mainly performing on stage without a conductor, Camerata Bern are a leading formation in Swiss music life. They were just in their fourth year when Sándor Veress wrote a work for them in which he sought a harmonic synthesis between the Bach heritage and 20 th-century modernity. Erich Höbarth, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Carolin Widmann and Kolja Blacher, leading violinists of our day, regularly accept the role of concertmaster at Camerata Bern concerts. Over the past few years, Antje Weithaas has assisted the work of the ensemble as artistic director. Soloist in the two concertos is Balázs Fülei, who joins the imposing list of guest artists of the Berne orchestra that includes, among others, Vadim Repin, Heinz Holliger, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Maurice André, Jörg Widmann, Gidon Kremer and Radu Lupu. On the 50 th anniversary of their foundation, thanks to public and corporate donations, Camerata Bern were endowed with fourteen stringed instruments patterned on original Baroque models.

Tickets: HUF 3 700, 5 100, 6 500, 7 900, 8 600 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

Tickets: HUF 1 400, 2 100, 3 500, 4 900, 5 600 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

BLACK AND WHITE COLOURS JÓZSEF BALOG PIANO RECITAL Lajtha: Des écrits d’un musicien Lajtha: Six Piano Pieces, Op. 14 – Scherzo Péter Eötvös: Erdenklavier-Himmelklavier No. 2 (‘In memoriam Luciano Berio’) Kadosa: Ten Bagatelles (excerpts) Gergely Vajda: Void György Kurtág: Games (excerpts) József Sári: Snapshots (excerpts) Gyula Bánkövi: Corale – in memoriam Luciano Berio Zoltán Jeney: Kalah László Vidovszky: Schroeder’s Death

József Balog (piano) “If there is somebody for whom Black and White Colours, the title of the Liszt Academy concert series of piano solo recitals, was made then it is certainly József Balog. His art is truly, in the best possible sense, polychromatic, or to put it even more accurately, it is characterized by a wealth of colour and nuance, moreover, fractal like, at the most varied levels from articulation of each and every note to the selection of the repertoire.” This is one critic’s opinion after the pianist’s solo evening in November 2016. This time, we can enjoy a remarkable programme compiled from the 20th-century and contemporary Hungarian repertoire. Tickets: HUF 2 200, 2 900 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

WEDNESDAY 14 FEBRUARY 2018, 19.00

THURSDAY 15 FEBRUARY 2018, 19.00

SOLTI HALL

KONZI CONCERTS MASTERPIECES AND RARITIES FOR TWO AND FOUR HANDS CONCERT BY THE PIANO DEPARTMENT

MASTERS OF CHAMBER MUSIC ILONA PRUNYI, ÁDÁM BANDA, LÁSZLÓ FENYŐ & ZSOLT MOLNÁR CHAMBER RECITAL WHITE NIGHTS

Works by Chopin, Liszt, Brahms and other composers

Cui: Sonata for Violin and Piano in D major, Op. 84 Rubinstein: Piano Trio in F major, Op. 15/1 Mussorgsky: The Puppet Show Arensky: Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 32

Featuring teachers and students of the Bartók Béla Conservatory of Music

BARTÓK BÉLA CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC © GÁBOR ANCSIN

Ilona Prunyi (piano), Ádám Banda (violin), László Fenyő (cello), Zsolt Molnár (baritone)

The history of the Bartók Konzi (Bartók Conservatory) stretches right back to the Age of Reform in Hungary: its predecessor, the National Conservatory, was established in 1840 as the Pest-Buda Hangász Society School of Singing, under director Gábor Mátray and 75 students. Ferenc Liszt himself contributed to the fund required to set up the institution, and he gave two concerts with the proceeds going to the school. In 1850 several departments joined the singing, choir and composition faculties, including the section specializing in piano: this department remains of outstanding importance in Hungarian music education to this day. Piano students have won prizes at numerous Hungarian and international competitions, and many have continued their studies at the Liszt Academy. Teachers include pedagogues of national repute, many of whom also teach at the Liszt Academy and are active as concert artists. This recital features students and their masters, allowing the audience a glimpse into the workshop of the Konzi piano department.

On hearing the names of famous Russian composers, perhaps the immortal, grandiose melodies and works such as Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade or Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov spring to mind. Although there is no doubting that this is the better-known face of Russian music, there lies behind this another world with its own intimate genre: chamber music. The title of the 1841 work by Charles Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop, would be most apposite for this recital because although the works on the concert repertoire are not top-drawer pieces, they still paint a fascinating portrait of late 19 thcentury Russian chamber music. We know from the great Russian symphonies and operas what happens when the world of Russian music meets Western forms, and in this concert by Ilona Prunyi, Ádám Banda, László Fenyő and Zsolt Molnár, we can enjoy sampling this Russian flavour in the world of chamber music.

Ticket: HUF 900 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

Tickets: HUF 2 800, 3 900 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre 27

FRIDAY 16 FEBRUARY 2018, 19.00

SUNDAY 18 FEBRUARY 2018, 19.00

WEDNESDAY 21 FEBRUARY 2018, 19.00

SOLTI HALL

FOUR BY FOUR KUSS QUARTET JAZZ ITT! KÁLMÁN OLÁH: MIDDLE-EUROPEAN QUINTET Kálmán Oláh (piano); Andy Middleton (saxophone), Lukas Oravecz (trumpet); Thomas Baros (double bass); Klemens Markt (drums)

Aribert Reimann: Seven Bagatelles for String Quartet Beethoven: String Quartet No. 9 in C major, Op. 59/3 (‘Razumovsky’) Enno Poppe: Freizeit (‘Leisure’) Beethoven: String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 131

COMPLETE WORKS LIVE BRAHMS’ TRIOS I Brahms: Clarinet Trio in A minor, Op. 114 Brahms: Piano Trio No. 3 in C minor, Op. 101 Brahms: Piano Trio No. 2 in C major, Op. 87 Miriam Helms Ålien (violin); Ildikó Szabó (cello); István Lajkó (piano); Matthias Schorn (clarinet)

Kálmán Oláh has been a legendary figure in Hungarian jazz for around 30 years. This still youthful artist boasts a significant background and numerous achievements as a pianist, classical composer and teacher. His name is hallmarked by numerous full-house grand concerts, club concerts by the thousand, a whole collection of recordings, and shelf-fuls of music awards, among which perhaps the greatest is first prize in the 2006 Thelonious Monk Jazz Composers Competition. Three years after the enormous success of European– American Quintet, once again we can see and hear Kálmán Oláh at the head of an international jazz combo. As one would expect from the name, Middle-European Quintet is a genuine Central European jazz all-stars project featuring musicians from Slovakia, Czechia, Austria, and one who relocated from New York to Europe. Though the story of MEQ started with a Slovak tour at the end of September, all the musicians had individually, at one time or another, previously played alongside Kálmán Oláh. The concert in February holds the promise of an unforgettable experience for the Budapest audience; the programme features personal compositions by all five artists.

Kuss Quartet: Jana Kuss, Oliver Wille (violin); William Coleman (viola); Mikayel Hakhnazaryan (cello) Kuss Quartet, whose name derives from their first violinist, make a welcome visit to the Liszt Academy. The quartet, who have gained a reputation for giving strikingly unconventional concerts, raised the already buzzing cultural scene in Berlin to feverish new heights with a sensational series of concerts staged in cult pubs. The formation, who frequently work with György Kurtág and Miklós Perényi, are recognized for programmes characterized by a respect for tradition and openness, but also a willingness to take risks. The concert launches with Bagatelles by the doyen of German contemporary music, Aribert Reimann, followed by a performance-like composition also broken into short sections from Enno Poppe, born in 1969 and another famous name on the German contemporary music scene. These two items separate a pair of Beethoven’s works representing the grand classical European tradition into a new context: the ‘Razumovsky’ string quartet and the enigmatic Quartet in C-sharp minor.

Miriam Helms Ålien, the Norwegian violinist known for her extraordinarily mature musicality that belies her youth, Ildikó Szabó, who took second place at the 2014 Pablo Casals Cello Competition, and István Lajkó, teacher in the piano department of the Liszt Academy, are the principal players in the two concerts of the Complete Works Live series in 2018. For this recital the focus is on the trios of Johannes Brahms, born 185 years ago. The series is set up so that it is a little like travelling backwards in time, with the first concert featuring Brahms’ later works. Written in 1891, the Clarinet Trio in A minor was for the famous clarinettist Richard Mühlfeld; he was also the inspiration behind the Clarinet Quintet in B minor and the final chamber works of Brahms, the clarinet sonatas, opus 120. Correspondence suggests that Brahms considered the Piano Trio in C major one of his finest works. The piece, composed in 1886 after completion of the symphonies, is a true chamber music, concise masterpiece. Clarinettist Matthias Schorn of Vienna Philharmonic joins the artists in the clarinet trio.

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

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

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

FRIDAY 23 FEBRUARY 2018, 19.00

SATURDAY 24 FEBRUARY 2018, 19.30

SOLTI HALL

GRAND HALL

HERE AND NOW STUDIO 5 COMPOSERS’ EVENING BELLA–VIRÁGH–SOLTI–VARGA– KUTRIK Judit Varga: Black and White Árpád Solti: Concertino for Strings and Solo Timpani Bence Kutrik: Emojis András Gábor Virágh: Concerto for Flute and String Orchestra Máté Bella: Lethe Chiao-Hua Chang (erhu – Chinese violin) Anima Musicae Chamber Orchestra (artistic director: László G. Horváth) Gábor Palotás (timpani) Conductor: Péter Dobszay In the wake of their introductory concert in February 2017, members of the composers’ group going under the name Studio 5 make another Composers’ Evening appearance at the Liszt Academy. Máté Bella, Bence Kutrik, Árpád Solti, Judit Varga and András Gábor Virágh are the heirs of that music tradition hallmarked by György Ligeti and György Kurtág, which – after Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály and Ernő Dohnányi – has raised contemporary Hungarian music onto the international level. Starting from this noble tradition, the aim of Studio 5 is to create new musical concerts that represent, at the highest artistic standard, a bridge between tradition and innovation, patina and progress. They can boast countless Hungarian and international prizes, and several of them are also respected teachers at the Liszt Academy. Ticket: HUF 1 900 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

AT HOME IN THE LISZT ACADEMY ANDREAS OTTENSAMER AND KELEMEN QUARTET Dvořák: Cypresses Mozart: String Quartet No. 17 in B-flat major, K. 458 (‘The Hunt’) Brahms: Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115 Andreas Ottensamer (clarinet) Kelemen Quartet: Barnabás Kelemen, Katalin Kokas (violin), Gábor Homoki (viola), László Fenyő (cello) For their February At Home in the Liszt Academy concert, Kelemen Quartet combine a regularly featured Brahms chamber work with one composition each from the pens of Dvořák and Mozart. It is an interesting parallel that, in one particular aspect, the private lives of Dvořák and Mozart followed a similar path: they both married the sisters of their first love. Dvořák poured his youthful disappointment in love into the movements of the song cycle Cypresses, 12 of the original 18 songs later being used for string quartet. Mozart’s String Quartet in B-flat major (K. 458) belongs in his so-called ‘Haydn quartets’ series. ‘The Hunt’ refers to the opening motif of the first movement, and the composer himself also used this name for his string quartet. The concert closes with the Clarinet Quintet in B minor by Brahms, which Kelemen Quartet perform in partnership with half-Hungarian Andreas Ottensamer, solo clarinettist with the Berlin Philharmonics. Ottensamer’s Brahms recording published in 2015 was awarded the instrumental album of the year prize by Echo Klassik.

ANDREAS OTTENSAMER © KATJA RUGE / DECCA

Tickets: HUF 1 400, 2 100, 3 500, 4 900, 5 600 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre 29

SUNDAY 25 FEBRUARY 2018, 11.00

WEDNESDAY 28 FEBRUARY 2018, 19.00

SOLTI HALL

LISZT KIDZ ACADEMY THE ‘SUPERFLUOUS’ OPERA DIRECTOR FOR 10–15 YEAR OLDS

Scenes from Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute

COMPLETE WORKS LIVE BRAHMS’ TRIOS II

Estefania Avilés Fernandez, Yvette Mondok, Tímea Molnár, Ildikó Megyimórecz (soprano); Anna Fürjes (mezzo-soprano); Ninh Duc Hoang Long (tenor); Attila Szűcs (baritone) Music director: Szabolcs Sándor Artistic director and narrator: András Almási-Tóth

Brahms: Horn Trio in E-flat major, Op. 40 Brahms: Piano Trio No. 1 in B major, Op. 8 Miriam Helms Ålien (violin), Ildikó Szabó (cello), István Lajkó (piano), Szabolcs Zempléni (horn)

What is a viola doing in the orchestra if it rarely gets a melody nor plays the bass part? Why is a conductor needed when the orchestra often gets along fine without him? What do opera directors do and would they be missed by the singers and audience if they were not there? What is the role of the score in classical music when many music cultures (folk music, jazz, Gregorian, etc.) have managed without it? These are the questions tackled by the Liszt Academy’s series for younger audiences. On this the second in the series, the head of the Liszt Academy opera department, András AlmásiTóth, introduces children to the mysteries of opera directing. Through a variety of stage realizations of parts of Mozart operas, we glimpse behind the scenes to find out how an opera is actually staged, and at the end of the concert the conclusion, naturally, is that while plenty could be said about opera directors, they could certainly not be called superfluous.

The second and concluding concert in the Complete Works Live series is arranged around the art of the young Johannes Brahms. The Horn Trio in E-flat major commemorates the mother of Brahms, and is in many respects a nostalgic recollection of childhood. This is apparent even in the choice of instrument, since as a child Brahms learnt to play on the natural horn rather than the valve horn. He also first heard the lyrical folk song in the third movement from his mother at the family home. The first version of the grandiose, near symphonic Trio in B major was finalized in 1854. 35 years later, in 1889, at the request of his publisher Simrock, Brahms significantly revised his original work. Unusually for him, though, he did not withdraw the version written in his youth, leaving to posterity two versions of the B major trio, both approved by Brahms. The dynamic trio of Miriam Helms Ålien, Ildikó Szabó and István Lajkó that we met in the first concert in this two-part series are joined this time by the fine horn player Szabolcs Zempléni.

Ticket: HUF 1 400 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

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

JOHANNES BRAHMS © OLGA VON MILLER

Üzlet első kézből.

Keresse az újságárusoknál!

CONCERT CHRONOLOGY MARCH

THURSDAY 1 MARCH 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

Page 38

Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat major, K. 493 Piano Sonata No. 12 in F major, K. 332 Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 32 in B-flat major, K. 454 Adagio and Rondo, K. 617 Clarinet Quintet in A major, K. 581

FRIDAY 2 MARCH 2018, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

Programme for Children held by Izabella Simon, Film Screening, Round Table Discussions

ARANY SONGS CLOSING CONCERT OF THE JÁNOS ARANY COMMEMORATIVE YEAR

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

BLACK AND WHITE COLOURS DAVID GREILSAMMER PIANO RECITAL SCARLATTI & CAGE Page 38

THURSDAY 1 MARCH 2018, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

SATURDAY 3 MARCH 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

EPOCH-MAKING CHAMBER WORKS

DOHNÁNYI ORCHESTRA BUDAFOK

Schönberg: Pierrot lunaire, Op. 21 Berio: Folk songs Stravinsky: Renard

Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No. 1 Bartók: Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, BB 114 Dan-Hung Wang: Rhapsody

Soloists of the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra Andrea Meláth, Bence Gulyás, Ferenc Kristofori, Attila Szűcs, Pál Mátyás Tóth (vocals); Krisztina Szarvas, Kitti Hajszán, Áron Darabont, Martin Schell (motion artists) Choreographer, director: Noémi Kulcsár Conductor: Gergely Vajda

Tickets: HUF 1 200, 1 500 Organizer: Concerto Budapest

Tickets: HUF 3 000, 3 500, 4 000 Organizer: Dohnányi Orchestra Budafok SUNDAY 4 MARCH 2018, 11.00–22.00 SOLTI HALL

GERGELY VAJDA

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante in E-flat major, K. 297b Concerto for Flute and Harp in C major, K. 299 Concerto for Two Pianos in E-flat major, K. 365 Smyphony No. 29 in A major, K. 201 Piano Concerto No. 11 in F major, K . 413 Serenade No. 7 in D major, K. 250 (‘Haffner’) Violin Concerto No. 5 in A major, K. 219 (‘Turkish’) Sinfonia Concertante in E-flat major, K. 364 Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-flat major, K. 482 Ch'io mi scordi di te – concert aria, K. 505 Three Little Arias Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466 Symphony No. 41 in C major, K. 551 (‘Jupiter’) Divertimento in E-flat major (String Trio), K . 563 Flute Quartet No. 1 in D major, K. 285

ANDREA ROST

CONCERTO BUDAPEST / MOZART DAY

Tickets: HUF 2 000, 3 000 Organizer: Hungarian Radio Music Ensembles

Dohnányi Orchestra Budafok Conductor: Yu-An Chang

Andrea Rost (soprano); Orsolya Kaczander (flute); Andrea Vigh (harp); Dénes Várjon, Izabella Simon, Gergely Bogányi (piano); Malcom Bilson (piano, fortepiano); Alexander Janiczek, Henning Kraggerud, András Keller (violin); Máté Szűcs (viola); Louise Hopkins (cello); Zoltán Rácz (glass harmonica) Orfeo Chamber Orchestra (conductor: György Vashegyi) Liszt Ferenc Chamber Orchestra (concertmaster: Péter Tfirst) Concerto Budapest (conductor: András Keller)

MONDAY 5 MARCH 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

EUPHONY ORCHESTRA Page 38 TUESDAY 6 MARCH 2018, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

IDO RAMOT AND JAN VOJTEK PIANO RECITAL EUROPEAN SCHOOLS OF PIANO Page 39

DOELEN ENSEMBLE, CODARTS UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS & LISZT ACADEMY UNITED ORCHESTRA VARIATIONS ON TIME Page 39 WEDNESDAY 7 MARCH 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

PURCELL CHOIR AND ORFEO ORCHESTRA THE GREATS OF LUTHERAN CHURCH MUSIC: BACH, TELEMANN AND STÖLZEL J. S. Bach: ‘Ich bin vergnügt mit meinem Glücke’ – cantata, BWV 84 Telemann: ‘Du aber, Daniel, gehe hin’ – cantata, TWV 4:17 (Hungarian premiere) Stölzel: ‘Ein Lämmlein geht, und trägt die Schuld’ – passion-oratorio (Hungarian premiere) Ágnes Kovács (soprano), Péter Bárány (countertenor), Zoltán Megyesi (tenor), Lóránt Najbauer (bass) Purcell Choir and Orfeo Orchestra (on period instruments) Concertmaster: Simon Standage Conductor: György Vashegyi Tickets: HUF 1 990, 2 990, 3 990, 4 990 Organizers: Sysart Ltd., Orfeo Musical Foundation Patrons: The National Cultural Fund of Hungary, Ministry of Human Capacities, Buda Castle Municipality, fidelio.hu

PURCELL CHOIR

FRIDAY 9 MARCH 2018, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

NEW LISZT FERENC CHAMBER CHOIR Page 40 FRIDAY 9 MARCH 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

GYŐR PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA OPERA STARS – POLINA PASZTIRCSÁK & DOVLET NURGELDIYEV ARIA RECITAL

Tickets: HUF 2 300, 2 500, 2 900 Organizer: Zugló Philharmonics Budapest SUNDAY 11 MARCH 2018, 11.00 SOLTI HALL, CUPOLA HALI, ROOM X AND XXIII

TALENT OBLIGES TALENT DAY Pages 36 and 40 TALENT DAY

TUESDAY 6 MARCH 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

Polina Pasztircsák (soprano), Dovlet Nurgeldiyev (tenor) Győr Philharmonic Orchestra Conductor: György Győriványi Ráth Tickets: HUF 3 000, 5 000, 7 000 Organizer: Philharmonic Orchestra Győr SATURDAY 10 MARCH 2018, 15.30 GRAND HALL

