Liszt Year 2011

2011. January 21.

Liszt! In every respect. - Opening Gala Concert
On January 22, the performance of Zoltán Kocsis and the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra shall officially open the Year of Liszt Liszt Year 2011 in Hungary. The concert is the first event of the series of events  titled Liszt! In every respect. The event is broadcast live on Hungarian Television and on the MR3 Bartók Rádió.

On the opening concert of the Hungarian memorial year, Zoltán Kocsis, conductor and musician of piano competitions  and one of the most renowned interpretive artists of the body of work, also conducts works at the head of the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra which document the close ties of the composer to Hungary. For instance, these include the Hungarian Fantasy, conducted for the first time in 1853 by Ferenc Erkel and performed by soloist Hans von Bülow. It may be heard with the participation of one of the outstanding talents of the latest generation of  pianists, Gábor Farkas, who has shown particular aptitude for the interpretation of Liszt. One of the specialties  of the evening is that the Hungarian Coronation Mass, composed for the coronation of Franz Joseph in 1867, will also be played.

It is a fortunate coincidence that the Jubilee year coincides with Hungary’s upcoming EU presidency, thus an excellent opportunity presents itself to present the richness of Hungarian culture and its European flavour via the music of Liszt, inside as well as outside our borders. Over the course of the first quarter’s events of the Year of Liszt , coordinated by Hungarofest, numerous Hungarian orchestras and artists represent our nation abroad; in January alone nearly five hundred musicians will perform Liszt selections in the concert halls of Europe. Simultaneously with the January 22 Budapest concert, the Year of Liszt in Vienna will also open; at the Stephansdom, the Pannon Philharmonic, the Honvéd Férfikar and the MR Choir will perform the composer’s Christus Oratorio, organised by Hungarofest and the Collegium Hungaricum Bécs (Collegium Hungaricum Vienna).

The Palace of Arts event titled Liszt! In every respects presents the citizen of the world  with a thousand faces with a series of events composed of approximately twenty events. At the classical, jazz and world music concerts, the audience may learn of a composer who has ties to numerous genres, who seeks something new in everything, the great improviser, the pianist-phenom who has made Hungarian melodies world-renowned through his virtuoso works.
On the basis  of contemporary paintings and photographs, visitors can get to know the favourite of the life of the salons, the social life of various European capitals, the charmer of women, as well as the venues of Liszt’s successes and the aristocracy of the age.
The youngest ones can also get close to the Reform Era which also opened the path for the young men of March and the Verbunkos dancing traditions that are so closely associated with it; Ferenc Liszt always recalled these as the cultural matrix of the Hungarian people.
The conservatory students participating in the interpretations also perform alongside the world renowned stars, the proud students of the world famous institution which bears his name, who know precisely that without him upper level musical education would not have happened, or happened much later in Hungary; many of them can perhaps list by name those world famous pianists, who - or whose teacher - graduated from the Conservatory as a student of Liszt.
The music cannot communicate everything directly and pictures cannot be fully informative. About the patriot who hurried to the charity concert after the Pest flood, about the Professor who paid without compensation, about the colleague who issued statements about his rivals in an appreciative tone. But the two movements of ‘A Liszt-faktor,’ the on stage etude being composed for the celebration will also address a great many things.
From the Liszt! In every respect, series of events of the Palace of Arts, a man who in his art and behaviour considered himself Hungarian and a worthy citizen of the world is revealed. A true European, who moves comfortably in various social circles, on the podium, on the conductor stand; a public figure who never turns his back on his country, who used his connections in the service of Hungarians, of Hungarian musical life.

21.01.2011