Hommage à Cziffra

With Viktória Kádár

The joint concert ‘Hommage à Cziffra' of the Liszt Institute Brussels and the György Cziffra Memorial Year isn't only the musical legacy of a piano virtuoso but also pays tribute to the commitment to talent support. This time, the master and his student will take to the stage, forming a unique pair. With her 13 years, Viktória Kádár is a student of the School of Exceptional Young Talents of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music. Her artistic personality demands respect as a soloist as well as a chamber music partner next to her Kossuth-Award-winning teacher. Together, they will be playing Schubert's popular piece for four hands and János Balázs' transcription of the Rákóczi March. Viktória Kádár's virtuosity, sensitivity and playfulness show in János Balázs' own programme, and in her master's hands, the ethos of Romanticism and Cziffra's legacy soar on, as he will be performing his own arrangements of Puccini, Liszt and Strauss' melodies.

Programme
János Balázs, Viktória Kádár Schubert: Soldier's march for four hands (János Balázs, Viktória Kádár)
Liszt: Valse-Impromptu
Chopin: Nocturne in F minor op. 55/1
Debussy: Golliwog's cakewalk (Viktória Kádár)
Liszt-Balázs: Rákóczi-induló (János Balázs, Viktória Kádár)
Puccini-Balázs: Lauretta's aria
Ponce-Balázs: Estrellita
Liszt-Balázs: Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6
Strauss-Cziffra-Balázs: Reminiscence paraphrase (János Balázs)

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János Balázs
Artistic Director of the Cziffra Memorial Year
Kossuth and Liszt Ferenc Prize-winning pianist

Viktória Kádár, pianist
Born in Zalaegerszeg in 2009. She started her musical studies in Héviz in the Illyés Gyula Music School, then she continued in Festetics György Music School, Keszthely. She gave her first concert at the age of 7 and it determined her future musical studies. Since the age of 6 she has participated in many national and international piano competitions. Her talent was recognised by music teacher Hornyánszkyné Becht Erika, who has been improving her musical knowledge. Her first international success took place in Croatia, in the Memorijal Jurica Murai International Piano Competition, since then she was the winner and absolute winner of many international musical competitions. In 2019 she was the absolute winner of Danubia Talents International Piano Competition and EPTA International Piano Competition. Her first national success was in the National Piano Competition in Nyíregyháza, where she won the first prize when she was 10 with the best score of the competition. She also received the special prize of Magda Veroszta there. In 2021 she gained a special price from the consul of Poland due to her unique performance in the Polish Musical Festival. In 2021 she participated in Virtuozok V4+ International Talent Competition, where she represented Hungary within the TOP4 best artists. In 2021 she was admitted to Liszt Academy of Music’ Extraordinary Talents Class, where here current teachers are János Balázs and Gábor Eckhardt

The exhibition is available here.

1-30 June 2022

If God loves his creature, he will show him the greatest happiness and the greatest misery, says Thornton Wilder in his novel The Eighth Day of Creation. In the life of the world-famous Hungarian piano virtuoso György Cziffra (1921-1994), there was deprivation and plenty, persecution and celebration. This is the story of a career that is worthy of a novel, as part of a series of events celebrating the artist's centenary.
Ernő Dohnányi helps the young man from a family of gypsy musicians to enter - at the age of eight! - Dohnohnányi, a young musician who, at the age of eight, was taught by Leó Weiner, György Ferenczy and Imre Keéri-Szántó. He was conscripted, fought in World War II, was taken prisoner by the Soviets, escaped and returned home to play the piano in the bars of the Pest nightlife after 1945. In 1950 he tries to escape abroad, but is captured and imprisoned with his wife. Only in 1956 is he able to emigrate to the West, to start a new life in France and finally start on the road to the world fame he deserves. But fate intervenes even in the life of the celebrated world star when his conductor son, J. György Cziffra died in a house fire in 1981 at the age of thirty-nine.
The exhibition traces the artist's career, combining newspaper reports and reviews with chapters of his career - objective facts with subjective commentaries on his assessments. There are anecdotes from Cziffra's fan Ferenc Puskás, who followed the artist from pub to pub in the Pest night to hear him play, and from the poet Győző Határ, who recalls Cziffra's famous prisoner concert. The after-life of the work is also illuminated by the history of the Cziffra Foundation, the work of János Balázs, numerous documents from the Cziffra Festivals and Péter Eötvös' Cziffra Psodia.
Curator: Eszter Veronika Kiss

From the slums of Angyalföld, to the smoky bars of Pest, to the stately concert halls of Paris, György Cziffra's life of tragedy and joy is the subject of the 2016 Hungarian documentary The Virtuoso.

Director: Attila Kékesi
producer: Miklós Havas
Producer: Habana Media Kft.

The film will be available after registration with the password you have sent us between 7 June at 21:00 and 8 June at 20:00.

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