ZUGLÓ PHILHARMONICS BUDAPEST THREE STARS IN THE SKY – THREE FACES OF BÉLA SZERÉNYI JR Bihari: Verbunk Béla Szerényi Jr: Harpsichord Concerto in D minor (‘Kalotaszeg’) Chédeville: The Winter – Concerto for Hurdygurdy and Chamber Ensemble after Vivaldi ‘Ritka magyar’ from Bonchida (for Folk Music Chamber Orchestra) ‘Szegvári halászoké’ – Folk Music for Cimbalom and Hurdy-Gurdy from the South Alföld Based on the Collection of Béla Vikár Vlach Dance (Oláhos) and Fox Dance (for hurdy-gurdy and cimbalom) Weiner: Fox Dance Bartók: Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, BB 114 Dénes Harmath (harpsichord, organ), Ferenc Zimber (cimbalom), Péter Árendás (viola), Róbert Doór (double bass), Béla Szerényi Jr (hurdy-gurdy, folk dance) Zugló Philharmonics Budapest Conductor: János Kovács

SUNDAY 11 MARCH 2018, 11.00 GRAND HALL

UNDERSTANDABLE MUSIC DOHNÁNYI ORCHESTRA BUDAFOK MACROCOSM Bartók: Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, BB 114 Dohnányi Orchestra Budafok Host and conductor: Gábor Hollerung Tickets: HUF 1 900, 2 300, 2 700 Organizer: Dohnányi Orchestra Budafok MONDAY 12 MARCH 2018, 19.00 GRAND HALL

JAZZ IT! VIJAY IYER & CRAIG TABORN Page 40

VIJAY IYER & CRAIG TABORN

HUNGARIAN NATIONAL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA Bizet: L’Arlésienne Suite No. 1 and No. 2 – excerpts Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No. 5 in F major, Op. 103 (‘Egyptian’) Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique, Op. 14 Polina Charnetckaia (piano) Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra Conductorl: Zsolt Hamar Tickets: HUF 3 000, 4 500, 6 000 Organizer: Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra WEDNESDAY 14 MARCH 2018, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

KONZI CONCERTS VARIATIONS ON KONZI 2 BARTÓK KONZI SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA AND COMPETITION WINNERS Page 41 WEDNESDAY 14 MARCH 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

CHAMBER MUSIC – TUNED FOR GRAND HALL LÁSZLÓ FENYŐ & MARIANNA SHIRINYAN MARIANNA SHIRINYAN

Page 41

SATURDAY 17 MARCH 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

WEDNESDAY 21 MARCH 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

BARNABÁS KELEMEN & FRIENDS Bartók: Rhapsody No. 1 and No. 2 – and its original collected songs Haydn: Piano Trio in G major, Hob. XV:25 – and the original songs of the 3 rd movement Brahms: Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor, Op. 25 – and the original songs of the ‘Rondo alla Zingharese’ movement Barnabás Kelemen (violin); José Gallardo (piano); Katalin Kokas (viola); Dóra Kokas (cello); István Pál ‘Szalonna’ and his orchestra Tickets: HUF 4 400, 5 400, 6 900 Organizer: Filharmónia Hungary

JÁNOS BALÁZS & FÉLIX LAJKÓ IMPROVISATION RECITAL MVM CONCERTS – THE PIANO Félix Lajkó (violin), János Balázs (piano) Tickets: HUF 2 000, 3 000, 4 000, 5 000, 6 000, 8 000 Organizer: Besszer Concert THURSDAY 22 MARCH 2018, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

CHAMBER MUSIC, SO CLOSE EBONIT SAXOPHONE QUARTET AND MARCELL SZABÓ Page 42

SUNDAY 18 MARCH 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

THURSDAY 22 MARCH 2018, 19.00 GRAND HALL

THE FRANZ LISZT CHAMBER ORCHESTRA’S 55TH JUBILEE RECITAL

MÁV SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Fauré: Pelléas et Mélisande – Suite Prokofiev: Symphony No.1 in D major, Op. 25 (‘Classical’) Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 55 (‘Eroica’)

Surprise programme Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra (concertmaster: Péter Tfirst) Tickets: HUF 2 900, 4 200, 5 500, 6 900 Organizer: Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra WEDNESDAY 21 MARCH 2018, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

MÁV Symphony Orchestra Conductor: Irwin Hoffman Tickets: HUF 3 500, 4 000, 4 500 Organizer: MÁV Symphony Orchestra FRIDAY 23 MARCH 2018, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

FOUR BY FOUR APOLLON MUSAGÈTE QUARTET & ISTVÁN VÁRDAI

ACOUSTIC, AUTHENTIC ÁGNES ENYEDI & BANDÁRIUM

Page 42

Page 42 ISTVÁN VÁRDAI

TUESDAY 13 MARCH 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

ÁGNES ENYEDI & THE BANDÁRIUM

DANUBIA ORCHESTRA ÓBUDA ALONE Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30 Rachmaninov: Symphony No. 1 in D minor Tomoki Sakata (piano) Danubia Orchestra Óbuda Conductor: Stanislav Kochanovsky Tickets: HUF 2 500, 3 200, 3 800, 4 700 Organizer: Danubia Orchestra Óbuda SUNDAY 25 MARCH 2018, 11.00 GRAND HALL

LISZT KIDZ ACADEMY THE ‘SUPERFLUOUS’ CONDUCTOR FROM 10–15 YEAR OLDS

TUESDAY 27 MARCH 2018, 19.00 GRAND HALL

MÁV SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA J. S. Bach: St John Passion, BWV 245 Zita Szemere (soprano), Johanna Krokovay (alto), István Horváth (tenor), János Szerekován (Evangelist), Marcell Bakonyi (bass), István Kovács (Jesus) MÁV Symphony Orchestra Conductor: Salamon Kamp Tickets: HUF 3 500, 4 000, 4 500 Organizer: MÁV Symphony Orchestra

JULIA LEZHNEVA

FRIDAY 23 MARCH 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

WEDNESDAY 28 MARCH 2018, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

AMADINDA PERCUSSION PROJECT Page 44

Page 43 AMADINDA PERCUSSION PROJECT

SUNDAY 25 MARCH 2018, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

THURSDAY 29 MARCH 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

ORCHESTRA IN THE CENTRE JULIA LEZHNEVA, FRANCO FAGIOLI & CAPPELLA GABETTA

MASTERS OF CHAMBER MUSIC CSABA ONCZAY, HAGAI SHAHAM, PASCAL ROGÉ & PÉTER BÁRSONY DVOŘÁK RECITAL

Page 44

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BUDAPEST SPRING FESTIVAL DANIIL TRIFONOV PIANO RECITAL

MONDAY 26 MARCH 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

BUDAPEST STRINGS CHAMBER ORCHESTRA Haydn: Violin Concerto No. 1 in C major, Hob. VIIa:1 Haydn: Cello Concerto No. 1 in C major, Hob. VIIb:1 Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante in E-flat major, K. 364 Kristóf Baráti (violin), István Várdai (cello) Budapest Strings Chamber Orchestra (concertmaster: János Pilz, artistic director: Károly Botvay)

SATURDAY 31 MARCH 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

WEDNESDAY 28 MARCH 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

ENDRE HEGEDŰS ORCHESTRAL PIANO RECITAL Beethoven: The Consecration of the House – Overture, Op. 124 Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37 Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18 Endre Hegedűs (piano) Dohnányi Orchestra Budafok Conductor: Gábor Hollerung

Mompou: Variations on a Theme by Chopin Schumann: Carnaval, Op. 9/12 – Chopin Grieg: Moods, Op. 73/5 – Study (Hommage à Chopin) Barber: Nocturne (Homage to John Field), Op. 33 Tchaikovsky: Eighteen pieces, Op. 72/15 – Un poco di Chopin Rachmaninov: Variations on a Theme by Chopin, Op. 22 Chopin: Fantaisie-Impromptu in C-sharp minor, Op. 66 Chopin: Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 35 Daniil Trifonov (piano)

Tickets: HUF 2 800, 3 800, 4 800, 5 800 Organizer: Budapest Strings Chamber Orchestra

Tickets: HUF 2 500, 3 500, 4 500 Organizer: Dohnányi Orchestra Budafok, Studio Liszt

Tickets: HUF 3 500, 4 900, 7 500, 9 900 Organizer: Budapest Spring Festival

chorAL concerts Discussion abouT eDucaTing TalenTeD sTuDenTs

film screening

chAmber music concerts

students of the bArtók konzi music hisTory performance

group acTiViTies for KiDs

sTuDenTs of The liszT acaDemy

chAmber concerts

DocToral sTuDenTs soLo concerts

specially gifTeD sTuDenTs

cLAsses open to the pubLic, With ViLmos szAbAdi, káLmán dráfi And AndreA meLáth

TalenT Day

Workshop secrets of the Liszt AcAdemy chAmber music concerts, piAno concerts pLAyed by the students of the Liszt AcAdemy of music

11. march 2018

III

INTERNATIONAL

PRESENTED BY

THURSDAY 1 MARCH 2018, 19.30

FRIDAY 2 MARCH 2018, 19.00

MONDAY 5 MARCH 2018, 19.30

GRAND HALL

SOLTI HALL

GRAND HALL

ARANY SONGS CLOSING CONCERT OF THE JÁNOS ARANY COMMEMORATIVE YEAR Selection of songs by Kodály and Ligeti composed to poems by János Arany Winning entries in the composer competition announced to coincide with the János Arany Commemorative Year Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra Conductor: Gergely Madaras

EUPHONY ORCHESTRA

BLACK AND WHITE COLOURS DAVID GREILSAMMER PIANO RECITAL SCARLATTI & CAGE Works by Domenico Scarlatti & John Cage David Greilsammer (piano)

“The linkage of the oeuvres of Zoltán Kodály and János Arany verges on a cliché in specialist literature, [...] as does the fact that the composer was born in the year of the death of the poet, in 1882. The first reference was made by Kodály himself on the relationship of the artistic-human temperament when he stated in a letter to his future wife Emma Gruber during his study tour in Berlin in 1907: ‘János Arany (my doppelgänger and forward-projected shadow, or I am his shadow – it’s all the same).’” Thus wrote Mihály Ittzés, director of the Kodály Institute, in one of his papers on the parallels between the poet and the composer. At the same time, it is interesting to note that Kodály set only two Arany poems to music. In 1952, György Ligeti wrote Five Arany Songs, which despite the composer’s popularity, are seldom heard in public. This is precisely why, on the occasion of the János Arany Commemorative Year, the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music – with the support of the János Arany Comemorative Year Committee – announced a competition for composers of new works of music employing the works of the poet and writer. The winning work and other placings are formally announced during this special concert. Ticket: HUF 1 200 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre, Petőfi Literary Museum 38

A single instrument is sufficient for most solo recitals. However, the Israeli pianist, who is famed for surprising audiences with his original programme compilations, requires two: what is more, one of them not only has to be tuned but ‘prepped’, something that often takes three or so hours. Pieces in the John Cage series demand a piano in which the composer has defined most precisely what size screws, rubber items or other objects have to be inserted between which strings, and exactly where. The counterpointing of Italian Baroque and 1940s New York avant-garde is truly a concept of genius, so much so that we are left wondering how it is that nobody else thought of it. Both composers use roughly the same two-part form for their framework, but naturally the content derives from different sources. Domenico Scarlatti, who by the way was considered at least as daring an innovator in the first half of the 18th century as his counterpart 200 years later, wrote the – to use his own word – ‘exercises’ for the Portuguese princess who became a Spanish queen, while Cage’s imagination was sparked by Indian philosophy. In short, this is an opportunity to witness an extraordinary meeting of a brilliant artist and two masterpieces by two geniuses. Tickets: HUF 2 200, 2 900 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

R. Strauss: Metamorphosen Shostakovich: Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor, Op. 35 Brahms: Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68 Julia Okruashvili (piano) EUphony Orchestra Conductor: Daniel Geiss EUphony, the Central European Youth Orchestra, was formed in 2010 by the music conservatories of Zagreb and Budapest. The international ensemble, which constantly evolves within the two countries, are freshly nourished by a stream of music students from Central European universities located in, besides Hungary, mainly Austria and the Balkans. Once the joint programme has been learned the orchestra tour neighbouring countries. In 2018 the EUphony project is hosted by the Anton Bruckner Private University of Linz, and for the first time, participants are also sourced from Germany. The concept has also expanded: institutions are not only delegating students but also teachers (to be principal instrumentalists in the joint ensemble); chamber music productions are also in preparation. This year the young students have taken on the first symphony by Brahms alongside two rarely performed works. Richard Strauss completed Metamorphoses for string orchestra in the final months of the Second World War. It was scored for 23 instruments. The solo trumpet gets a place, albeit not quite as prominently, as the piano in Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 1. The Soviet composer’s concerto is performed by Moscow-born pianist Julia Okruashvili. Free tickets for the concert can be obtained from the Liszt Academy box office one month before the concert.

TUESDAY 6 MARCH 2018, 19.00

TUESDAY 6 MARCH 2018, 19.30

SOLTI HALL

GRAND HALL

IDO RAMOT & JAN VOJTEK PIANO RECITAL EUROPEAN SCHOOLS OF PIANO Saint-Saëns–Liszt–Horowitz: Danse Macabre Bonis: Berceuse, Op. 23/1 Bonis: Il pleut, Op. 102 Janáček: In the Mists Liszt–Horowitz: Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 Bonis: Le moustique, Op. 66 Debussy: Estampes Chopin: Sonata No. 3 in B minor, Op.58 Ido Ramot, Jan Vojtek (piano) Talent, achievements, youth and personality – these characteristics bind these two pianists who, thanks to the series L’Europe du Piano, have been able to offer evidence of their outstanding calibre at several European concert venues, including the Liszt Academy. Born in 1994, the Israeli-German pianist Ido Ramot launched out on a career at a very early age, being just nine when he played with Johannesburg Symphony Orchestra, since which time he has worked with many other ensembles, primarily in Israel and Italy. Jan Vojtek was born in Brno in 1995, and has been playing piano since the age of five. His father is Hungarian; he finished his secondary school studies at the Bartók Béla Conservatory of Music in Budapest, and currently he is in his third year at the Liszt Academy of Music. He can boast of an ever-increasing number of stage appearances as soloist and in partnership with orchestras in Czechia and Hungary. This joint concert by Ido Ramot and Jan Vojtekis is an opportunity for us to discover the entire spectrum of skills of both pianists, and it marks another point on the pathway in the pianists’ transition from talented students to mature artists. Ticket: HUF 900 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

DOELEN ENSEMBLE, CODARTS UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS & LISZT ACADEMY UNITED ORCHESTRA VARIATIONS ON TIME Louis Andriessen: De Tijd (‘Time’) Máté Bella: Tabula Smaragdina Lilla Horti (soprano) Doelen Ensemble Orchestra made up of students of the Liszt Academy and Codarts University of the Arts Conductor: Arie van Beek This concert concludes the joint project between the contemporary music grouping Doelen Ensemble from Rotterdam and two institutions of higher education: Codarts University of the Arts, Netherlands, and the Liszt Academy. The programme was rehearsed in Rotterdam under the guidance of conductor Arie van Beek before being performed there ahead of this Budapest concert. Dutchman Louis Andriessen’s 1981 work De Tijd (‘Time’) is based on the reflections of the theologian and philosopher St Augustine, adapted for women’s choir and orchestra. Máté Bella wrote his composition Tabula Smaragdina on the commission of the Rotterdam De Doelen concert venue. The young Hungarian artist and teacher at the Liszt Academy has interests in classical music composition as well as theatre and pop music. Lilla Horti is soloist. This promising soprano won second prize at the 2nd International Éva Marton Singing Competition in 2016.

LOUIS ANDRIESSEN © FRANCESCA PATELLA

Ticket: HUF 1 900 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre 39

FRIDAY 9 MARCH 2018, 19.00

SUNDAY 11 MARCH 2018, 10.00–21.00

MONDAY 12 MARCH 2018, 19.30

SOLTI HALL

SOLTI HALL, CLASSROOMS I, X, XXIII, CUPOLA

GRAND HALL

NEW LISZT FERENC CHAMBER CHOIR Debussy: Trois Chansons de Charles d' Orléans Debussy: Images – Book 1 Balázs Kecskés D.: Trois romances sans paroles András Emszt: De profundis clamavi Magor Bucz: Différance Poulenc: Sept Chansons

TALENT OBLIGES TALENT DAY JAZZ ITT! VIJAY IYER & CRAIG TABORN

New Liszt Ferenc Chamber Choir Balázs Demény (piano) Conductor: László Norbert Nemes

Featuring students of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music and Bartók Béla Conservatory of Music and young artists sponsored by the career office Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra (concertmaster: Péter Tfirst)

The traditions of Liszt Ferenc Chamber Choir, which was in existence for three decades between 1963 and 1993 and which was led by István Párkai, are carried on by the New Liszt Ferenc Chamber Choir, formed from the Alma Mater Choir of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music and recent graduates of the Liszt Academy. The formation – members of which are mainly students majoring in conducting and music theory – was instituted by the then conductor of Alma Mater, Péter Erdei, in 2010, the baton being subsequently passed to Norbert László Nemes in 2014. The choir’s principal objectives are to perform not only the classical choral repertoire, but also more rarely heard or more complex contemporary works. At this concert, Debussy and Poulenc are representatives of the classical repertoire, while the modern is apparent in the form of pieces by Balázs Kecskés D., András Emszt and Magor Bucz, all young composers of the Liszt Academy. Balázs Demény, winner of the Île-de France International Piano Competition, plays excerpts from Debussy’s Images series.

Although most experts and nonexperts agree that music talent is a remarkable phenomenon, it remains difficult to define what exactly lies behind this talent. How are wunderkinds born, and what do they need in order to become leading performance artists when they move into adulthood? How much do instrumentalists have to practice until they reach perfection, and what part do role models and teachers play in this? These are some of the questions raised in the Liszt Academy’s Talent Day, the ingredients of which are far more than merely a series of traditional concerts. The event, part of the Talent Obliges series, naturally has as its primary aim the presentation of hugely gifted young musicians setting out on their music careers. Talent Day also showcases a cross section of the work being carried on at the Liszt Academy; every stage, from the preparatory classes through to the doctoral school, is given exposure at some time during this day-long event. Visitors can also join a round-table discussion, a masterclass and contemporary music project.

The double piano line-up is relatively common in classical music and increasingly popular on the modern jazz scene, too. Two greats of avantgarde music join forces to give a concert in the Grand Hall of the Liszt Academy. Of Tamil origin, American Vijay Iyer is an extremely multifaceted character. A graduate of mathematics and physics, he started learning music at the age of three. He studied the violin for 15 years, during which time he also taught himself to play the piano. He is associated with avantgarde jazz and various hip-hop projects, and has composed a string quartet, a score for a ballet, as well as various other orchestral works. His solo recordings are regularly top-rated in jazz journals. Minnesotan Craig Taborn started playing music on a Moog synthesizer at the age of twelve. Although originally into rock and fusion jazz, Taborn turned towards experimental genres and the piano under the influence of Cecil Taylor and Peter Brötzmann. Besides his joint project with James Carter, he has also founded his own group. His name is frequently seen in other avantgarde, free and mainstream formations.

