Ferenc Erkel was born in 1810. He began his career as a pianist and teacher in Kolozsvár (now Cluj in Romania). He wrote his first opera in 1840, Mária Báthori and then won the competition to set Kölcey’s Hymn to music and it remains Hungary’s national anthem. He was involved in the founding of the Academy of Music where for ten years he served as director and piano teacher, and also became general director of the Opera House. Erkel is now known as the creator of Hungarian national opera. As both conductor and organising dynamo, he moved mountains to help Budapest’s musical life to blossom. Franz Liszt was born in 1811. By the age of nine he was performing in public and soon earned the patronage of music loving aristocrats enabling him to continue his studies in Vienna with Czerny and Salieri. Beethoven was present at his first Viennese concert, given at the age of 11. In autumn 1823 he moved to Paris with his father. In the late 1830s, he set off on ambitious concert tours, travelling the whole of Europe from Portugal to Russia. In 1835 he was appointed a teacher at the Geneva conservatoire. In the early years of the Budapest Academy of Music, he did much to support the institution with his skills and undertook to teach there for a few months of each year. Ernő Dohnányi died in 1960 at the age of 83. As a child, Dohnányi was surrounded by music and it was no surprise that he was drawn to playing an instrument. His father began teaching him piano at the age of 6. His earliest compositions were piano pieces and works for violin and cello with piano accompaniment. At 14, he was writing vocal works as well. His opus 1, the Piano Quintet in C minor was composed in 1895, and it prompted Brahms to say: “I couldn’t have written it better myself”. Following Budapest and Vienna, he next enjoyed feverish success in London, who demanded that he return to play ever more concerts. After World War 2, he fled to America and he eventually died in New York. Zoltán Kodály was born in 1882 and died in 1967. He devoted much of his life to the collection and preservation of Hungarian folksongs. His work soon led him to meet Béla Bartók who was similarly preoccupied and this led to a lifelong friendship. He believed a good musician requires the following: 1. refined hearing 2. refined understanding 3. refined heart 4. refined hands. All four must be developed in tandem and kept in constant balance. As soon as one is absent or takes the lead, there will be problems. Following World War 2, Kodály played a major role in the rebuilding of Hungary’s intellectual life. He was awarded the Kossuth Prize on three occasions.

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