Perhaps no landscape inspired Franz Liszt more than sunny Italy, the cradle of European culture. He first visited in the late 1830s as a travelling virtuoso. This was when he began publishing the Italian book of his Years of Pilgrimage series which originally contained seven piano pieces: they were inspired by a Raffaello painting, a Michelangelo statue, a Petrarch sonnet and a reading of Dante. The cycle was later augmented with Venezia e Napoli. Liszt next spent an extended period in Italy in ...1861, when he followed his lover Caroline zu Sayn-Wittgenstein whom he hoped to marry. She failed to get Papal consent and because of family complications, this plan was never to be realised. Liszt’s father abandoned his early monastic ambitions but had his son christened Franciscus. Franz achieved his father’s ambitions in 1865 when he took minor orders with the church. At this time he lived in the Madonna del Rosario monastery on the top of Monte Mario. It was here that his two Franciscan legends were born. In the first we hear in music St Francis of Assisi preaching to the birds, who will not fly away until the Saint has blessed them. The second legend is based on a story about St Francis of Paola, whom Liszt regarded as his patron saint. He was refused passage across the Straights of Messina because he could not pay the ferryman. “If you are a Saint, then walk on the water!” he was told. St Francis blessed his cloak in the name of God, placed it on the waves, raised one end as a sail and safely crossed to the other side. These works will be performed by Jenő Jandó (former student of legendary professor Pál Kadosa) one of the busiest international recording artists in the world, and winner of the Franz Liszt International Grand Prix awarded by the Franz Liszt Society.
Parking information
We wish to inform you that in the event that Müpa Budapest's underground garage and outdoor car park are operating at full capacity, it is advisable to plan for increased waiting times when you arrive. In order to avoid this, we recommend that you depart for our events in time, so that you you can find the ideal parking spot quickly and smoothly and arrive for our performance in comfort. The Müpa Budapest underground garage gates will be operated by an automatic number plate recognition system. Parking is free of charge for visitors with tickets to any of our paid performances on that given day. The detailed parking policy of Müpa Budapest is available here.
Safe ticket purchase
Dear Visitors, please note that only tickets purchased from the Müpa website and official ticket offices are guaranteed to be valid. To avoid possible inconvenience, we suggest buying tickets to our performances and concerts via the mupa.hu website, the Interticket national network (jegy.hu) or at our official ticket offices.