Ticket: HUF 1 200 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

Daily ticket: HUF 1 200 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

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

Vijay Iyer, Craig Taborn (piano)

WEDNESDAY 14 MARCH 2018, 19.00

WEDNESDAY 14 MARCH 2018, 19.30

SOLTI HALL

GRAND HALL

KONZI CONCERTS VARIATIONS ON KONZI 2 BARTÓK KONZI SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA AND COMPETITION WINNERS

CHAMBER MUSIC – TUNED FOR GRAND HALL LÁSZLÓ FENYŐ & MARIANNA SHIRINYAN

Works by J.S. Bach, C.P.E. Bach, Vanhal and other composers Symphony Orchestra of the Bartók Béla Conservatory of Music and competitionwinning students Bartók believed that competitions were for horses not artists, and although many others do not, like Bartók, understand how it is possible to measure and compare artistic performances, these events continue to spring up and flourish. Competition wins are seen as key milestones in the career of an artist, after which, all being well, concert halls open before the artist, their diary fills up with engagements and record companies start knocking at the door. Although the winner of a race would perhaps be surprised if the ‘prize’ was the chance to do yet another lap of the track, things are different in the music world: students of the Bartók Béla Conservatory of Music are delighted if thanks to a competition win they receive an opportunity to take to the stage again to show their talent in front of a wider audience. During this recital, student artists at the dawn of their careers interpret works by J.S. Bach, C.P.E. Bach, Vanhal and others. Ticket: HUF 900 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

Beethoven: Variations in E-Flat Major on ‘Bei Männern welche Liebe fühlen’ from Die Zauberflöte, WoO 46 Schumann: Adagio and Allegro, Op. 70 Debussy: Sonata for Cello and Piano Rachmaninov: Sonata for Cello and Piano in G minor, Op. 19 László Fenyő (cello), Marianna Shirinyan (piano) Audiences and critics alike rate László Fenyő as one of the most exciting and intense musicians of our day. He has officially been a member of the world cellist elite since his victory at the International Pablo Casals Cello Competition in Kronberg. His chamber partner, the Armenian Marianna Shirinyan, similarly occupies a place in the vanguard of music; she drew attention to herself with no fewer than five prizes at the 2006 Munich ARD competition, since when she has been a regular guest at the biggest festivals and classical music venues. The opening piece to the Fenyő and Shirinyan chamber recital is Beethoven’s spellbinding variations, which reveal the most varied of moods and which the master composed at the age of 31 to a theme from Mozart’s Magic Flute.

LÁSZLÓ FENYŐ

Tickets: HUF 1 200, 1 700, 2 800, 3 900, 4 600 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre 41

WEDNESDAY 21 MARCH 2018, 19.00

THURSDAY 22 MARCH 2018, 19.00

FRIDAY 23 MARCH 2018, 19.00

SOLTI HALL

FOUR BY FOUR APOLLON MUSAGÈTE QUARTET & ISTVÁN VÁRDAI Arensky: String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Op. 35 Schubert: String Quintet in C major, D. 956 Apollon Musagète Quartet: Paweł Zalejski, Bartosz Zachłod (violin); Piotr Szumieł (viola); Piotr Skweres (cello) István Várdai (cello) Though this is not Apollon Musagète Quartet’s debut in Hungary, on this occasion they are complemented by world-class cellist István Várdai, former student of the Liszt Academy and winner of the ARD International Cello Competition. It was also this line-up that recently took to the Kaposfest stage, the event organized by artistic directors István Várdai and Kristóf Baráti. The quartet’s repertoire spans works from the 16th century all the way to contemporary composers. The concert features the only completed string quintet by Schubert and the string quartet written for violin, viola and two cellos by Anton Arensky, the Russian composer active in the second half of the 19th century. RimskyKorsakov once commented on Arensky: “In his youth Arensky did not escape some influence from me; later the influence came from Tchaikovsky. He will quickly be forgotten.” Though we might argue that this harsh prediction of Arensky’s longevity came true, the imaginative string quartet heard here, and which was dedicated to Tchaikovsky, has the power to make a more lasting emotional impact on audiences. Tickets: HUF 2 800, 3 900 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre 42

CHAMBER MUSIC, SO CLOSE EBONIT SAXOPHONE QUARTET AND MARCELL SZABÓ Glazunov: Saxophone Quartet, Op. 109 Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade Suite, Op. 35 Dvořák: String Quartet No. 12 in F major, Op. 96 (‘America’) Weinberg: Aria, Op. 9 (arrangement by Johannes Pfeuffer) Weinberg: String Quartet No. 5, Op. 27 – Scherzo No. 3 (arrangement by Dineke Nauta) Ebonit Saxophone Quartet: Simone Müller (soprano saxophone); Dineke Nauta (alto saxophone); Johannes Pfeuffer (tenor saxophone); Paulina Marta Kulesza (baritone saxophone) Marcell Szabó (piano)

ACOUSTIC, AUTHENTIC ÁGNES ENYEDI & BANDÁRIUM Ágnes Enyedi (vocals); Soma Salamon (flute, kaval, tilinka, accordion, gardon); Andor Maruzsenszki (violin); Attila Mihó (violin); Márton Éri (viola); Tamás Enyedi (cimbalom); Máté Tóth (double bass, gardon)

Glazunov, who emigrated to Paris in 1928, was quickly caught up in the new fashion for the saxophone. In 1932 he laid the foundations for the saxophone quartet repertoire, which Ebonit Saxophone Quartet of Amsterdam perform here in the Solti Hall. This mixed-nationality ensemble was formed in 2011 from students of the Amsterdam Conservatory of Music. Their innovative style and repertoire has since conquered much of Europe. The arrangement for the Scheherazade Suite is performed by the quartet in the company of 30-year-old Marcell Szabó, who graduated from the piano faculty of the Liszt Academy in 2012. Like Ebonit Saxophone Quartet, Marcell Szabó has won prizes at several distinguished competitions around the world; he was also awarded the Junior Prima Prize in 2015.

Ágnes Enyedi is an inspired interpreter of traditional Hungarian folk music. Her talent and dedication were flagged up early in her career, and led to her being awarded the Young Master of Folk Art Prize and Junior Prima Prize; just a few years later she was selected for the programme titled 50 Talented Young Hungarians in La Femme magazine. Perhaps her fascination with folk music has something to do with her Transylvanian roots. In the course of her tours collecting folk music she came across the last remnants of peasant culture, while her ethnographical studies illuminated the broader correlations. Tázló and Magosare are her permanent formations, but she also regularly interacts with the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble and Duna Art Ensemble. Her concert holds much promise as it showcases the music traditions of regions that have until now been less featured in the dance house movement, including dance melodies from Upper Nyárád and recorder music from the Görgény Valley.

Ticket: HUF 1 900 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

Ticket: HUF 1 600 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

SUNDAY 25 MARCH 2018, 11.00

SUNDAY 25 MARCH 2018, 19.00

GRAND HALL

SOLTI HALL

LISZT KIDZ ACADEMY THE ‘SUPERFLUOUS’ CONDUCTOR FOR 10–15 YEAR OLDS Mozart: Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550 – 1 st movement Mendelssohn: Psalm 42, Op. 42 – ‘Meine Seele dürstet nach Gott’ (aria); ‘Meine Thränen sind meine Speise Tag und Nacht’ (recitativo); ‘Denn ich wollte gern hingehen’ (aria) Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67 (‘Fate’) – 1 st movement Haydn: Symphony No. 88 in G major – 4 th movement Luca Bojtos (soprano); Gábor Pintér (actor) Angelica Girls’ Choir (conductor: Zsuzsanna Gráf) Divisi Chamber Orchestra Narrator and conductor: Dávid Dinya

DÁVID DINYA & GÁBOR PINTÉR

MASTERS OF CHAMBER MUSIC CSABA ONCZAY, HAGAI SHAHAM, PASCAL ROGÉ & PÉTER BÁRSONY DVOŘÁK RECITAL Antonín Dvořák: Silent Woods, Op. 68/5 Rondo in G minor, Op. 94 Slavonic Dance in G minor, Op. 46/2 (arrangement by Kreisler) Slavonic Dance in E minor, Op. 72/2 (arrangement by Kreisler) Piano Trio No. 4 in E minor, Op. 90 (‘Dumky’) Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat major, Op. 87 Csaba Onczay (cello); Hagai Shaham (violin); Pascal Rogé (piano); Péter Bársony (viola);

Why is a conductor needed when the orchestra often gets along fine without him? On the third occasion of the Liszt Academy’s series for younger audiences, Divisi Chamber Orchestra and Dávid Dinya, doctoral student at the Liszt Academy, guide young people through the mysteries of the work of conductors. We learn about the sorts of problems that arise in a rehearsal, what the baton is used for, how an orchestra becomes a single instrument, why a conductor must have insight into psychology, and how it is that a symphony orchestra cannot be operated along purely democratic lines. And at the end of the day the conclusion – naturally – is that the conductor is far from superfluous in classical music.

Few people know that Antonín Dvořák was a violist. Most probably this is one of the reasons he had such an affinity for chamber music, and it is no coincidence that this genre is peppered throughout his oeuvre. This special Dvořák recital boasts Hungarian star chamber musicians alongside the Israeli violinist virtuoso Hagai Shaham and French pianist Pascal Rogé. Wonderful recordings highlighting his elegant, stylistically profound, considered and precisely perfected play have won Pascal Rogé many prizes, while Hagai Shaham has performed as soloist in concerts with virtually all the best orchestras in the world. Péter Bársony has given countless solo and chamber concerts, added to which he teaches at top-class universities and holds viola masterclasses. The international media has bracketed cellist Csaba Onczay with none other than Casals on more than one occasion.

Ticket: HUF 1 400 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

Tickets: HUF 2 800, 3 900 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre 43

WEDNESDAY 28 MARCH 2018, 19.00

THURSDAY 29 MARCH 2018, 19.30

SOLTI HALL

GRAND HALL

AMADINDA PERCUSSION PROJECT

ORCHESTRA IN THE CENTRE JULIA LEZHNEVA, FRANCO FAGIOLI & CAPPELLA GABETTA

Carlos Chavez: Toccata Elliot Cole: Postludes – Nos. 6 & 8 Steve Reich: Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices & Organ Steve Reich: Sextet Agbadza – traditional African music Amadinda Percussion Group: Károly Bojtos, Aurél Holló, Zoltán Rácz, Zoltán Váczi, Sára Bolyki, Anna Molnár (vocals) Percussion students of the Liszt Academy and Bartók Béla Conservatory of Music Amadinda have made a name for themselves as masters of contemporary percussion music, although they also play various exotic (chiefly African) folk music. In the more than 30 years they have been together, they have had personal contact with famous composers of the likes of John Cage, Steve Reich and György Ligeti. For this evening’s concert, students of the Liszt Academy and Bartók Béla Conservatory of Music take to the stage with the four-member ensemble. Amadinda members Zoltán Rácz and Aurél Holló teach at the aforementioned institutions. The evening is complemented by a further two gifted artists in their twenties, Sára Bolyki, folk and jazz singer, and Anna Molnár, mezzosoprano. The programme runs from West African traditional dance music to truly contemporary works: young American composer Elliot Cole’s Postludes dates from 2012. Carlos Chávez was a 20th-century Mexican composer, and his works are combined here with pieces by Steve Reich, one of the founding fathers of music minimalism. Tickets: HUF 2 200, 2 900 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre 44

Platti: Concerto Grosso in F major after Arcangelo Corelli Manna: Litanie a due voci Ragazzi: Sonata in G major, Op. 1/8 Porpora: Salve Regina Hasse: Salve Regina Vivaldi: Nisi Dominus, RV 608 Pergolesi: Stabat Mater Julia Lezhneva (soprano) Franco Fagioli (countertenor) Cappella Gabetta (concertmaster: Andrés Gabetta) Cappella Gabetta appear on the stage of the Liszt Academy with the star duet of Baroque music, Argentinian Franco Fagioli and Russian Julia Lezhneva. Andrés Gabetta, one of the most sought-after Baroque violinists today, carries out duties as concertmaster. The virtuoso began his music studies in Argentina and then continued in Madrid and Basel. His greatest dream, that of having his own Baroque orchestra, came true in 2011 when he founded the formation together with his cellist sister Sol Gabetta. In fact, there should be nothing surprising in Lezhneva and Fagioli, two phenomena of the 18 th-century vocal repertoire, performing Pergolesi’s jewel of the Baroque duet canon, Stabat Mater, with Cappella Gabetta. They do so here alongside marvellous solo parts by Porpora, Hasse and Vivaldi. The violin solos in the concerto, the sonata and that in Vivaldi’s Nisi Dominus are played by Andrés Gabetta on a Guarneri crafted in Venice in 1727. Tickets: HUF 4 800, 5 900, 7 600, 9 900, 10 600 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

CAPPELLA GABETTA © HOLGER TALINKSI

“THERE IS ALWAYS A RIGHT APPROACH, WE JUST HAVE TO FIND IT. THIS IS THE MOST DIFFICULT TASK FOR EDUCATORS” Joel Smirnoff is the former chair of the Violin Department of his highly acclaimed alma mater, the Juilliard School, the former president of the Cleveland Institute of Music, and has been a member of the four-time Grammy winning Juilliard String Quartet. He considers music education and talent development his beloved vocation and special responsibility.

“Teaching is the hardest task for an artist, as he has to be especially careful about conveying the right ideas to his students in the best way possible. Especially gifted students are particularly difficult to handle. The question that occurs to me first upon encountering a great talent is what I could possibly teach this student, how can I improve or develop him or her. I must find their weakest point, which they themselves can improve and develop. It is not easy to find this area, as being proud of their skills and abilities, everyone tries to put their strengths on display. Another important factor is that no teacher is entitled to undermine their student's personality. Being aware of this responsibility, we must work on the weak points without harming their existing strengths. We must educate people while preserving their individual personalities, otherwise we can cause long-lasting damage to their music careers. Music is an art form that is built on the manifestation of the musician's personality during performance, so we teachers must be particularly skilled when approaching our students lest we change them too much. We must simply nudge them onto another path. There is always a right approach, we just have to find it.” The violinist and conductor Joel Smirnoff believes that the learning process is very long and that he himself is still a student, though in another, more advanced phase of this process: “As a teacher, you must see where a particular student currently finds himself or herself in life, as we can get them to take only one step at a time. In September, during the Bartók World Competition, one of my students didn't get shortlisted for the semi-final round. He came up to me and said that he had no idea what his next step should be. I took him out for a coffee and told him that I might know what it was, what should happen next in his music career. This made him feel much better, and he took heart from it. I must admit that teaching – although I love it deeply – is a very exacting job. It makes particular demands on a teacher: we must, for example, listen to our students’ play for many hours a day highly attentively and with a profound commitment to the music. Besides, we must make our students understand that being a musician is a privilege. Music is our life but we also earn our living from it. Our duty is to get people to comprehend the value of music and present composer giants to them in an authentic way.

JOEL SMIRNOFF

“As educators, we tend to put our music students into categories, but in the long run it is those musicians who resist this categorization that will 45

become successful and play music instinctively. We can observe the same with dancers and singers. The secret to their success is natural movement or a natural singing voice. This is why I keep emphasising the particular responsibility of educators: what matters most is that our students remain themselves even during concerts. We must respect their personalities and styles and must support them while, at the same time, open new doors for them. It is the music and not the teacher that must add to their individual characters: the teacher is merely a facilitator of this process. One of my professors, Dorothy Delay, once said to us that music was not about us. In a theatrical sense, music is the role that we play; in a way, every musician is an actor. “A lot of musicians try to be successful by having a strong stage presence and making spectacular movements. Yet the musical giants of the past were almost motionless on stage: not one of Alberstein, Oistrakh or Bartók, nor even the Budapest Quartet, were ever ‘showy’. What is most important for success is to endow the audience with emotion. It has always been a complex task, but today it is even more difficult given that everyone is used to enjoying multimedia experiences and the majority of listeners have difficulty concentrating while using just one sensory organ. It is absolutely impossible to tell the children of today’s digital world just to listen to the music and not to watch the screen at the same time. This is why I believe that the radio was, and still is, quite wonderful. In the old days, when there was no television and people would listen only to the radio, music meant a lot more to them and reached them more effectively than it does today. Listening to music gets the imagination going – and this is unparalleled joy. “Today’s youth has plenty of channels, forums and media sites to listen to music, and so they can easily access famous recordings of the past, too. This is why they can’t come up with an excuse for not having heard this or that performer. Nonetheless, it is still disappointing to ask young people about what music they listen to, as this turns out to be only young performers. I expect my students to also pay attention to old recordings. I insist, too, that they shouldn’t only limit themselves to studio-recorded performances, as live concerts are entirely different. You must witness what a musician is capable of in a live recital. It seems to me that today’s young people attend few concerts. When I was young, we used to go to countless live performances. I used to live in New York as a child, and I would sneak into the Carnegie Hall every other night. The significance of the contact between the musicians and the audience cannot be grasped by someone who doesn’t attend enough concerts. “I would love to have the experience of working with a child prodigy like Mozart, someone who plays an instrument and composes music at the same time. Bartók, Chopin and Brahms would all play their own compositions. When I was president of the Cleveland Institute of Music, we had a piano student, Daniil Trifonov, who would also play his own works. In the 19th century, it was much more natural for musicians to compose their own music, even if not every piece turned out to be good. In those days, musicians had to experience the feeling of facing a blank sheet it was their task to fill. Today, the situation is entirely different: there are musicians and there are composers, quite separately. To my mind, a really good composer is also a musician.” 46

ENTRY IN THE LISZT ACADEMY GUEST BOOK JOEL SMIRNOFF (16 SEPTEMBER 2017) 47

CONCERT CHRONOLOGY APRIL

Liszt: Am Grabe Richard Wagners Schönberg: String Quartet No. 2, Op. 10 Bartók: Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 2, BB 85

Concerts organized by Liszt Academy Concert Centre Hosted concert

Andrea Brassói-Jőrös (soprano); Júlia Hámos, Balázs Demény (piano); Júlia Pusker, Lisa Romain, Kristóf Tóth (violin) Classicus Quartet: József Rácz, Réka Baksai (violin); Péter Tornyai (viola); Tamás Zétényi (cello)

Classical Jazz Opera World / Folk Junior

Ticket: HUF 1 900 Organizer: Budapest Spring Festival

MONDAY 2 APRIL 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

TUESDAY 3 APRIL 2018, 19.30 SOLTI HALL

BUDAPEST SPRING FESTIVAL RUDOLF BUCHBINDER AND CITY OF BIRMINGHAM ORCHESTRA

BUDAPEST SPRING FESTIVAL FROM LISZT TO BARTÓK • 4.2 THE INFLUENCE OF FOLK MUSIC

TUESDAY 3 APRIL 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

BUDAPEST SPRING FESTIVAL EMMANUELLE HAÏM & LE CONCERT D'ASTRÉE CANTATES ITALIENNES Händel: Armida abbandonata – cantata for soprano solo and chamber ensemble, HWV 105 Händel: Trio Sonata in B-flat minor, HWV 386b Händel: Lucrezia – cantata for soprano solo and chamber ensemble, HWV 145 intermission Händel: Aminta e Fillide – cantata for soprano solos and chamber ensemble, HWV 83 Sabine Devieilhe (soprano), Marianne Crebassa (mezzo-soprano) Le Concert d'Astrée Conductor: Emmanuelle Haïm

RUDOLF BUCHBINDER

Page 57 Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No. 9 Ravel: Tzigane Hungarian Folk Songs Bartók: Improvisations on Hungarian Peasant Songs, BB 83 Janáček: String Quartet No. 2 Bartók: Sonata, BB 88 Réka Annus (folk singer); Balázs Demény, János Palojtay (piano); Ágnes Langer (violin); Classicus Quartet: József Rácz, Réka Baksai (violin); Péter Tornyai (viola); Tamás Zétényi (cello)

Ticket: HUF 2 500, 4 800, 6 500, 7 900 Organizer: Budapest Spring Festival WEDNESDAY 4 APRIL 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

VADYM KHOLODENKO PIANO RECITAL MVM CONCERTS – THE PIANO Page 57 FRIDAY 6 APRIL 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

BUDAPEST SPRING FESTIVAL GÁBOR FARKAS PIANO RECITAL Page 58

Ticket: HUF 1 900 Organizer: Budapest Spring Festival

BUDAPEST SPRING FESTIVAL FROM LISZT TO BARTÓK • 4.1 DISSOLUTION OF TONALITY Wagner: Siegfried Idyll (transcription for piano quintet by A. Pringsheim) Liszt: La lugubre gondola (transcription for cello and piano) Liszt: La lugubre gondola Liszt: R. W. – Venezia (transcription for piano quintet) 48

BÉLA BARTÓK

TUESDAY 3 APRIL 2018, 17.00 SOLTI HALL

SATURDAY 7 APRIL 2018, 17.00 SOLTI HALL

BUDAPEST SPRING FESTIVAL FROM LISZT TO BARTÓK • 4.3 THE IMPRESSIONISM Liszt: Les jeux d'eau a la Villa d'Este (‘The Fountains of the Villa d'Este’) Ravel: Jeux d’eau Debussy: String Quartet in G minor, Op. 10 Kodály: Meditation sur un motif de Claude Debussy (‘Meditation on a theme by Claude Debussy’) Liszt: Harmonies poétiques et religieuses (‘Poetic and Religious Harmonies’) – Funérailles (‘Funeral’) Bartók: 4 Pieces for Orchestra, BB 64 (transcription by László Sándor)

Ticket: HUF 1 900 Organizer: Budapest Spring Festival SATURDAY 7 APRIL 2018, 19.30 SOLTI HALL

BUDAPEST SPRING FESTIVAL FROM LISZT TO BARTÓK • 4.4 BARTÓK IN PARIS; 15 APRIL 1922 Bartók: Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 1, BB 84 Ravel: Ma mère l'Oye (transcription by Péter Tornyai) Szymanowski: Seven Songs to Poems of James Joyce, Op. 54 Stravinsky: Septet Szilvia Vörös (mezzo-soprano); József Balog, Mihály Berecz (piano); Réka Baksai, Éva Osztrosits, József Rácz (violin); Dénes Ludmány (viola); György Déri, Tamás Zétényi (cello); Zsófia Bíró (flute); Balázs Rumy (clarinet); János Benyus (horn); Bálint Fábry (bassoon) Ticket: HUF 1 900 Organizer: Budapest Spring Festival

SATURDAY 7 APRIL 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

SUNDAY 8 APRIL 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

CONCERTO BUDAPEST ROMANTIC NIGHT WITH KHATIA BUNIATISHVILI

EMMANUEL PAHUD & FRANZ LISZT CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

Mozart: The Magic Flute – Overture Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23 Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet – Fantasy Overture Tchaikovsky: Francesca da Rimini – Symphonic Fantasy after Dante, Op. 32

Benda: Symphony in A major, L1.8 C.P.E. Bach: String Symphony in B-flat major, Wq 182/2 C.P.E. Bach: Flute Concerto in D minor, Wq 22 Graun: Symphony in C major Frederick II (The Great): Symphony No. 1 in G major Quantz: Flute Concerto in G major, QV5:174

Khatia Buniatishvili (piano) Concerto Budapest Conductor: András Keller

Emmanuel Pahud (flute) Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra (concertmaster: Péter Tfirst)

Tickets: HUF 2 700, 3 600, 4 400, 5 300, 6 400 Organizer: Concerto Budapest SATURDAY 7 APRIL 2018, 22.00 GRAND HALL

CONCERTO BUDAPEST PREMIERE II – PÉTER WOLF Péter Wolf : Clarinet Concerto (premiere) Csaba Klenyán (clarinet) Concerto Budapest Conductor: Zoltán Rácz Ticket: HUF 1 000 Organizer: Concerto Budapest SUNDAY 8 APRIL 2018, 10.30 GRAND HALL

SECRETS OF MUSIC CAVALCADE OF SOUNDS Amadinda Percussion Group Artistic director: Zoltán Rácz Ticket: HUF 2 500 Organizer: Filharmónia Hungary

SZILVIA VÖRÖS

EMMANUEL PAHUD

József Balog, Júlia Hámos, István Lajkó (piano); Éva Osztrosits (violin); Dénes Ludmány (viola); Balázs Rumy (clarinet) Classicus Quartet: József Rácz, Réka Baksai (violin), Péter Tornyai (viola), Tamás Zétényi (cello)

Tickets: HUF 2 900, 4 200, 5 500, 6 900 Organizer: Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra MONDAY 9 APRIL 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

CONCERTO BUDAPEST ROMANTIC NIGHT WITH KHATIA BUNIATISHVILI Mozart: The Magic Flute – Overture Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23 Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet – Fantasy Overture Tchaikovsky: Francesca da Rimini – Symphonic Fantasy after Dante, Op. 32 Khatia Buniatishvili (piano) Concerto Budapest Conductor: András Keller Tickets: HUF 2 700, 3 600, 4 400, 5 300, 6 400 Organizer: Concerto Budapest 49

TUESDAY 10 APRIL 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

FRIDAY 13 APRIL 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

MONDAY 16 APRIL 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

BUDAPEST SPRING FESTIVAL ‘MIKOR MEGYEK GALÍCIA FELÉ’ (‘WHEN I GO TO GALICIA’) CONCERT TO COMMEMORATE THE END OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR

CHAMBER MUSIC – TUNED FOR GRAND HALL

COMPLETE WORKS LIVE MOZART’S COMPLETE VIOLIN CONCERTOS III KRISTÓF BARÁTI & PKF – PRAGUE PHILHARMONIA Page 61

‘Mikor megyek Galícia felé’ (‘When I go to Galicia’) – cantata Levente Gyöngyösi: Soldier weeper György Selmeczi: Te Deum 1914 Miklós Csemiczky: De profundis János Vajda: Memento 1914 György Orbán: Versus Psalmi Ágnes Anna Kun (mezzo-soprano), Emma Kiss (prose) Hungarian Male Soldier Choir (choirmaster: Kálmán Strausz) MÁV Symphony Orchestra Conductor: Kálmán Strausz Ticket: HUF 1 000 Organizer: Budapest Spring Festival WEDNESDAY 11 APRIL 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

HUNGARIAN RADIO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73 (‘Emperor’) Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92 Giulio de Padova (piano) Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra Conductor: Tamás Vásáry

NEW LISZT FERENC CHAMBER CHOIR

COLIN CURRIE & ZOLTÁN RÁCZ Page 58 SATURDAY 14 APRIL 2018, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

TUESDAY 17 APRIL 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

ACOUSTIC, AUTHENTIC ÁGNES HERCZKU & FRIENDS Page 61

NEW LISZT FERENC CHAMBER CHOIR Page 59 SATURDAY 14 APRIL 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

COMPLETE WORKS LIVE MOZART’S COMPLETE VIOLIN CONCERTOS I RISTÓF BARÁTI & PKF – PRAGUE PHILHARMONIA

ÁGNES HERCZKU & FRIENDS

Page 59 SUNDAY 15 APRIL 2018, 11.00 SOLTI HALL

WEDNESDAY 18 APRIL 2018, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

LISZT KIDZ ACADEMY THE ‘SUPERFLUOUS’ VIOLA FROM 10–15 YEAR OLDS

MASTERS OF CHAMBER MUSIC AUER TRIO SCHUBERT RECITAL Page 62

Page 60 SUNDAY 15 APRIL 2018, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

DITTA ROHMANN & CONCERTO ARMONICO C. P. E. BACH 230

Tickets: HUF 3 000, 4 300, 5 500, 6 500 Organizer: Hungarian Radio Music Ensembles

Page 60

THURSDAY 12 APRIL 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

AT HOME IN THE LISZT ACADEMY ALEKSANDAR MADŽAR & KELEMEN QUARTET

COMPLETE WORKS LIVE MOZART’S COMPLETE VIOLIN CONCERTOS II KRISTÓF BARÁTI & PKF – PRAGUE PHILHARMONIA

Page 58

Page 60

SUNDAY 15 APRIL 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

WEDNESDAY 18 APRIL 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

HUNGARIAN NATIONAL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA Mozart: Symphony No. 39 in E-flat major, K. 543 Mozart: Requiem, K. 626 Kinga Kriszta (soprano), Erika Gál (alto), István Horváth (tenor), István Kovács (bass) Hungarian National Choir (choirmaster: Csaba Somos) Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra Conductor: János Kovács

Tickets: HUF 3 000, 4 500, 6 000 Organizer: Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra

Tickets: HUF 2 700, 3 700, 4 600, 6 600, 11 000 Organizer: Budapest Festival Orchestra

BUDAPEST SPRING FESTIVAL ENSEMBLE RESONANZ

THURSDAY 19 APRIL 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

SATURDAY 21 APRIL 2018, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

SUNDAY 22 APRIL 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

BUDAPEST SPRING FESTIVAL NATALIE DESSAY & PHILIPPE CASSARD

HERE AND NOW 72 ANGELS CRACOW SINGERS AND RASCHÈR SAXOPHONE QUARTET

Page 62

Page 62 FRIDAY 20 APRIL 2018, 19.45 GRAND HALL

BUDAPEST FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA Mozart: Symphony No. 1 in E-flat major, K. 16 Mozart: Ch’io mi scordi di te? – concert aria, K. 505 Mozart: Bella mia fiamma, addio – concert aria, K. 528 Mozart: Un moto di gioia – concert aria, K. 579 Haydn: Il mondo della luna (‘The World on the Moon’), Hob. XXVIII: 7 – Overture Haydn: Symphony No. 60 in C major, Hob. I:60 (‘Il Distratto’)

SATURDAY 21 APRIL 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

BUDAPEST SPRING FESTIVAL PÉTER FRANKL & ISTVÁN VÁRDAI RECITAL Page 63

PÉTER FRANKL & ISTVÁN VÁRDAI

Mozart: Symphony No. 1 in E-flat major, K. 16 Mozart: Ch’io mi scordi di te? – concert aria, K. 505 Mozart: Bella mia fiamma, addio – concert aria, K. 528 Mozart: Un moto di gioia – concert aria, K. 579 Haydn: Il mondo della luna (‘The World on the Moon’), Hob. XXVIII: 7 – Overture Haydn: Symphony No. 60 in C major, Hob. I:60 (‘Il Distratto’) Olena Tokar (soprano) Budapest Festival Orchestra Conductor: Gábor Takács-Nagy

Péter Zombola: Symphony No. 2 Schumann: Symphony No. 1 in B-flat major, Op. 38 (‘Spring’) R. Strauss: Four Last Songs Judit Halász (vocals) Dohnányi Orchestra Budafok Conductor: Guido Mancusi Tickets: HUF 3 000, 3 500, 4 000 Organizer: Dohnányi Orchestra Budafok

GÁBOR BOLDOCZKI & FRIENDS

Tickets: HUF 2 700, 3 700, 4 600, 6 600, 11 000 Organizer: Budapest Festival Orchestra

BUDAPEST FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA

DOHNÁNYI ORCHESTRA BUDAFOK

TUESDAY 24 APRIL 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

Olena Tokar (soprano) Budapest Festival Orchestra Conductor: Gábor Takács-Nagy

SATURDAY 21 APRIL 2018, 15.30 GRAND HALL

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SUNDAY 22 APRIL 2018, 11.00 GRAND HALL

UNDERSTANDABLE MUSIC LISZT: SONATA IN B MINOR ESSENCE OF ROMANTICISM Liszt: Sonata in B minor Balázs Fülei (piano) Performing: Gábor Hollerung Tickets: HUF 1 900, 2 300, 2 700 Organizer: Dohnányi Orchestra Budafok SUNDAY 22 APRIL 2018, 19.30 SOLTI HALL

Händel: Suite in E major, HWV 430 – Aria and Variations J.S. Bach: Sonata for Viola da gamba and Harpsichord in G major, BWV 1027 Albinoni: Sonata for Trumpet and Basso Continuo in E-flat major Händel: 'Tu del Ciel ministro eletto' - Aria from the oratorio Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno, HWV 46a A. Melani: Cantata for Soprano Solo, Trumpet and Basso Continuo in D major ('La tromba') S. Friedman: Fanfare for Trumpet Solo Fauré: Après un rêve Schumann: Adagio and Allegro Debussy: Nuit d’étoiles Poulenc: Les chemins de l’amour Martinů: La revue de cuisine Gábor Boldoczki (trumpet), Ingrid Kertesi (soprano), László Fenyő (cello), Soma Dinyés (harpsichord, portative organ), Balázs Réti (piano), Gergely Kuklis (violin), Csaba Klenyán (clarinet), György Lakatos (bassoon) Tickets: HUF 3 900, 4 900, 5 900 Organizer: Filharmónia Hungary 51

ALEKSZEJ VOLOGYIN

WEDNESDAY 25 APRIL 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

ALEXEI VOLODIN PIANO RECITAL MVM CONCERTS – THE PIANO Page 64

STACEY KENT

2018. ÁPRILIS 28. (SZOMBAT ), 19.30 GRAND HALL

THURSDAY 26 APRIL 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

JAZZ IT! STACEY KENT

DANUBIA ORCHESTRA ÓBUDA THE MYTH OF FREEDOM

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Beethoven: Missa solemnis, op. 123 Klára Kolonits (soprano), Zsófia Kálnay (alto), Zoltán Megyesi (tenor), Marcell Bakonyi (bass) Hungarian National Choir (choirmaster: Csaba Somos) Danubia Orchestra Óbuda Conductor: Máté Hámori Tickets: HUF 2 500, 3 200, 3 800, 4 700 Organizer: Danubia Orchestra Óbuda

DANUBIA ORCHESTRA OBUDA

FRIDAY 27 APRIL 2018, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

CHAMBER MUSIC, SO CLOSE IN MEDIAS BRASS QUINTET & ZSUZSANNA BAZSINKA Page 64

IN MEDIAS BRASS QUINTET

PARITY THE QUEST FOR TRUE ART How can musical talent be defined? How can a good teacher contribute to developing the potential of a gifted student?

We interviewed the Kossuth Prizewinning violinist, János Rolla – concertmaster and artistic director of the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra and former head of the Chamber Music Department at the Liszt Academy, who is still an active music educator – on talent, role models, perfect technical skills and the lack of hard work, humility and great figureheads.

Musical talent is a multi-layered and complex issue. A good musical ear, sense of rhythm, musical memory, extraordinary interest in music and technical skills in actually sounding the instrument are all indispensable, but being able to make sacrifices is also essential. Good teachers take note of the individual ideas of their students while trying to give them direction so that they may find their way through the jungle of various musical styles and performance trends. Genuinely talented young people, however, should be left to develop their potential in their own individual way; educators should only intervene if their student is clearly on the wrong path. Talent also means not following the instructions of the tutor to the letter but connecting these with one’s own ideas. Sounding the instrument has its basic rules, but even these can be individually adjusted to some extent: what really matters is the outcome. As we say in Hungarian, if the meeting of master and pupil stands under a good star, classes can turn into a real partnership. How did you personally feel about the highs and lows of your talent? I wasn’t pushed by my musical family to study music, but my teachers encouraged me to become a professional musician. I began learning with a teacher who worked with me systematically, creating order and teaching me to use my instrument consciously. Sometimes my father would announce: “Son, you will now practise the violin and won’t go out to play soccer!” Before the entrance exam for the conservatory, my violin teacher shut me in, forbidding me to leave the room until I’d learned the compulsory etude for the exam. I couldn’t forgive my father then, but later I agreed with him. Refraining from some fun activities in childhood and putting music first is also part of talent. My generation often had to go through very tough years, they had to give up many things, and these sacrifices contributed to our inner worth, making us artists that are more than merely craftsmen playing with very good or even perfect technique. We made enormous efforts to turn the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra into one of the leading ensembles of the world. Did you have role models?

JÁNOS ROLLA

Of course, I did! David Oistrakh, Yehudi Menuhin, Jasha Heifetz, Bronisław Huberman, to mention just a few. We had the good fortune to listen to musicians who, beyond their fantastic control over the instrument, could be distinguished from one another thanks to their power of self-expression. As soon as I turned on the radio I knew who 53

was playing as their performance styles were so distinctive. I was also lucky to have been the collaborating partner of extraordinary artists who had a great impact on my own musical development. I personally knew Anne Fischer, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Isaac Stern and Maurice André. According to one of your statements, today you hear musicians with flawless technique but with less individual character. I believe that affluence makes us forget struggles, while the world moving ever so faster hinders the maturing process that is needed to transform one into an artist. At his diploma recital, Zoltán Székely, one of the violinist giants of the 20 th century, was not allowed to perform Beethoven’s Violin Concerto because it was claimed that at the age of 24 he was too immature to do so. Such a restriction might have serious ramifications and lead to lowered self-confidence, but it may also bring a greater sense of responsibility for music. Today, the expectation is no less than perfection, not a single sour note is allowed at a concert, while humility is getting lost. Is it possible to pass on humility? No, it isn’t. Although the environment can have some influence on it, humility is also part of talent, a human gift, which one either has or doesn’t have. Knowing the background of a piece – how the piece is embedded in the era in which it was written and in the human network the composer was living – is all part of the environment. But humility also entails being familiar with the fact that the tonality of D minor oozes darkness and heavy emotions, bringing forth furrows on one’s forehead; or that the C major key suggests glamour; or that it is no accident that the tonality of Schubert’s String Quartet ‘Death and The Maiden’ or of the Requiems in D minor was the conscious choice of the composer. In order that young people are not bored with Baroque concertos, or that a string quartet of young musicians don’t only simply play a piece but establish a connection with it, allow it to come close to them and want to pass it on, it is important for them to understand and accept that sometimes it is during the rehearsals that the actual magic happens rather than at the concert itself. Is it necessary to teach in a different way now, in this online world, from 20 or 30 years ago? Today’s young musicians can indeed see and hear more, play with virtually a perfect technique, and completely control their instrument, which is enviable. These days, a concert can be at the level of a studio recording as far as accuracy and perfect tone are concerned. All these are the basic requirements today’s musicians have to meet. At the same time, a certain sense of uniformity can also be observed in the performances of young musicians. The audience, however, also go to a concert to experience the personal interaction generated by the musician’s personality. The aura of genuine artists captivates the spectators; you immerse yourself in it. A real musician knows what power dynamics has: they play pianissimo in a way that even the 54

buzzing of a fly can be heard in the concert hall, as the audience is so spellbound that they sit in complete silence. How to endow people with a profound experience cannot be learnt. Do you have positive examples? Do you know young musicians who have the necessary curiosity and humility? I find it particularly interesting that my Far Eastern students have a deep interest in European culture, so they soak up everything I teach them. In the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra, even if the transition period took a long time, the generational change is complete. We used to be all roughly the same age, and it occurred to us that promoting young people to the ensemble would be beneficial. We made a real effort to pick the best and, what’s more, I believe we have managed to get these young musicians to internalize what we have learned and established in the course of our five-decade long career, namely, the unique, distinguishable tone and the ethos of the orchestra, a love of music and conveying the wonders that music evokes in people. Because that’s what real art is about.

PROFESSOR JÁNOS ROLLA HELPED DISCOVER THE SECRET OF THE SOUL HIDING BEHIND TECHNIQUE Early in his life, the now 30-yearold László G. Horváth decided to pursue a career not as a soloist but instead involve himself in formations with other musicians, and that, moreover, he would choose to work with those he feels comfortable with. Although the leader of Anima Musicae Chamber Orchestra, which was founded in 2010, represents a different generation from that of his teacher, Professor János Rolla, he fundamentally agrees with his mentor’s assertion that in this fast-changing world, musical professionalism is often not matched by profundity.

When did it become apparent that you would be a musician? I still haven’t decided to be a musician. Would you care to expand on that? I was a lively 5-year-old child when I started playing the violin; my parents thought that music would burn off some of my excess energy. Since then, music has filled my life, but I don’t feel that it defines it. When did it come to you that you were not attracted to a career as a soloist? At the age of 16 or 17, when I was at the Konzi, I found it easier to practise when I could to play with someone else. I felt that it was better to play in company, and I am far more motivated by the personalities of other musicians, meeting with the instrument, exploring precise self-expression and cooperation, and the ‘chemistry’ that binds all these together. For me, there is nothing more exciting than the exercise – and the joy – of mutual discovery, not to speak of just how fantastic it is to work in a great team representing a high standard of professionalism. How did you meet János Rolla? We met even before the formation of Anima Musicae Chamber Orchestra, at the chamber music camp in Szarvas, and his personality played a decisive

role in my realization that playing string quartets (which I had learned to love at the Konzi), and then chamber performance, was my true path. At the beginning, he took part in all our rehearsals, and later he mainly coached me. He taught us how to structure an ensemble, decide on the programme, select the pieces to play, but also how to rehearse. He has never let go of our hands once in the past seven years. Given the social, political and historical environment, the generation of János Rolla experienced struggles when it came to music, which he said had helped in expressing his inner self. How is this different as regards the career of the young László G. Horváth? Our generation has no idea of the value of what it is given. We do not have sufficient respect for concert opportunities and the openness of the world. Any appearance in the then closed world counted as a far greater event than it does today. Today, the tempo is much faster, there are more orchestras, competition is more intense, and as the market-oriented approach gains ground in music, the numbers determine a musician’s performance. At that time, the profession took the concert event more seriously; an appearance was preceded by the necessary amount of rehearsal, and the most important objective was that the music should be played as it had to be played. János Rolla was able to communicate this approach, and I hope we are following his example. According to János Rolla, perfected technical skills are uniformizing artists and there are ever fewer personalities these days.

LÁSZLÓ G. HORVÁTH © SÁNDOR SOMFAI 56

Teaching violin technique has developed to such an extent that “in today’s world, it is possible to teach a chair to play violin.” In other words, it is possible to teach someone who is not brilliant to play an instrument, while professionalism is the basic requirement on podiums. Earlier, it was possible to differentiate great violinists on the radio on the basis of their style and tone, whereas today, with one or two exceptions, this is not the case. The Internet has provided both opportunities and limitations: the ‘ideal sound’ has become virtually identical everywhere, and now there are fewer significant differences. Time constraints involved in hastily putting together concerts these days frequently result in the programme having a lack of a profound message. This tendency is undeniable. And yet, even today very many excellent musicians do have an individual tone, expression, soul. Every day we try to ensure that we remain faithful to our name: ‘anima musicae’, that is, ‘the soul of music’. Despite all the obstacles, the personality of true artists does not disappear – because it simply cannot disappear.

MONDAY 2 APRIL 2018, 19.30

WEDNESDAY 4 APRIL 2018, 19.30

GRAND HALL

VADYM KHOLODENKO PIANO RECITAL MVM CONCERTS – THE PIANO BUDAPEST SPRING FESTIVAL RUDOLF BUCHBINDER & CITY OF BIRMINGHAM SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Chopin: Two Nocturnes, Op. 48 Chopin: Sonata in B minor, Op. 35 Prokofiev: Piano Sonata No. 8 in B-flat major, Op. 84

Wagner: Tristan and Isolde – Overture Schumann: Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54 Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67 (‘Fate’)

Vadym Kholodenko (piano)

Rudolf Buchbinder (piano) City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Conductor: Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla ‘Meet conducting’s next superstar.’ This was the title of a lengthy review published in August 2016 in the Daily Telegraph on the Lithuanian conductor, who is admired for her astonishing energy and dynamism. Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla took up the reins at City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in 2016, setting this artist in her early 30s on the same path as that followed by Simon Rattle, Sakari Oramo and Andris Nelsons. She is partnered at the Budapest Spring Festival by a true legend in Austrian pianist Rudolf Buchbinder. Tickets: HUF 3 500, 4 900, 7 500, 9 900 Organizers: Budapest Spring Festival, Liszt Academy Concert Centre

This is not the first time that Vadim Cholodenko has appeared in the MVM Concerts – The Piano series, which showcases world-famous pianists. The Ukrainian instrumentalist won the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition of Texas five years ago, in the process swinging the spotlight squarely on this brilliant artist. Similarly to many of his East European predecessors, Cholodenko selects pieces from the Romantic and Russian repertoire for this recital. After Chopin’s Two Nocturnes (1841) he moves to the Polish-French composer’s B minor piano sonata, including the famous Funeral March. The second half brings us the Prokofiev Piano Sonata No. 8; the three-movement work was composed during the Second World War.

VADYM KHOLODENKO

Tickets: HUF 2 000, 3 000, 4 000, 5 000, 6 000, 8 000 Organizers: Besszer Concert, Liszt Academy Concert Centre 57

FRIDAY 6 APRIL 2018, 19.30

THURSDAY 12 APRIL 2018, 19.30

FRIDAY 13 APRIL 2018, 19.30

GRAND HALL

CHAMBER MUSIC – TUNED FOR GRAND HALL COLIN CURRIE AND ZOLTÁN RÁCZ BUDAPEST SPRING FESTIVAL GÁBOR FARKAS PIANO RECITAL Liszt: Years of Pilgrimage I, II, III Gábor Farkas (piano) In the foreword to the first volume of Years of Pilgrimage (1842) Liszt wrote: “Having recently travelled to many new countries, through different settings and places consecrated by history and poetry; having felt that the phenomena of nature and their attendant sights did not pass before my eyes as pointless images but stirred deep emotions in my soul, and that between us a vague but immediate relationship had established itself, an undefined but real rapport, an inexplicable but undeniable communication, I have tried to portray in music a few of my strongest sensations and most lively impressions.” He worked, with interruptions, on the three-suite series from 1835 up until 1877. True to the trend of Romanticism, he linked the suites to a variety of themes. The first two suites were inspired by the locations, notable figures and histories of Switzerland and Italy, whereas the religious theme typical of the late period in Liszt’s life is put centre stage in the third volume. The ‘USP’ of the evening is the fact that the entire Years of Pilgrimage cycle is interpreted by Gábor Farkas, winner of several prestigious awards, including first prize and special prize at the Weimar International Liszt Piano Competition in 2009. Tickets: HUF 2 000, 3 200, 4 500, 5 900 Organizers: Budapest Spring Festival, Liszt Academy Concert Centre 58

AT HOME IN THE LISZT ACADEMY ALEKSANDAR MADŽAR & KELEMEN QUARTET Haydn: String Quartet No. 34 in D major, Hob. III:34 Schumann: String Quartet No. 3 in A major, Op. 41 Brahms: Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 34 Aleksandar Madžar (piano) Kelemen Quartet: Barnabás Kelemen, Katalin Kokas (violin), Gábor Homoki (viola), László Fenyő (cello)

Xenakis: Rebonds Rolf Wallin: Realismos Mágicos Steve Reich: Quartet Shostakovich: Symphony No. 15 in A major, Op. 141 (arrangement) Colin Currie, Zoltán Rácz, Aurél Holló (percussion) Oszkár Varga (violin); Judit Szabó (cello) József Balog, Emese Mali (piano)

In the final concert in the series At Home in the Liszt Academy, Kelemen Quartet initiate the audience into a chamber piece each by Haydn and Schumann alongside the Brahms masterpiece. As the ‘father of the string quartet’, Haydn needs no introduction. Schumann’s situation is different. In 1842, the year in which he composed most of his chamber works, he also wrote three string quartets, yet these pieces have never become an integral part of the repertoire. The Piano Quintet in F minor by Brahms could serve as a classical example of the lengthy creative process typical of the composer, reaching its final form only after numerous revisions. The result is a work that often daringly oversteps traditional boundaries. Serbian pianist Aleksandar Madžar teams up with Kelemen Quartet for its performance.

“The Quartet is one of the more complex I have composed,” said Steve Reich, who dedicated the work to none other than one of the world’s finest and most audacious percussion artists, Colin Currie. Zoltán Rácz, artistic director and soloist of Amadinda Percussion Group, has played a massive part in popularizing in Hungary many of the most important 20th-century works for percussion, among them compositions by Steve Reich. This time around Zoltán Rácz performs Rebonds by Iannis Xenakis, a composer rarely heard in Hungary but still a highly original and significant artist. Colin Currie has also prepared a similarly innovative solo production. Although written for a single performer, Rebonds sounds as though several artists are playing at the same time. Its astoundingly complex rhythms and tonalities demand technical abilities verging on the superhuman. Zoltán Rácz’s top chamber partners join the two percussionists in a performance of the Quartet and Shostakovich’s final symphony, number 15.

Tickets: HUF 1 400, 2 100, 3 500, 4 900, 5 600 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

Tickets: HUF 1 200, 1 700, 2 800, 3 900, 4 600 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

SATURDAY 14 APRIL 2018, 19.00

SATURDAY 14 APRIL 2018, 19.30

SOLTI HALL

GRAND HALL

NEW LISZT FERENC CHAMBER CHOIR Works by Zoltán Kodály, György Orbán, Levente Gyöngyösi and Ko Matsushita New Liszt Ferenc Chamber Choir (choral director: László Norbert Nemes) Conductor: Ko Matsushita

NEW LISZT FERENC CHAMBER CHOIR © LÁSZLÓ MUDRA

Ko Matsushita, one of the most sought-after and productive artists writing a cappella, conducts the New Liszt Ferenc Chamber Choir choir, which was created for the classical choral repertoire and contemporary choral canon. The esteemed choir was founded in 2010 by conductor Péter Erdei, and has been operating under the guidance of László Norbert Nemes since 2014. The Japanese composer was born in 1962, and after studying at a prestigious Tokyo conservatory he went on to the Kodály Institute in Kecskemét. Ko Matsushita manages to blend European and Japanese traditions to perfection, something evident not only in the diversity of his distinguished oeuvre but also in individual works. His motets and Japanese folk songs performed at this recital draw on music traditions of several thousand years, from Gregorian to the culture of his native islands. The programme offers further interesting points of reference, with works by composers representing several generations of Hungarian choral music, starting with a Kodály masterpiece, Norwegian Girls, and followed by compositions running the gamut of emotions from the pen of György Orbán, a figure who has presented many popular pieces for choirs to audiences over past decades. While studying under Orbán at the Liszt Academy, Levente Gyöngyösi set Petőfi’s famous poem to music; the piece is imbued with Hungarian folk and pop styles. Ticket: HUF 1 200 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

COMPLETE WORKS LIVE MOZART’S COMPLETE VIOLIN CONCERTOS KRISTÓF BARÁTI & PKF – PRAGUE PHILHARMONIA Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 2 in D major, K. 211 Adagio in E major, K. 261 Rondo in C major, K. 373 Violin Concerto No. 4 in D major, K. 218 Kristóf Baráti (violin) PKF – Prague Philharmonia Once again, Kossuth Prize violinist Kristóf Baráti headlines the Complete Works Live series, playing all Mozart’s violin concertos over three successive evenings, accompanied by Prague Philharmonia. Since their establishment in 1994, the orchestra have viewed the performance of Mozart works as one of their missions. In the course of his many years with them, Bělohlávek adapted the characteristic tone of the ensemble to this aim. The two D major concertos were written by Mozart when he was just 19. The Adagio in E major was probably a replacement for the slow movement of the third (A major) violin concerto, after the soloist found the original music “too artificial”. Contrastingly, the Rondo in C major came to life years later, so it cannot be associated with another specific concerto. Tickets: HUF 1 400, 2 100, 3 500, 4 900, 5 600 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre 59

SUNDAY 15 APRIL 2018, 11.00

SUNDAY 15 APRIL 2018, 19.00

SUNDAY 15 APRIL 2018, 19.30

SOLTI HALL

GRAND HALL

DITTA ROHMANN & CONCERTO ARMONICO C.P.E. BACH 230

COMPLETE WORKS LIVE MOZART’S COMPLETE VIOLIN CONCERTOS II KRISTÓF BARÁTI & PKF – PRAGUE PHILHARMONIA

LISZT KIDZ ACADEMY THE ‘SUPERFLUOUS’ VIOLA FOR 10–15 YEAR OLDS J. S. Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major, BWV 1048 – 1 st movement Bartók: 44 Duos for Two Violins No. 44, BB 104 – excerpts (arrangement for two violas) Dohnányi: Serenade in C major, Op. 10 – 2 nd movement Dvořák: String Quartet No. 12 in F major, Op. 96 (‘America’) – 1 st movement Mozart: String Quintet in C minor, K. 406 – 1 st movement J. S. Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major, BWV 1048 – 3 rd movement Péter Bársony and students of the Liszt Academy viola department: Jessica Kindlinger, Zsófia Zsótér, Kinga Dauner, Péter Bor, Guilherme Cardoso Bomfim Kruppa String Quartet: Bálint Kruppa, Éva Osztrosits (violin); András Kurgyis (viola); János Fejérvári (cello) Chamber orchestra of students of the Liszt Academy Narrator: Gábor Eckhardt

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: Symphony in F major, Wq 175 Cello Concerto in B-flat major, Wq 171 Symphony in E-flat major, Wq 179 Harpsichord Concerto in F major, Wq 12 Ditta Rohmann (cello), Miklós Spányi (harpsichord) Concerto Armonico Budapest Concertmaster: Gábor Homoki Artistic director: Miklós Spányi

What is a viola doing in the orchestra if it rarely gets a melody nor plays the bass part? On this the fourth in the series, Liszt Prize-winning viola player Péter Bársony and his Liszt Academy students provide an insight into the fantastic world of the viola. We find out what the viola can do better than the violin viola players have an apparently subordinate role in music, many great composers, including Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Mendelssohn and Hindemith, all played the instrument. Gábor Eckhardt, who teaches piano at the Liszt Academy, takes on the role of narrator.

C.P.E. Bach, the second son of Johann Sebastian Bach, was born in Weimar in 1714. He never had a teacher other than his father, for whom he maintained enormous respect throughout his life. During his lifetime, Carl Philipp Emanuel was esteemed as the bearer of the name Bach. On the rediscovery of their father's works in the 19 th century, the Bach boys, including Carl Philipp Emanuel himself, were largery overshadowed. Nonetheless, the music of C.P.E. Bach has always had its passionate enthusiasts and interpreters, among whom Miklós Spányi and Concerto Armonico are recognized worldwide. Concerto Armonico and their artistic director Miklós Spányi have also contributed to the growing interest in C.P.E. Bach through the series of Solti Hall concerts launched in 2018 on the 230 th anniversary of the death of C.P.E. Bach.

Ticket: HUF 1 400 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

Tickets: HUF 2 900, 3 500 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 1 in B-flat major, K. 207 Rondo in B-flat major, K. 269 Sinfonia Concertante in E-flat major, K. 364 Kristóf Baráti (violin); Máté Szűcs (viola) PKF – Prague Philharmonia We can reckon on huge contrasts at the second concert in the Complete Works Live series presenting Mozart’s violin concertos. Mozart’s B-flat major concerto had to wait two years before it premiered because he actually wrote it as a 17-year-old in Salzburg in 1773. The Rondo is an alternative to the closing movement of the concerto, written by Mozart at the request of violinist Antonio Brunetti a year after the presentation of the original work. Sinfonia Concertante rates as one of the most popular works by Mozart. An interesting feature of the piece, which shifts between symphony and concerto, is that the viola solo is notated in D major instead of E-flat major, while the instrument, counterbalancing this, is tuned half a note up, resulting is a very special, bright tone. The divisi viola part of the orchestra similarly supplies an unusually rich, heavy tone, crowned by the two oboes and two horns joining the strings. After the intermission, Máté Szűcs, solo violist with Berlin Philharmonics, joins Kristóf Baráti and Prague Philharmonia. Tickets: HUF 1 400, 2 100, 3 500, 4 900, 5 600 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

MONDAY 16 APRIL 2018, 19.30

TUESDAY 17 APRIL 2018, 19.30

GRAND HALL

ACOUSTIC, AUTHENTIC ÁGNES HERCZKU & FRIENDS MUSIC FOR STRING INSTRUMENTS, PERCUSSION AND VOCALS COMPLETE WORKS LIVE COMPLETE MOZART VIOLIN CONCERTOS III KRISTÓF BARÁTI & PKF – PRAGUE PHILHARMONIA Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major, K. 216 Violin Concerto No. 5 in A major, K. 219 Kristóf Baráti (violin) PKF – Prague Philharmonia This ‘grand-concept’ concert trilogy in which Kristóf Baráti and Prague Philharmonia perform Mozart’s entire collection of violin concertos winds up with two of the composer’s best-known pieces. The G major work parades harmonic bravura worthy of the mature Mozart, as he tips over the then unwritten rules of classical harmonic theory and paddles around the keys. The Violin Concerto in A major is considered among the greatest masterpieces both in its extent and inventiveness. No wonder that many remember this piece as ‘The Turkish’ violin concerto, given that the character of motifs in the final movement bears a close resemblance to the Rondo alla Turca from the piano sonata in the same key, while the principal theme from the first movement may remind opera buffs of Constanze’s famous aria from The Abduction from the Seraglio. Tickets: HUF 1 400, 2 100, 3 500, 4 900, 5 600 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

Ágnes Herczku (vocals); Péter Kiss (piano); András Szalai, Kálmán Balogh (cimbalom); Nikola Parov (gadulka, bagpipe); Géza Orczy (percussion); Zsombor Herédi (accordion) Cimbalom arrangements: András Szalai There is little need to introduce the work of Ágnes Herczku given that she is a leading figure on the Hungarian ‘ethno-contemporary’ music scene: Ethno- because her toolbox is founded on traditional folk singing and -contemporary because she persists in seeking connections in the genre’s sung characteristics, both in her own productions and as a musical partner. Her art has many admirers and she received the prestigious Liszt Ferenc Prize in 2016. The pioneering undertaking she launched in 2007 with the release of her album Bartók Béla: Hungarian Folk Songs for Voice and Piano continues today. A few years following the release, some of the material was used to stage a concert and dance house series titled A Few Songs. As regards the handling of folk songs, Bartók wrote about their special character: “We must penetrate into it, feel it, and bring it out in sharp contours by the appropriate setting.” Herczku assists in bringing out this character not only through the intonation of folk singing but also with a new concept that involves the rearrangement for cimbalom of works originally written for piano.

ÁGNES HERCZKU & FRIENDS © RÓBERT BÁCSI

Tickets: HUF 1 200, 1 700, 2 800, 3 900 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre 61

WEDNESDAY 18 APRIL 2018, 19.00

THURSDAY 19 APRIL 2018, 19.30

SATURDAY 21 APRIL 2018, 19.00

SOLTI HALL

GRAND HALL

SOLTI HALL

BUDAPEST SPRING FESTIVAL NATALIE DESSAY & PHILIPPE CASSARD

MASTERS OF CHAMBER MUSIC AUER TRIO SCHUBERT RECITAL Schubert: Notturno in E-flat major, D. 897 Schubert: Piano Trio No. 1 in B-flat major, D. 898 Schubert: Piano Trio in B-flat major, D. 28 (‘Sonatensatz’) Schubert: Piano Trio No. 2 in E-flat major, D. 929 Auer Trio: Péter Kováts (violin); István Varga (cello); Balázs Fülei (piano) The Auer cult of Veszprém that has grown over the past few years was the inspiration for three professors of the Liszt Academy – pianist Balázs Fülei, violinist Péter Kováts and cellist István Varga – to establish the increasingly popular Auer Trio. The ensemble are regular guests at concert venues in Hungary and, naturally, the Auer Festival, but recently they have travelled as far as Rome and Shanghai to perform. The current programme features all Schubert’s piano trios. The composer wrote just two complete piano trios in his lifetime, the D. 898 in B-flat major and D. 929 in E-flat major. ‘Sonatensatz’ D. 28 is just a single movement and was written when Schubert was 15 (the first such attempt we know of). The D. 897 Notturno is thought to have been the slow movement of a later, similarly unfinished work. Despite its inventive melodic phrasing, it remains one of Schubert’s lesser-known masterpieces. Tickets: HUF 2 800, 3 900 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre 62

Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro – ‘Giunse alfin il momento... Deh vieni non tardar’ Schubert: Geheimes, D. 719 Schubert: Die junge Nonne, D. 828 Schubert: Lied der Mignon, D. 877, No. 4 Schubert: Suleika I, D. 720 Schubert: Gretchen am Spinnrade, D. 118 Mozart: Die Zauberflöte – ‘Ach, ich fühl’s’ Pfitzner: Alte Weisen, Op. 33 Chausson: Chanson perpétuelle, Op. 37 Bizet: Adieux de l’hôtesse arabe – from 20 Mélodies, No. 4 Debussy: Preludes, Book I – La Fille aux cheveux de lin Debussy: Preludes, Book II – Ondine Debussy: Regret Debussy: Coquetterie posthume Gounod: Faust – The Jewel Song Natalie Dessay (soprano) Philippe Cassard (piano) The acclaimed French coloratura soprano Natalie Dessay recently finished her first recording of Schubert’s songs, debuting it at New York’s Carnegie Hall in spring 2017, and then following this up with a world tour. Her chamber music partner, pianist Philippe Cassard, describes her as “a performer who communicates the tiniest detail of music and lyrics with complete dedication, placing her entire being in the service of the lieder,” and more succinctly as “Simply brilliant.” The programme for her Budapest concert selects from her French and German repertoire as well as from the aforementioned Schubert recording. Tickets: HUF 3 900, 6 900, 9 900, 12 900 Organizers: Budapest Spring Festival, Liszt Academy Concert Centre

HERE AND NOW 72 ANGELS CRACOW SINGERS AND RASCHÈR SAXOPHONE QUARTET Lera Auerbach: 72 Angels Cracow Singers (artistic director: Karol Kusz) Raschèr Saxophone Quartet: Kenneth Coon, Christine Rall, Elliot Riley, Andreas van Zoelen (saxophone) Conductor: Karol Kusz Lera Auerbach was born in Chelyabinsk in western Siberia and her music and fine art creativity were recognized at the age of just four. In other words, she was the classical wunderkind. At the age of 18 she travelled to the United States to continue her music studies. She attended classes in piano and composition with teachers of the Manhattan School of Music and Juilliard School, including Milton Babbitt. She debuted in Carnegie Hall with a performance of her own work, Suite for Violin, Piano and Orchestra, with Gidon Kremer and Kremerata Baltica as her partners. To this day Lera Auerbach gives concerts as a pianist, while as a composer she is in close contact with famous orchestras and institutions of music, and her ballets and operas have been performed by the Danish National Ballet, Theater an der Wien and New York Lincoln Center. The world premiere of 72 Angels, for chorus and saxophone quartet, which draws its inspiration from the mysticism of the Kabbalah, was held in Amsterdam in November 2016. Ticket: HUF 2 500 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

SATURDAY 21 APRIL 2018, 19.30

SUNDAY 22 APRIL 2018, 19.30

GRAND HALL

SOLTI HALL

BUDAPEST SPRING FESTIVAL PÉTER FRANKL & ISTVÁN VÁRDAI Mendelssohn: Sonata No. 1 for Cello and Piano in B-flat major, Op. 45 Schubert: Sonata for Cello and Piano in A minor, D. 821 (‘Arpeggione’) Schumann: Five Pieces in Folk Style, Op. 102 Dohnányi: Sonata for Cello and Piano in B-flat major, Op. 8 Péter Frankl (piano) István Várdai (cello)

RASCHÈR SAXOPHONE QUARTET

BUDAPEST SPRING FESTIVAL ENSEMBLE RESONANZ C. P. E. Bach: Symphony in B minor, Wq 182/5 (‘Hamburg’) Toshio Hosokawa: Voyage VII J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 (arrangement for string orchestra by Dmitry Sitkovetsky and Andreas Staier) Jeroen Berwaerts (trumpet) Ensemble Resonanz Conductor: Barbara Bultmann

“Who was the old man and who the young? Because Várdai played as though he had at least 50 years of performance experience behind him, with a richness and clarity. Frankl was like someone who had just exploded onto the concert scene: with vivacity, intact poetry, flamboyant enthusiasm. These two great artists made each other young and each other mature. The fiftyyear difference vanished before our eyes in the magic of music, the 30-year-old and the 80-year-old found each other.” These lines of András Batta were penned in the wake of the Péter Frankl and István Várdai Beethoven recital at the Liszt Academy in 2015, and they remain true to this day. Pianist legend Péter Frankl, a resident of London and professor at Yale University, is characterized by exactly the same boundless love for chamber music as one of the world’s most in-demand cellists István Várdai, who shot to fame as winner of the ARD International Cello Competition.

Hamburg-based Ensemble Resonanz are a leading chamber orchestra famed for their remarkable stage aura, and their astonishing artistic qualities and innovations. Comprising strings only, the ensemble’s article of faith is the pairing and counterpointing of old masterworks that have become part of the canon of classics and modern experimental works. By bringing compositions into dialogue with each other, surprising parallels are revealed to a captivated audience. Members of the chamber orchestra work together on democratic lines without a permanent conductor, although they regularly invite guest artists to join them. For the Budapest concert, their partner is solo and first trumpet player of Hamburg Radio Orchestra, Jeroen Berwaerts, professor at the Hannover Music Academy, who is equally at home in 20 th-century and contemporary music as in jazz.

Tickets: HUF 2 000, 3 200, 4 500, 5 900 Organizers: Budapest Spring Festival, Liszt Academy Concert Centre

Ticket: HUF 2 000 Organizers: Budapest Spring Festival, Liszt Academy Concert Centre 63

WEDNESDAY 25 APRIL 2018, 19.30

FRIDAY 27 APRIL 2018, 19.00

SATURDAY 28 APRIL 2018, 19.30

GRAND HALL

SOLTI HALL

GRAND HALL

CHAMBER MUSIC, SO CLOSE IN MEDIAS BRASS QUINTET & ZSUZSANNA BAZSINKA

ALEXEI VOLODIN PIANO RECITAL MVM CONCERTS– THE PIANO Alexei Volodin (piano) Alexei Volodin is a regular and welcome guest artist at the Liszt Academy. In 2016 he entertained the audience with a concert programme performed on the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare. The pianist was born in St Petersburg and graduated from the Moscow Tchaikovsky State Conservatoire. He then completed a postgraduate course at the International Piano Academy Lake Como in Italy. He became a household name when in 2003, at the age of 26, he won the Concours Géza Anda international piano competition in Zürich. He debuted as soloist at the London Piano Series. He regularly performs in the company of famous orchestras and conductors, added to which he is frequently seen on stage as a chamber musician. He has released several CDs, the most recent being a disc of solo works by Rachmaninov. Critics say that Volodin’s piano play is both virtuoso and contemplative, with reviewers most frequently citing his sensitive touch and brilliant technique. Tickets: HUF 3 000, 4 000, 5 000, 6 000, 8 000, 10 000 Organizers: Besszer Concert, Liszt Academy Concert Centre 64

J. S. Bach: Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565 J. S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 (excerpts) Haydn: Divertimento in B-flat major, Hob. II:46 Ewald: Quintet No. 1 in B minor, Op. 5 György Selmeczi: Hymns II Szokolay: Hommage à Bartók Enrique Crespo: American Suite Zsuzsanna Bazsinka (soprano) In Medias Brass Quintet: Richárd Kresz, Tamás Pálfalvi (trumpet); János Benyus (horn); Attila Sztán (trombone); József Bazsinka Jnr. (tuba) The concert by In Medias Brass, who were founded in 2010, presents brass chamber music in a totally new light. Through a series of innovative arrangements, Bach’s iconic Toccata and Fugue in D minor, excerpts from his Goldberg Variations, and Haydn’s dynamic Divertimento are performed alongside one of the first original brass quintets and several more recent compositions. Members of In Medias Brass graduated from the Liszt Academy and almost immediately after setting up the formation they were able to provide solid proof of their talent by sweeping to victory at the 6th Jeju International Brass Competition in South Korea. For their Liszt Academy appearance they are on stage together with trumpeter Tamás Pálfalvi, while soprano Zsuzsanna Bazsinka is on hand in the performance of the work by György Selmeczi. Ticket: HUF 1 900 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

JAZZ IT! STACEY KENT Stacey Kent (vocals), Jim Tomlinson (saxophone, wind instruments), Graham Harvey (piano), Jeremy Brown (double bass), Josh Morrison (drums) A singer aiming to recite classical bossa nova is never in an easy position. The Getz/Gilberto album set the bar very high: the acerbic, dispassionately erotic female vocals are in startling contrast to the hot South American music, causing a quite unique jazz-like dissonance that has become the core of the genre. Stacey Kent, who over recent years has increasingly oriented herself towards Brazilian music, earlier gained fame with recordings of standards. Although she is American, her career took off in London’s Soho district and she rapidly became a regular at the. She released her first album in 1997 and barely two years later she was nominated for a Grammy. Brazilianthemed albums began to appear from 2013, one of the consequences of which was famous Brazilian composer Marcos Valle inviting her to Rio. These albums proved that Kent’s trained, silky-smooth voice and pleasant personality could cope with the challenges of bossa nova. Her repertoire includes classics from the Great American Songbook, works by Antonio Carlos Jobim, French chansons and her own compositions, in addition to those written by her saxophonist husband. Tickets: HUF 1 400, 2 100, 3 500, 4 900, 5 600 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

SEASON TICKETS 2018 MUSIC SO CLOSE

LISZTACADEMY.HU/EN/SEASON-TICKETS

ACOUSTIC, AUTHENTIC FOLK DANCE HOUSE DAY

SUNDAY 13 MAY 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

Page 73

ON THE SPOT THE PIANO

Concerts organized by Liszt Academy Concert Centre Hosted concert Classical Jazz Opera World / Folk Junior WEDNESDAY 2 MAY 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

GYŐR PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA SERGEI NAKARIAKOV Shostakovich: Festive Overture, Op. 96 Tchaikovsky: Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33 Arban: Fantaisie and Variations on The Carnival of Venice Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92 Sergei Nakariakov (flugelhorn) Győr Philharmonic Orchestra Conductor: Kálmán Berkes Tickets: HUF 3 000, 5 000, 7 000 Organizer: Győr Philharmonic Orchestra THURSDAY 3 MAY 2018, 19.00 GRAND HALL

MÁV SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Page 74 WEDNESDAY 16 MAY 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

SIR JOHN ELIOT GARDINER / MONTEVERDI CHOIR & ENGLISH BAROQUE SOLOISTS GRAUSCHUMACHER PIANO DUO

Page 74

SATURDAY 5 MAY 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

SIR JOHN ELIOT GARDINER

CONCERT CHRONOLOGY MAY

THE PIANO TWICE GRAUSCHUMACHER PIANO DUO Page 73 SUNDAY 6 MAY 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

HUNGARIAN NATIONAL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA Beethoven: Concerto for Piano No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73 (‘Emperor’) Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 55 (‘Eroica’) Miyuji Kaneko (piano) Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra Conductor: Kobayashi Ken-Ichiro

THURSDAY 17 MAY 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

Tickets: HUF 3 000, 4 500, 6 000 Organizer: Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra

LISZT ACADEMY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA DENNIS RUSSELL DAVIES & LISZT ACADEMY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Page 74

Glinka: Ruslan and Lyudmila – Overture Rachmaninov: Concerto for Piano No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18 Stravinsky: The Firebird Suite Kaneko Miyuji (piano) MÁV Symphony Orchestra Conductor: Kobayashi Ken-Ichiro

MONDAY 7 MAY 2018, 19.00 GRAND HALL

MÁV SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro – Overture, K. 492 Mozart: Concerto for Piano No. 23 in A major, K. 488 Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 In E-flat major, Op. 55 (‘Eroica’)

SATURDAY 19 MAY 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

CONCERTO BUDAPEST BLUEBEARD'S CASTLE

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

Menahem Pressler (piano) MÁV Symphony Orchestra Conductor: Péter Csaba

J. S. Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major, BWV 1048 Bartók: Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, BB 114 Bartók: Bluebeard's Castle, BB 62

FRIDAY 4 MAY 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

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

Andrea Rost (soprano), Miklós Sebestyén (bass-baritone)

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

SATURDAY 19 MAY 2018, 22.00 GRAND HALL

TUESDAY 22 MAY 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

CONCERTO BUDAPEST PREMIERE III – LÁSZLÓ VIDOVSZKY

ZUGLÓ PHILHARMONICS BUDAPEST

László Vidovszky: Break

Mendelssohn: Psalm 114, Op. 51 Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 Brahms: Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98

Barnabás Kelemen (violin) Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra (concertmaster: Péter Tfirst) Tickets: HUF 2 900, 4 200, 5 500, 6 900 Organizer: Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra SATURDAY 26 MAY 2018, 19.00 SOLTI HALL

FOUR BY FOUR ARTEMIS QUARTET Page 75 ARTEMIS QUARTET

LÁSZLÓ VIDOVSZKY

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

King Saint Stephen Oratorio Choir (choirmaster: Kálmán Záborszky) Zugló Philharmonics Budapest (artistic director: Kálmán Záborszky) Violinist and conductor: Kristóf Baráti Tickets: HUF 2 600, 2 900, 3 200 Organizer: Zugló Philharmonics Budapest WEDNESDAY 23 MAY 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

BARNABÁS KELEMEN & FRANZ LISZT CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

Ticket: HUF 1 000 Organizer: Concerto Budapest SUNDAY 20 MAY 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

Haydn: Symphony No. 67 in F major Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in D minor Mozart: Symphony No. 35 in D major, K. 385 (‘Haffner’) BARNABÁS KELEMEN

Concerto Budapest Conductor: András Keller

MONDAY 28 MAY 2018, 19.00 GRAND HALL

ON THE SPOT SCHOOL FOR EXCEPTIONAL YOUNG TALENTS Page 78 THURSDAY 31 MAY 2018, 19.30 GRAND HALL

BALÁZS SZOKOLAY PIANO RECITAL Page 78

CONCERTO BUDAPEST BLUEBEARD'S CASTLE J. S. Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major, BWV 1048 Bartók: Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, BB 114 Bartók: Bluebeard's Castle, BB 62 Andrea Rost (soprano), Miklós Sebestyén (bass-baritone) 67

PHILIPPE HERREWEGHE

LISZT ACADEMY GRAND HALL

PHILIPPE HERREWEGHE AND ORCHESTRE DES CHAMPS ELYSÃ&#x2030;ES MOZART REQUIEM 20.10.2018

CONCERT CHRONOLOGY JUNE Concerts organized by Liszt Academy Concert Centre Hosted concert Classical Jazz Opera World / Folk Junior SATURDAY 2 JUNE 2018, 15.30 GRAND HALL

Tickets: HUF 2 700, 3 700, 4 600, 6 600, 11 000 Organizer: Budapest Festival Orchestra SUNDAY 3 JUNE 2018, 15.30 GRAND HALL

BUDAPEST FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA J. S. Bach: Suite No. 4 in D major Rameau: Les Boréades – Suite Muffat: Impatientia – Suite (Florilegium Primum, Fasciculus IV) Händel: Music for the Royal Fireworks – Suite, HWV 351

BUDAPEST FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA

Budapest Festival Orchestra Conductor: Jordi Savall

J. S. Bach: Suite No. 4 in D major Rameau: Les Boréades – Suite Muffat: Impatientia – Suite (Florilegium Primum, Fasciculus IV) Händel: Music for the Royal Fireworks – Suite, HWV 351

Tickets: HUF 2 700, 3 700, 4 600, 6 600, 11 000 Organizer: Budapest Festival Orchestra

Budapest Festival Orchestra Conductor: Jordi Savall

JORDI SAVALL

LET’S CONNECT WITH MUSIC! - INTERVIEW WITH THE WORLD-RENOWNED CONDUCTOR PINCHAS STEINBERG Pinchas Steinberg has overseen the development of several generations of musicians in a rapidly moving modern world that responds to quick impacts and strong stimuli. The following advice of his does not, however, go out only to musicians: let us not settle for solutions based on information and advanced technology; rather let us make an effort to communicate the depth of our feelings and ideas.

How do you think the younger generation’s technical way of thinking can be reshaped? Pinchas Steinberg: Today’s young musicians were born in a technologically -dominated era, and this can result in the loss of one’s soul and, thus, of music itself. While these young people play their instruments flawlessly from a technical perspective, they have no ‘living relationship’ with the music. For me, music is an emotional experience, and the collaboration with orchestras provide us with opportunities to express ourselves via the notes the composer originally wrote. I can communicate to another person in an email or text message, but then what I convey is merely information. If the members of the young generation of musicians only strive to play each note perfectly, without error, all they do is convey information to the audience, and the expression is lost. This loss of emotion and contact applies regardless of geographical location or the type of instrument musician plays: the problem is caused by the world we live in. So, it is not the number of gifted musicians that is the problem? Not at all! People don’t change: what changes is the environment in which they grow up; but talent is talent and that will always shine through. What’s tragic, though, is that there are gifted people who do not get the ’food for the soul’, as I call it. What they receive is soulless information. And in a way, it’s a waste of talent, isn’t it? Absolutely. I’ll give you an example: Today, as I was rehearsing with the Liszt Academy Symphony Orchestra, the celli were playing a phrase, and the 1st violins were supposed to accompany this melody. I stopped to ask them: “How can you accompany them like this? Can’t you hear how beautiful this music is? You have no contact with the music, you are only playing the notes!” But the notes tell us nothing, and what’s left is organised noise, not music. You must make the orchestra understand what they composer wanted to tell us, what the composition is all about. And I try to get this expression out of the orchestra and transmit it to the audience. Only if I manage this is the music interesting. It is also crucial that the musicians themselves add their own personalities to the performance. But only up to a certain point, as they are all individuals and interpret the piece individually, so it is my job to make the orchestra express the music in the same way. When students go to study to become professional musicians, the emphasis is placed on their technique. This is, of course, essential, but it is only a means to an end, just a part of the whole picture. You cannot play Mozart and Brahms the same way, and if you do, you won’t completely understand these musical

PINCHAS STEINBERG 71

geniuses. Music education involves understanding everything about a composition: the era, the historical context, people’s lifestyles at the time. All these influence the birth of the composition. Having learnt about these, it will be much clearer why a certain piece was written at a certain moment in time. It is the responsibility of the music university to instil this mentality, but the students must also work for it. If you are thirsty and want to drink, you will find water. So, if a music student is curious and wants to understand what they are playing and why they should be playing it a certain way, then they will have to discover the depth of a piece beyond their university studies. Has anything changed since previous generations or since Liszt’s time? Everything has! Philosophy, literature, … when we read about Liszt’s era, we exclaim: “Wow! How interesting!”, though then, of course, it was nothing special. He lived in a creative world, while we now create computer programmes and various technologies. Young people have become increasingly indifferent towards classical music, and in a way, I sympathise with them: there is mass production, and also here, in Budapest, a dozen concerts are held every night. But what are these concerts about? We often forget that we have even been there as soon as we leave the concert hall. My son, who is not a musician, once went to hear the English National Opera and found it so boring that he said he was never going to the opera again. I told him that I was conducting an opera in Paris in six months’ time, that he should come to it and listen, and if he was still of the same opinion, he was right not to go to the opera again. Well, he went with me to Paris and he came up to me following the performance utterly exhilarated. I was able to show him an entirely different image of the same profession. He was lucky, but those who aren’t can be disappointed for a lifetime. The music education of this globally acclaimed Israeli conductor took place in the United States and in Berlin, at one point under the tutelage of Jasha Heifetz. As a boy he saw Toscanini rehearse; he has also performed Bach’s Double Violin Concerto at David Oistrakh’s side. It was in 1974 when he first took to the stage as a conductor. Since then he has led performances by virtually all the notable symphony orchestras in Europe, and is a returning guest musician in the most famous opera houses. Most recently, at the concert given to commemorate the birthday of the founder of the Liszt Academy, the Liszt Academy Symphony Orchestra played Prometheus by Liszt, Brahms’s Violin Concerto in D Major and Symphony No. 2 under his guidance.

What has been the most memorable music moment in your life? I am old enough to have lived through many different times. What I experienced in the past was completely different from anything we have today. But perhaps I can tell you about a very memorable event. When I was a child, my father took me to the Metropolitan Opera in New York to see Puccini’s Manon Lescaut. When I walked out of the theatre, I didn’t want to talk to anybody, I didn’t want to see anybody, I just took the experience with me and will never forget it, because the music was absolutely incredible. Sadly, my last such experience was a very long time ago. How can you pass on your Weltanschauung to today’s musicians? The message I want to pass on to them is my work. What I try to do is open a door and reveal a different world to them behind it, as I did with the Liszt Academy Symphony Orchestra. I don’t let them play on if I’m not happy with what I hear. I used to be a violinist myself, so I’m familiar with the technical side of the performance. I tell them how to be expressive and play with emotion, how to make music, and they themselves then can hear the difference. As a guest conductor I often feel as if I were Santa Claus, bringing new presents every time.

FRIDAY 4 MAY 2018, 19.30

SATURDAY 5 MAY 2018, 19.30

GRAND HALL

THE PIANO TWICE GRAU–SCHUMACHER PIANO DUO Mozart: The Magic Flute – Overture Beethoven: Grosse Fuge, Op. 134 Messiaen: Visions de l’Amen (excerpts) Debussy: En blanc et noir B. A. Zimmermann: Monologue for Two Pianos (Hommage à Debussy)

FOLK DANCE HOUSE DAY

ACOUSTIC, AUTHENTIC FOLK DANCE HOUSE DAY

Andreas Grau, Götz Schumacher (piano)

Jointly organized by the Hungarian Heritage House and Concert Centre, and hosted partly by the Liszt Academy, national Dance House Day is traditionally held on the anniversary of the first ‘urban’ dance house in Hungary. This is also the day when the awards ceremony for the Halmos Béla Trophy and Halmos Béla Memorial Medal is held: the former was established by the Hungarian Heritage House, the latter by the Association of Friends of the Hungarian Heritage House. The Trophy, which is actually the violin once owned by Béla Halmos, is presented to a musician under 40 years of age and actively playing traditional folk instrumental music in dance houses who in the course of their work maintains contact with Hungarian communities living beyond the country’s borders. The Memorial Medal recognizes outstanding professional and community ‘background work’ within the scope of the dance house movement. This concert is a part of a series of events which continues the following day on Liszt Ferenc Square, in front of the Írók Boltja bookshop where the first dance house was held.

Thanks to their unusually structured, creative and innovative programmes, Andreas Grau and Götz Schumacher are ranked among the top piano duos in the world at the moment, with many considering them the rightful heirs to the legendary Kontarsky brothers. The virtuosity of the two artists, their technical skills that know no boundaries, and their artistic openmindedness have inspired composers such as Philippe Manoury, Jan Müller-Wieland and Péter Eötvös. They debuted Luca Francesconi’s Macchine in Echo at the Philharmonie in Cologne in 2015. Critics are unanimous in their enthusiasm for their recordings, with Messiaen’s Visions of the Amen rated among the very best by Gramophone Magazine. Besides modern music they cultivate the classical repertoire to the same outstanding level, original works just as much as arrangements. They have worked with actor Klaus Maria Brandauer, amongst others, on several occasions in a music monodrama of the life of Mozart. In other words, we can be sure that the overture to The Magic Flute is in good hands.

Ticket: HUF 1 600 Organizers: Liszt Academy Concert Centre, Hungarian Heritage House

Tickets: HUF 1 200, 1 700, 2 800, 3 900, 4 600 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre 73

SUNDAY 13 MAY 2018, 19.30

WEDNESDAY 16 MAY 2018, 19.30

THURSDAY 17 MAY 2018, 19.30

GRAND HALL

ON THE SPOT THE PIANO

SIR JOHN ELIOT GARDINER / MONTEVERDI CHOIR & ENGLISH BAROQUE SOLOISTS

Works by Liszt and Debussy Brahms: Six Piano Pieces, Op. 118/2 Brahms: Six Piano Pieces, Op. 118/3 Brahms: Variations on a Theme by Haydn, Op. 56b Schumann: Toccata in C major, Op. 7 Brahms: Variations on a Theme by Paganini, Op. 35 – Book 2 Chopin: Nocturne in B-flat minor, Op. 9/1 Debussy: Suite bergamasque – 3. Clair de lune Liszt: Harmonies poétiques et religieuses – 7. Funérailles Rachmaninov: Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 36 István Lantos, Fülöp Ránki, Sándor Falvai, Ayumu Yamanaka, Marcell Vajda, Krisztián Kocsis, Kálmán Dráfi, János Balázs (piano) The Liszt Academy’s concert series On the Spot, which showcases the departments of the university, has been a popular feature for several years. It offers an excellent opportunity for teachers and students of a selected department to appear together before the general public; at the same time audiences gain a deeper insight into the results of projects being conducted at the Liszt Academy. For the programme in May the focus is on the piano. This concert includes the current head of department, Liszt Prize laureate Kálmán Dráfi, two former department heads, as well as former rectors Sándor Falvai and István Lantos. These distinguished pianists take to the stage in the company of gifted young artists. The concert programme is largely picked from the 19 th-century repertoire. Ticket: HUF 1 600 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre 74

Johann Sebastian Bach: Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen – cantata, BWV 12 Wachet! Betet! Betet! Wachet! – cantata, BWV 70 Jesu der du meine Seele – cantata, BWV 78 Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme – cantata, BWV 140 Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists Conductor: Sir John Eliot Gardiner ‘Greatest Bach researcher’ and ‘Most significant Bach performer’. These and similar epithets have from time to time been attached to different individuals ever since the rediscovery of Johann Sebastian Bach in the 19 th century. However, only few are entitled to bear both titles at the same time. One who most certainly qualifies is John Eliot Gardiner, who in 2000 with his two ensembles – Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists – set out on a literal Bach pilgrimage: for one whole year, week on week, he took to different parts of the world the Lutheran composer’s cantatas written for a specific feast or date in the church calendar. Performances were recorded live and then published in a boxed set of 27 CDs; Gardiner himself wrote the accompanying notes. Alongside the fact that Gardiner’s performances of Bach have been the culmination of Bach interpretation for decades, his work as a Bach researcher is also significant. He published the monograph Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven in 2013, and he has been head of the Bach Archive in Leipzig since 2014. Tickets: HUF 4 800, 6 500, 9 200, 11 900 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

LISZT ACADEMY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA DENNIS RUSSELL DAVIES & LISZT ACADEMY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Bernstein: Symphony No. 1 Mahler: Symphony No. 4 Andrea Meláth (vocals) Liszt Academy Symphony Orchestra Conductor: Dennis Russell Davies Dennis Russell Davies, one of the most innovative, original conductors of our day, is in Budapest to conduct Liszt Academy Symphony Orchestra. Davies graduated from the conducting and piano department as a student of Julliard School, and he picked up a Grammy Award in 1979 for his recording of the Aaron Copland orchestral suite Appalachian Spring. A year later he continued his career in Europe, including a stint as music director of the Stuttgart Baden-Württemberg State Opera. He has led several top ensembles, recently being chosen as artistic director and principal conductor of Brno Philharmonic Orchestra. His concert with Liszt Academy Symphony Orchestra opens with Symphony No. 1 by Leonard Bernstein, written when the composer was just 24. A programmatic work, nicknamed ‘Jeremiah’, it rests on texts from the Hebrew Bible. Besides this work, which is played very rarely in Hungary, is Gustav Mahler’s 4 th symphony, which the composer structured around motifs of an earlier song ' Das himmlische Leben '. Liszt Academy head of department Andrea Meláth interprets the vocal part of the symphony. Tickets: HUF 1 200, 1 700, 2 800, 3 900 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

SATURDAY 26 MAY 2018, 19.00

SOLTI HALL

FOUR BY FOUR ARTEMIS QUARTET Mendelssohn: String Quartet No. 3 in D major, Op. 44/1 Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 5 in B-flat major, Op. 92 Schumann: String Quartet in A major, Op. 41/3 Artemis Quartet: Vineta Sareika, Anthea Kreston (violin); Gregor Sigl (viola); Eckart Runge (cello) Berlin-based Artemis Quartet were formed nearly 30 years ago, and today rank as one of the most recognized ensembles in the world. Each member is a distinguished artist in their own right, who besides cultivating chamber music playing to the highest degree, has also achieved podium placings at solo competitions. The quartet’s discography is equally noteworthy: their CDs have garnered prizes such as the Gramophone Award and Diapason d’Or. Their latest studio project was a selection of Mendelssohn works, so it is not surprising that one of the three items on this concert programme originates from the pen of the composer. The D major string quartet (along with its other two companions) was written for the Crown Prince of Sweden, just a few years before the birth of the other Romantic work, Schumann’s A major quartet. Shostakovich’s String Quartet in B-flat major, which premiered immediately after the death of Stalin, effectively wedges the particular tonal world of the 20th century in this largely 19th -century programme.

Tickets: HUF 2 800, 3 900 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre 75

MUSIC AND TALENT...

KÁROLY FERENCZY: ORPHEUS

MARC CHAGALL: THE VIOLINIST

HENRI MATISSE: THE MUSIC LESSON MOZART AS A CHILD (UNKNOWN ARTIST) 77

MONDAY 28 MAY 2018, 19.30

THURSDAY 31 MAY 2018, 19.30

GRAND HALL

WEDNESDAY 13 JUNE & FRIDAY 15 JUNE 2018, 19.00

SOLTI HALL

OPERA EXAM – PULCINELLA LISZT ACADEMY & UNIVERSITÄT DER KÜNSTE BERLIN BALÁZS SZOKOLAY PIANO RECITAL ON THE SPOT SCHOOL FOR EXCEPTIONAL YOUNG TALENTS Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 5 in A major, K. 219 Haydn: Cello Concerto No. 1 in C major, Hob. VIIb:1 Vanhal: Double Bass Concerto in B-flat major Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Guitar Concerto in D major, Op. 99 Zoltán Schwartz (violin); Flóra Csőke (cello); Benedek Devich (double bass); Lotti Szalai (guitar) Teachers: Miklós Szenthelyi, György Déri, Zsolt Fejérvári, József Eötvös Anima Musicae Chamber Orchestra (artistic director: László G. Horváth)

Mozart: Fantasia in C minor, K.396 Schumann: Three Fantasy Pieces, Op. 111 Chopin: Fantaisie in F minor, Op. 49 Scriabin: Fantaisie in B minor, Op. 28 J. S. Bach: Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue, BWV 903 Beethoven: Fantasiain G minor, Op. 77 Schubert: Fantasiain C major, D. 760 (‘Wanderer’) Balázs Szokolay (piano)

In the music world there is no lack of wonders: one just has to consider wunderkinds like Liszt, who at the age of 11 in his first public appearance in Vienna, improvised on themes given by the audience; or Saint-Saëns, who aged 10 offered as an encore to play from memory any of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas. However, those with remarkable abilities did not all just live long ago: some are also with us today. At this recital, student artists of the Liszt Academy Special School for Exceptional Young Talents present their skills in collaboration with Anima Musicae Chamber Orchestra, which was established in 2010.

This piano recital of Liszt Prize winner Balázs Szokolay, who comes from a family of musicians, is woven around the genre of the fantasia. Over centuries, the term ‘fantasia’ was most associated with written improvisation, allowing the talent, technique and invention of virtuosos to shine. Johann Sebastian Bach masterfully coupled the most structured of genres with the freest, so that Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue represents a major intellectual challenge for performers even to this day. The fantasias of the two Viennese masters, Mozart and Beethoven, were considered extremely unusual in their day, while Schubert made the following remark with regard to the ‘Wanderer’: “The Devil may play it.” Both Schumann and Chopin each composed a fantasia at an extremely difficult period in their lives; the motif from Isolde’s ‘Love-Death’ is discernible in the work by Scriabin.

Ticket: HUF 1 600 Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

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

Pulcinella (commedia dell'arte opera presentation) Featuring: students of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music and Universität der Künste Berlin Director: András Almási-Tóth The Liszt Academy is a dual-purpose institution functioning both as a concert centre and university of the arts. Perhaps nothing shows this duality of purpose better than the end-of-year exam series of the Department of Vocal and Opera Studies, which is open to the general public. Continuing a tradition going back several years, first the aria exam with traditional programme is arranged, at which students have to prove themselves in the Grand Hall to their professors and audience alike. After this, even more exciting discoveries can be expected in the opera exam, during which young singers from the Liszt Academy and Universität der Künste Berlin take to the stage under the direction of András Almási-Tóth, a professor with an experimental spirit completely devoid of platitudes. In the past few years, these exam productions have outgrown their ‘school’ boundaries, becoming music-cultural events parading an array of glittering young talent. Free tickets for the concert can be obtained from the Liszt Academy box office one month before the concert. Organizer: Liszt Academy Concert Centre

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 Hungarian, English, German, Italian, French, Russian, Finnish, Romanian, Czech, Slovak and Japanese guidance upon consultation. 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 The Liszt Academy retains the right to modify the tours.

Ticket purchase: Liszt Academy Ticket Office (1061 Budapest, 8 Liszt Ferenc square)

KRISTÓF BARÁTI AND BARNABÁS KELEMEN

LISZT ACADEMY GRAND HALL

KRISTÓF BARÁTI AND BARNABÁS KELEMEN WORKS FOR TWO VIOLINS 25.11.2018

PARADISE IS JUST A FEW STEPS AWAY The path of a talented artist is often shaped by fortune and momentous encounters, but it also depends on an education system that must recognize and develop especially gifted students. We interviewed the associate professor and head of the Violin Sub-Department of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, Vilmos Szabadi, on these two basic components of a music career.

As a young violinist, you too walked a long and sometimes rather arduous path to success. In retrospect, what do you think are the key elements of talent development? First of all, you need two people who have greatness in the same area, so if you have a highly gifted child, the presence of a professor with a keenly observant eye who can discern genuine talent is indispensable. You also need a school system that will educate the young musician. On top of these elements, you need a stable social background to provide the support and inspiration for the persistent hard work that is required. Even with all these in place, you still need certain critical junctures that encourage talent and sustain it in the future. In my case, all these preconditions were satisfied, though I would have been happy to reach the final decisive shift in my career somewhat earlier; then I wouldn’t have been a finalist at the International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition at the age of 25. Is this considered late in the career of a young musician? Today, students between fifteen to eighteen years of age can be ‘managed’ into winning competitions of the same high standard. Though at this tender age youngsters may face a lot of problems, they are able to adjust. Unfortunately, those who go through this phase later will often be left behind. But everyone has their individual stories. Personally, I was able to make up for lost time and missed opportunities thanks to those fortunate encounters that launched my career. In your more than three-decade long career, you have been to many a prestigious concert hall in Europe and across the world. You have collaborated with such legendary artists as Plácido Domingo and Sir Georg Solti, and have even played the Stradivarius of the Spanish Royal Family. Which one of these would you regard as a momentous encounter?

VILMOS SZABADI 82

At the Liszt Academy, I got to know Professor Ferenc Halász and his novel teaching method. Thanks to this, I won the Hungarian Radio and the Jenő Hubay Violin Competitions. Then Sir Georg Solti invited me to take to the stage of the Royal Festival Hall in London, and then along came the aforementioned Sibelius Violin Competition. Finally, I have been in a continuous and exclusive working relationship with Hungaroton Records, the production company of more than forty CD recordings of mine, and in January, another three Mozart titles will be released. I believe that opportunities go to those who work hard. In Hungary I see a lot of wonderfully gifted young artists. There is a determination in them, but somehow many often don’t seize the opportunities that arise. These young people are not yet fully cognizant of their own ambitions, and they must realize that they won’t be properly acknowledged unless they have achievements under their belts.

ENTRY IN THE LISZT ACADEMY GUEST BOOK VILMOS SZABADI (16 SEPTEMBER 2017) 83

It is quite natural that successful performances and awards must be included in the portfolio of a gifted musician. What are the components that are, even in this digital age of ours, still essential in a musician’s life? When we come onto the stage, it is visible how much our souls are charged with emotions, whether we comprehend the emotional message of the composer, and whether we are familiar with the background and context of the piece and the reasons for its existence. These factors never change. It requires lexical knowledge as well as the love and service of the performed work. In effect, it is a priestly vocation. No digital technology can compensate for the power of profound analysis, for the transcendental communication between composer and performer, or for the consciously produced tones. As far as life behind the scenes is concerned, neither now nor in the past could anyone turn into an authentic artist without speaking with others, without a family and an exemplary environment. We build our excellent concert halls in vain if there are no music educators that can take care of and nurture the outstanding artists of the future. Do you mean that music education should be renewed and reformed? VILMOS SZABADI AGREES THAT OVERLY HIGH EXPECTATIONS CAN PREVENT TALENT FROM EMERGING. ‘I couldn’t agree more! Having talked to our students, I now have the impression that most of them feel lethargic because they are so overburdened. Here in Hungary it is a real hurdle. Not long ago, I undertook a visit to Finland, where I experienced quite different things. When it comes to education, they are the best internationally and do marvellously in competitions. Why? In Finland, if someone knows what they want, they receive the very opportunities they need to achieve their goal. We should follow that model. The well-equipped classrooms are also quite exemplary in Finnish schools: digital projectors and cameras are available to the students, so they can record themselves anytime. I personally consider digital technology a purely positive phenomenon: through it we can access an abundance of information, let alone a more profound discovery of ourselves.’

There is always a fashionable education trend that we want to follow, even though we have the traditions of the old Hungarian music school at our disposal. Why don’t we turn to Hubay or Kadosa for advice? Young talents should be better nurtured; the Liszt Academy used to offer a programme specifically aimed at these talented youngsters, whereas today we call everything a ‘Master’s programme’, although it may not be the right path for each student. Of course, it is very hard to institutionalize talent, but we should be more upright towards ourselves and our students. In my opinion, everyone should be provided with the opportunity to become a genius; but if someone isn’t quite as gifted, it is our responsibility to show them an alternative path to success. Everyone can be successful, but either they don’t see the road or their schooling doesn’t quite take them there. Talking of instruments, to what extent do you think the quality of an instrument influences the career of its highly talented user? It fundamentally determines it. In the Singapore International Violin Competition, for instance, all finalists were loaned a master-crafted violin worth one million US dollars for a period of three years. During this time, they will have no difficulty in showing their gift to the world. No matter how talented a musician is, with a mediocre instrument they can’t achieve success. This is a basic requirement which can be expressed in terms of money, and we, Hungarians, ought to invest more into this material issue. In the same way we build concert halls, we should support talents. Yet I believe we are doing well: it would take only a few steps to reach or even exceed ‘Paradise’, or in other words, the Golden Age of the Hubay School.

RESIDENT ENSEMBLE OF THE LISZT ACADEMY

NEW LISZT FERENC CHAMBER CHOIR 19 JANUARY 2018 19.00 OLD ACADEMY OF MUSIC 9 MARCH 2018 19.00 SOLTI HALL 14 APRIL 2018 19.00 SOLTI HALL

DIPLOMA CONCERTS IN THE GRAND HALL 20 MARCH 2018

9 MAY 2018

29 MAY 2018

23 APRIL 2018

11 MAY 2018

30 MAY 2018

23 APRIL 2018

12 MAY 2018

4 JUNE 2018

27 APRIL 2018

15 MAY 2018

7 JUNE 2018

30 APRIL 2018

25 MAY 2018

8 JUNE 2018

András Kurgyis (viola) Ádám Vörös (trumpet) István Bolykó (horn) Choral conducting Fülöp Ránki (piano)

Aria exam Flóra Matuska (cello) Dávid Bekker (piano) Krisztián Kocsis (piano) Composition

Paul Marsovszky (conductor) Péter Bor (viola) Barnabás Baranyai (cello) Anna Szentes (vocals) Johannes Marsovszky (conductor)

For detailed programmes, more diploma concerts and other free university programmes: zeneakademia.hu/egyetemi-programok

WORLD-CLASS PERFORMERS EXCLUSIVE CONCERTS CULTURE AS A GIFT!

ADMISSION TO THE WORLD OF MUSIC With the Gift Card of the Liszt Academy, you may come to the events organised by the Liszt Academy Concert Centre as many times as the amount held on the card allows. The Gift Card is valid for 12 months from the date of top-up. The Gift Card can be purchased in the Ticket Office of the Liszt Academy

YOU CAN BE OUR STUDENT AS WELL! If you are a student at any school, you can get into our concerts for just HUF 500. Show us a valid student ID card and you can purchase a HUF 500 student ticket one hour before the concert for vacant seats and standing places in the 2nd floor student gallery of the Grand Hall. Only one student ticket can be purchased per student ID card for each performance.

VARIATIONS ON LISZT’S INHERITANCE DAY-TO-DAY LIFE AT THE LISZT FERENC MEMORIAL MUSEUM & RESEARCH CENTRE Stepping through the door on the first floor of the Old Academy of Music, located on the corner of Andrássy Avenue and Vörösmarty Street, one finds oneself in the former apartment of Ferenc Liszt, where the maestro spent the final five years of his life. Every single object in this museum – including the very table Liszt composed at, his abbé hat (galero) and travel bag, the Chickering concert piano in the salon decorated with peacock wallpaper, and the main player in masterclasses, the Bösendorfer piano – evoke the unique figure of this music genius, whose personality and aura immediately capture the imagination of visitors from all over the world. The Memorial Museum enjoys huge popularity amongst foreign visitors, who arrive from every corner of the world, from Panama to Dubai and Japan. Our museum can provide tourists with audio guides in 15 languages, in addition to which our colleagues hold guided tours in seven foreign languages. Our very many illustrious guests have included János Áder, President of Hungary, Sneška Quaedvlieg-Mihailović, Secretary-General of EUROPA NOSTRA, chess champion Judit Polgár, and Cyprian Katsaris, world-famous pianist. Our institution nurtures close professional relations with Liszt memorial centres functioning in Europe, including those in Bayreuth, Weimar, Raiding and Schillingsfürst. Our researchers represent Hungarian Liszt research at international conferences, and through their publications they disseminate the work and spirit of the eponym of the museum. Our memorial museum organizes an annual temporary exhibition, which attracts many from the profession alongside music connoisseurs. In line with modern teaching practice, we place great emphasis in our museum educational classes on interactivity and experience-based learning, the purpose of which is to inform younger generations about the unique cultural heritage represented by our institution. In this spirit, our mission is to organize themed lectures, musical games, improvization tasks and folk dance classes for students, in close cooperation with teachers. Between 1881 and 1886, Ferenc Liszt delighted his audience with numerous concerts held each Sunday in the chamber room of his residence. The Saturday matinée concert series organized by the museum continues this fine tradition. It offers varied programmes covering a wide range of classical music each week, performed by both young and experienced Hungarian and foreign musicians. OLD ACADEMY OF MUSIC 88

ITALY THROUGH THE EYES OF FRANZ LISZT

ORGANISER AND VENUE: LISZT FERENC MEMORIAL MUSEUM AND RESEARCH CENTRE 1064 BUDAPEST, VÖRÖSMARTY UTCA 35. WWW.LISZTMUSEUM.HU

INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION HELD WITH THE KIND FINANCIAL AND PERSONAL CONTRIBUTION OF THE FONDAZIONE ISTITUTO LISZT ONLUS OF BOLOGNA IN COOPERATION WITH THE BUDAPEST ITALIAN CULTURAL INSTITUTE.

OPEN UNTIL 15 MAY, 2018

CELESTIAL TONES OF HEAVENLY MUSIC FULL OF PRIDE “My favourite piece is generally the one I am currently playing.” We asked pianists István Gulyás, Yohei Wakioka and Jenő Jandó to talk about their experiences of Liszt’s music. In the interview, the musicians evoked the figure, music and world of the eponymous founder of the Liszt Academy.

Do you have a favourite Liszt composition, and if so, which one? István Gulyás: My favourite piece is generally the one I am currently playing, but I have some especially cherished compositions: Piano Sonata in B minor; Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude (‘God’s Blessing in Solitude’), a wonderful piece that one can’t even mention without being moved; but I could also list Pensée des morts (‘In Memory of the Dead’). I’m very fond of the entire cycle Années de pèlerinage. Most of it is part of my repertoire; only a few pieces are missing. This is how the idea occurred to me to play the entire cycle in three sets, the second of which was performed on this year’s Liszt Memorial Day. When I was a student at the Liszt Academy, I enjoyed playing these pieces for their virtuosity; but now, being perhaps somewhat wiser, I am especially touched by their closeness to nature and their impact on human nature. Yohei Wakioka: My very favourite Liszt work is the Piano Sonata in B minor, as this piece reflects the incredibly dramatic strife between man, Satan and God. Having said that, I find all of Liszt’s compositions very beautiful, profound and sacred. Jenő Jandó: The most perfect Liszt composition is the Piano Sonata in B minor, but I could also say that I like whichever one I am currently focussing on best. I’m also keen on the Mephisto Waltzes, one of Liszt’s excellent pieces, but the Sonata in B minor is absolutely outstanding in its perfection. Liszt has quite a few works with too many notes for my taste – less would have been more – but in the Sonata in B minor there is not a single redundant tone. What is your favourite memory connected to the Liszt Memorial Museum or to the Chamber Hall of the Old Academy of Music? IG: My most recent memory is my recital that I gave in the Chamber Hall. I was very glad that silence prevailed in the audience, which means that they were focussing and understood what was going on. This is crucial feedback for a musician. I believe that just by entering the Old Academy of Music in Vörösmarty Street and walking along its corridors, we can feel that Liszt did leave his mark there; we can almost see his footprints and sense his presence. Beyond the joy of the concerts, it also means a lot to me that whenever I visit the museum, I can learn something new about Liszt from the knowledgeable staff, who all adore him. YW: Naturally, my most exquisite memories are my piano recitals that I gave there; but nor can I forget about the exhilaration that I felt when I had the opportunity to practise on Liszt’s very own concert piano, or when I could be physically close to his objects and instruments. JJ: Some years ago, a recording was released of me playing the

OLD ACADEMY OF MUSIC 90

instruments on display in the Liszt Memorial Museum. This is one of my dearest memories. I became really fond of these instruments, though prior to the recording I had to familiarize myself with them, as we are talking about antique objects. The piano-harmonica came closest to my heart: it is still an uplifting memory that I could perform Liszt’s music on it. I might say it has a celestial sound. I am, of course, not just keen on Liszt’s pianos but also on the spirit of the place, as Liszt himself used to live and teach here. Is it possible to emulate the great virtuoso in any sense? GI: With regards to the Sonnets of Petrarch, I wish I could show so many facets of love as he could. I would also love to present those shades so richly as he did, to evoke emotions with tones and to be able to put those shades into words with utmost accuracy and precision while I am teaching my students. YW: I would love to match Franz Liszt in his ability to sight read perfectly. JJ: It is impossible to match him, but at least, I do strive to get close to the spirit of his compositions as much as possible. I am trying to be near him, as one can become enormously enriched through his works. If the maestro were sitting here with us now, what would you want to ask him? IG: If I could have but one question, this one question would be in connection with the Sonata in B minor. I would ask Liszt to reveal that miraculous key and whisper me the secret of the piece, so that I may quote Karinthy and say: “I must not tell it to anyone, so tell it I will to everyone.” I have been playing and teaching this work for many years, but my problem is that, no matter whose opinion or performance I hear, it is always only very convincing and authentic in fragments and not as a whole. I feel somehow urged to solve this riddle. My professor, Mihály Bächer, who had a great impact on me, never talked to me of the actual meaning of the Sonata. Indeed, it is Faust-like, satanic: there is eternal damnation and ascension into heaven in it. Nonetheless, we cannot be sure whether it has an actual plot; it is not programme music but an instrumental piece that has no explicit storyline. This is definitely what I would ask Liszt. Word has it that on one occasion Liszt was playing the Sonata in B minor among his friends. Wagner was there, too. At the end of performance, Wagner went up to Liszt, enthusiastically congratulated him on the composition and asked him the following question: “It is a Faust sonata, isn’t it?” But Liszt only smiled enigmatically and said not a word in reply. YW: I would certainly choose to ask the maestro what a musician needs most, what he or she must learn and do to become a real artist. JJ: I wouldn’t ask Liszt a question, but would instead point to the piano and ask him to play me something! I could ask him about the tempo, for example, but what for? I’m sure he never played anything twice the same way. If he were sitting here with us, I would be watching and listening to him attentively from the corner of the room to observe how he makes tones sound, to what extent he feels aware of himself, and what sounds he would get from the piano in this small room. 91

CONCERTS AT THE OLD MUSIC ACADEMY LISZT MUSEUM MATINÉE AND EVENING CONCERTS 6 JANUARY 11.00 13 JANUARY 11.00 20 JANUARY 11.00 27 JANUARY 11.00 3 FEBRUARY 11.00 10 FEBRUARY 11.00 17 FEBRUARY 11.00 24 FEBRUARY 11.00 24 FEBRUARY 19.30 3 MARCH 10 MARCH 17 MARCH 24 MARCH 31 MARCH 7 APRIL 14 APRIL 21 APRIL 28 APRIL 5 MAY 12 MAY 19 MAY 26 MAY 2 JUNE 9 JUNE

11.00 11.00 11.00 11.00 11.00 11.00 11.00 11.00 11.00 11.00 11.00 11.00 11.00 11.00 11.00

16 JUNE

11.00

Renáta Konyicska (piano) and chamber partners Ádám Zsolt Szokolay (piano) Kállai String Quartet: Ernő Kállai, Géza Szajkó (violin), Kálmán Dráfi (viola), István Balázs (cello) Chamber concert by artists of the Philharmonic Orchestra Brigitta Sveda (piano) Judit Rajk (vocals), László Borbély (piano) Eszter Osztrosits (violin), Domonkos Csabay (piano) Ilona Prunyi (piano), Ingrid Kertesi (vocals) Emese Virág, Mihály Berecz (piano), Andrea Meláth, Lilla Horti, Ildikó Megyimorecz, Benjamin Beeri (vocals), Károly Mécs (prose) Klavierduo Soós-Haag, Delia Haag (vocals) Olivier Moulin (piano) Fülöp Ránki (piano) OSZK Choir, conductor: Mária Eckhardt Róza Lachegyi (violin), Ágnes Márkus (cello), Bernadett Puskás (cello), Gergely Kovács (piano) László Váradi (piano) Kruppa String Quartet: Bálint Kruppa, Éva Osztrosits (violin), András Kurgyis (viola), János Fejérvári (viola) Éva Osztrosits (violin), Gergely Devich (cello) Anima Musicae Chamber Orchestra Márta Ábrahám (violin), Fülöp Ránki (piano) Concert related to the temporary exhibition, featuring Ferenc János Szabó (piano) Anna Kijanowska (piano) Mikolaj Warszysky (piano) Yohei Wakioka (piano) Semmelweis String Quartet: Dr. László Kelemen, Dr. György Székely (violin), Dr. Gyula Ostoros (viola), Dr. Richard Asbót (cello) Ágnes Ratkó (harpsichord)

Location: Old Liszt Academy of Music, tickets: HUF 1 500 Ft (students and concessions tickets: HUF 750)

OTHER PROGRAMMES AT THE OLD ACADEMY OF MUSIC 19 JANUARY 19.00 NEW LISZT FERENC CHAMBER CHOIR, CARTHAGE CHOIR 31 JANUARY 18.00 VARIATIONS ON LISZT WORKS FOR PIANO - MEETINGS WITH FERENC LISZT 24 FEBRUARY 11.00 LISZT MUSEUM ALL-DAY PROGRAMME IN HONOUR OF SÁNDOR PETŐFI AND THE 1848-49 WAR OF INDEPENDENCE, MATINÉE CONCERT Ilona Prunyi (piano), Ingrid Kertesi (vocals) 24 FEBRUARY 14.30 LISZT MUSEUM - CONFERENCE AND DISPLAY OF PREVIOUSLY UNKNOWN LISZT MANUSCRIPTS 28 FEBRUARY 18.00 WORKS FOR FOUR HANDS BY FERENC LISZT - CONCERT BY THE LISZT SOCIETY 28 MARCH 18.00 THE ELDERLY LISZT AND OPERA - MEETINGS WITH FERENC LISZT 25 APRIL 18.00 HUNGARIAN CONTEMPORARIES OF FERENC LISZT: KÁROLY AGGHÁZY - LECTURE BY THE LISZT SOCIETY Location: Old Liszt Academy of Music; Tickets: HUF 1 800 (students and concessions tickets: HUF 900)

„PLEASE DON’T SEND ANY MORE SHEET MUSIC!”

SELECTION OF THE FINEST SHEET MUSIC FROM THE LISZT BEQUEST FROM 10 MAY 2018

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

LISZT KIDZ 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. Understandably, the youth programmes of the Liszt Academy are not intended to acquaint young and old with the values of pop culture, but instead with the three worlds of music that define the academy’s teaching and concert life: classical music, folk music and jazz.

We are now into the fifth ‘school year’ of the Liszt Kidz Academy, and this is the moment to say a quick thank you to everybody who has come here and then spread the word about us, not forgetting to give ourselves a pat on our (increasingly sturdy) backs. Since reopening, we at the Liszt Academy have hosted nearly 100 group activities and 50 informative concerts in the Sir Georg Solti Chamber Hall and the Grand Hall, we have organized a Grand Liszt Kidz Day, and constructed the Liszt Academy out of 20,000 LEGO bricks: the end result can be viewed in the building on Liszt Ferenc Square. We have gradually broadened our repertoire inasmuch as we now have Jazz Playgrounds for primary school pupils (once a month on a Saturday morning), who are also given a guided tour of the building. Group activities are designed for 6–10-year-olds, while the informative concerts aimed at 10–15-year-olds examine the following questions this season: What is the role of the score in classical music when many music cultures (folk music, jazz, Gregorian, etc.) have managed without it? What is a viola doing in the orchestra if it rarely gets a melody and nor plays the bass part? Why is a conductor needed when often the orchestra gets along fine without him? What do opera directors do and would they be missed by the singers and audience if they were not there? During these concerts we attempt with our young audience to find answers to these questions. A season ticket is also available for the series. Details can be found in Concert Magazine. What hasn’t changed is our creed. We continue to believe that music is not purely for entertainment but that it has something to teach us about the essence of our being, which is why it can never be too young to start finding out about it. From February 2018 we will be holding group Liszt Kidz meetings in the Liszt Academy building on Liszt Ferenc Square from 9.30 am and 11.00 am every Saturday. These programmes (sometimes introductory programmes, sometimes Jazz Playgrounds) are for children aged 6–10 years. Parents may not 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). Further details: http://zeneakademia.hu/lisztkukacok Ticket: HUF 900

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/en/junior

TICKET MAP GRAND HALL

CHOIR LEFT 10 – 19

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

12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

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

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

V IV III II I 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 1

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M1 M2 M3

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

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1 M3 M2 M1

RIGHT 12 – 1

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3 2 1

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LEFT 9– 1

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CENTRE-LEFT CENTRE-RIGHT 1–7 1– 7

CENTRE BALCONY

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

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STALLS

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BALCONY RIGHT

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2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

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2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

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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

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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

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

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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

TICKETING

LISZT FERENC ACADEMY OF MUSIC

The ticket office of the Liszt Academy Concert Centre operates adjacent

1061 Budapest, Liszt Ferenc tér 8. Central phone number: (+36 1) 462 4600 Customers can address their inquiries to kozonsegkapcsolat@zeneakademia.hu and we are also available on (+36 1) 462-4680.

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.

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

III

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III

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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

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

XII

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XIII

1 2 3 3 2 1

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 Liszt Academy can be visited by groups in pre-arranged guided tours. 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, French, Russian, Spanish or Japanese. Minimum group size: 12 persons; maximum group size: 30 persons. Tour bookings, further information and partnerships with travel agencies: tourism@lisztacademy.hu Adult ticket (with guide speaking Hungarian): HUF 1 500 Concession/student ticket (with guide speaking Hungarian): HUF 750

XIV M3 M2 M1

M1 M2 M3 LEFT 1–7

Adult ticket (with guide speaking foreign language): HUF 2 900

RIGHT 7–1

STALLS

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2 1

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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. Ticket office contact details: Tel.: (+36 1) 321 0690 / E-mail: jegy@zeneakademia.hu

STAGE

XIV

Ato the main entrance of the restored Liszt Academy at Liszt Ferenc tér 8. ZENEAKADÉMIA Ticket office general opening times: 10 am–6 pm Monday-Sunday. KONCERTKÖZPONT Besides these general opening times the ticket office will also be open duringSZERVEZÉSÉBEN. concerts, from the hour preceding the start of the performance SAJÁT

RIGHT 8–1

With student identity card, concession card, and for over-65s (with guide speaking foreign language): HUF 1 450 For individual visitors we provide an opportunity of guided tour in English (50 min.) every day at 1.30 pm. Adult tickets are HUF 3 500; with student identity card, concession card, and for over-65s: HUF 1 750. No registration needed.

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.

BALCONY 97

OPERA EXAM FESTIVAL SOLTI HALL 16 JANUARY 2018 19.00

XU JIANQIANG: TANG XIANZU

SHANGHAI CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC 18 JANUARY 2018 19.00

Gian Carlo Menotti: The Medium

JERUSALEM ACADEMY OF MUSIC ANDÂ DANCE 19 JANUARY 2018 19.00

Armida

LISZT FERENC ACADEMY OF MUSIC 28 JANUARY 2018 19.00

THE RAPE OF LUCRETIA

DUTCH NATIONAL OPERA ACADEMY

y l i a d Free e n i z a g a m y l k e e w &

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IMPRESSUM PUBLISHER: Dr. Andrea Vigh, President of the Liszt Academy

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Júlia Torda, Liszt Academy Communication Director

SPECIALIST EDITOR: Zoltán Farkas, music historian, music critic

EDITORS: Júlia Bársony-Belicza, music historian, member of the Liszt Academy Communications and Media Contents Development Directorate Anna Belinszky, music historian, student of the Liszt Academy Doctoral School

COPY EDITOR: Andrew Symons

PUBLICATION MANAGER: Erzsébet Issekutz

LAYOUT: Allison Advertising Ltd.

PRINT PRODUCTION:: High Voltage Ltd.

PRINTING: Keskeny és Társai 2001 Ltd. Published by the Communications Directorate of the Liszt Academy in 2 000 copies. The organizer retains the right to modify programmes.

FINALIZED: 1 December 2017

CONCERT MAGAZINE CONTRIBUTORS: Júlia Bársony Belicza – Music historian, member of the Liszt Academy Communications and Media Contents Development Directorate Lilli Békéssy – Music historian, student of the Liszt Academy Doctoral School Anna Belinszky – Music historian, student of the Liszt Academy Doctoral School Gabriella Bokor – Journalist Mátyás Bolya – Folk musician, folk music researcher, teacher at the Liszt Academy Rudolf Gusztin – Music historian, student of the Liszt Academy Doctoral School Krisztina Hompola – Cultural journalist Zsófia Hózsa – Student of the Musicology Department Ágnes Illyés – Member of the Liszt Academy Communications and Media Contents Development Directorate Erzsébet Issekutz – Senior member of the Liszt Academy Communications and Media Contents Development Directorate Patrícia Keszler – Communications staff member of the Liszt Ferenc Memorial Museum & Research Centre Zsuzsanna Lakatos – Student of the Musicology Department Péter János Merényi – Student of the Musicology Department Orsolya Mészáros – Journalist Zsombor Németh – Music historian Viktória Ozsvárt – Music historian, student of the Liszt Academy Doctoral School György Szentgallay – Jazz-bass guitarist, composer, journalist Anna Unger – Member of the Liszt Academy Communications and Media Contents Development Directorate Tamás Várkonyi – Music historian

ARCHIVE AND CONCERT PHOTOS, ARTIST PORTRAITS: Zoltán Adrián, Gábor Ancsin, Susie Ahlburg, Róbert Bácsi, Balázs Böröcz, Sim Canetty-Clarke, Szilvia Csibi, David Iganaszweski, Tamás Dobos, László Emmer, Fabien-Monthubert, István Fazekas, Andrea Felvégi, Foto Horowitz, Balázs Glódi, Philip Horak, Gábor Kasza, Jimmy Kets, Nikolaj Lund, László Mudra, Attila Nagy/MÜPA, András Péter Németh, Umberto Nicoletti, Nicolas Nodland, Francesca Patella, László Perger, Zsófia Raffay, Attila Rieger, Katja Ruge/Decca, Dietmar Scholz, Sándor Somfai, Ssirus W, Tamás Szigeti/MTA, Irène Zandel, Zsolt Zih/MTVA

SUPPORTER OF THE LISZT ACADEMY

Ministry of Human Capacities

PARTNERS OF THE UNIVERSITY